thedrifter
02-07-08, 09:14 AM
Tucsonan recounts days as Vietnam medic in new book
By: Nick Smith
February 6, 2008
Charlie “Doc” Rose remembers what gets him on his feet.
In the jungles of Vietnam, he was waiting in a bunker to avoid enemy fire and mortar blasts when a Marine in the field twice yelled two words that snapped Rose into action: “Corpsman up.”
He sprang into action, running to find the wounded Marine’s foxhole in an area of the demilitarized zone called the Rock Pile.
After dressing the chest wound, he returned to the bunker where a platoon sergeant gave him a piece of advice.
“Don’t move until the mortars have stopped,” the sergeant said.
Rose replied that he had a duty to respond immediately to the two-word call of help.
“When we were trained, the Marines told us, when the words ‘corpsman up’ are yelled, you go no matter what,” Rose said.
Those two words are the title of a new book written by Rose, a Tucson resident.
The book recounts his days in the Navy as a corpsman, a unique area of the service that serves two branches of the military.
Navy corpsmen serve as medics to the Marine Corps. They are enlisted in the Navy, but often serve with and wear the uniform of a Marine. This situation is unique only to the group of medics.
“We’re the only people that live in two worlds at the same time.” Rose said.
When a Marine calls a corpsman “Doc,” it means he or she has achieved the highest level of acceptance, Rose said.
Because the Geneva Conventions label medics as non-combatants, they are not allowed to carry weapons, although corpsmen are issued a single .45 pistol to be used only for the defense of the wounded.
Rose recalls the book’s origin as going back almost 30 years.
“In 1980, a friend of mine said it’s time for the soldier to put down their weapon and pick up the pen,” he said.
Rose then read Stanley Karnow’s thick retelling of the war, “Vietnam: A History,” and realized similar situations face soldiers of today.
“As the Gulf War came about and Iraq, Afghanistan, the same thing happens in every war,” he said.
Many soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and families and friends may have a hard time understanding why they act a certain way, he said.
Rose’s reason for publishing his experiences is to try to provide a window into what life is like in the midst of battle.
Rose joined the Naval Reserves in 1964, and went into active duty for two years after graduating from high school not long after that. During these two years, he spent eight months in the field in Vietnam. Following a four-year break, he retuned to active duty for five years and another 20 years in the reserves before retiring in 1991 as a senior chief hospital corpsman.
Mention of corpsmen in popular culture is few and far between, although the biography “Flags of our Fathers” and the recent Iwo Jima movie of the same name feature a corpsman as a main character.
“I like that because it at least distinguished that they helped raise the flag the second time,” Rose said.
After finishing his manuscript, he was faced with the difficulty of promoting the book himself.
“Like any other sales, it became a sales business,” he said. “It’s like shopping for cars, when I first started I had no knowledge of how to go about it.”
One of the hardest parts, he said, is letting people who might be interested in buying it know that it exists in the first place.
Rose’s book is available at numerous online outlets, including amazon.com.
In addition to painting a picture of being a corpsman, Rose hopes his book will help those faced with the intensity of combat find solace.
“My whole purpose is if it can help one person and their family overcome the traumatic experience of war, then it’s been worthwhile, he said.
Where to find the book
-Amazon.com
-Booksurge.com
-Target.com
-Charliedocrose.com
Ellie
By: Nick Smith
February 6, 2008
Charlie “Doc” Rose remembers what gets him on his feet.
In the jungles of Vietnam, he was waiting in a bunker to avoid enemy fire and mortar blasts when a Marine in the field twice yelled two words that snapped Rose into action: “Corpsman up.”
He sprang into action, running to find the wounded Marine’s foxhole in an area of the demilitarized zone called the Rock Pile.
After dressing the chest wound, he returned to the bunker where a platoon sergeant gave him a piece of advice.
“Don’t move until the mortars have stopped,” the sergeant said.
Rose replied that he had a duty to respond immediately to the two-word call of help.
“When we were trained, the Marines told us, when the words ‘corpsman up’ are yelled, you go no matter what,” Rose said.
Those two words are the title of a new book written by Rose, a Tucson resident.
The book recounts his days in the Navy as a corpsman, a unique area of the service that serves two branches of the military.
Navy corpsmen serve as medics to the Marine Corps. They are enlisted in the Navy, but often serve with and wear the uniform of a Marine. This situation is unique only to the group of medics.
“We’re the only people that live in two worlds at the same time.” Rose said.
When a Marine calls a corpsman “Doc,” it means he or she has achieved the highest level of acceptance, Rose said.
Because the Geneva Conventions label medics as non-combatants, they are not allowed to carry weapons, although corpsmen are issued a single .45 pistol to be used only for the defense of the wounded.
Rose recalls the book’s origin as going back almost 30 years.
“In 1980, a friend of mine said it’s time for the soldier to put down their weapon and pick up the pen,” he said.
Rose then read Stanley Karnow’s thick retelling of the war, “Vietnam: A History,” and realized similar situations face soldiers of today.
“As the Gulf War came about and Iraq, Afghanistan, the same thing happens in every war,” he said.
Many soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and families and friends may have a hard time understanding why they act a certain way, he said.
Rose’s reason for publishing his experiences is to try to provide a window into what life is like in the midst of battle.
Rose joined the Naval Reserves in 1964, and went into active duty for two years after graduating from high school not long after that. During these two years, he spent eight months in the field in Vietnam. Following a four-year break, he retuned to active duty for five years and another 20 years in the reserves before retiring in 1991 as a senior chief hospital corpsman.
Mention of corpsmen in popular culture is few and far between, although the biography “Flags of our Fathers” and the recent Iwo Jima movie of the same name feature a corpsman as a main character.
“I like that because it at least distinguished that they helped raise the flag the second time,” Rose said.
After finishing his manuscript, he was faced with the difficulty of promoting the book himself.
“Like any other sales, it became a sales business,” he said. “It’s like shopping for cars, when I first started I had no knowledge of how to go about it.”
One of the hardest parts, he said, is letting people who might be interested in buying it know that it exists in the first place.
Rose’s book is available at numerous online outlets, including amazon.com.
In addition to painting a picture of being a corpsman, Rose hopes his book will help those faced with the intensity of combat find solace.
“My whole purpose is if it can help one person and their family overcome the traumatic experience of war, then it’s been worthwhile, he said.
Where to find the book
-Amazon.com
-Booksurge.com
-Target.com
-Charliedocrose.com
Ellie