Navy Corpsman, "A MARINE'S BEST FRIEND"

[redneck13]

When I read this story? I got a lump in my throat. Brought back so many memories. And, to say the least, it is "SO TRUE." SF GOD BLESS OUR DEVIL DOC'S."



Navy Corpsmen: A Marine's Best Friend
From Navy News Service

Jul 9 2006
by MC1(SCW/SS) James Pinsky
The corpsmen warned me the air would be thin up there, but I didn’t notice. This was my first combat patrol and like a child trapped in the dark, I was petrified.

The shoestring-narrow roads around the 6,000-foot mountains of Torkhem, Afghanistan make the battle-hardened Marines I was embedded with something the Taliban doesn’t – nervous.

The drivers, behaving more like tightrope walkers than desert warriors, eased their Humvees along the trails with one eye on the path and the other pragmatically scanning the limitless caves and nomad populations for the enemy.

I didn’t move – not a millimeter – while we climbed along paths so narrow that I honestly thought if I breathed too hard I’d tip us over the side, plummeting us more than a mile down to certain death.

I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. I waited for Taliban to ambush us from behind every rock, and there were a lot of rocks.

HN “Doc” Joseph Nededog, noticed my white knuckles.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for months for one of those goats to fall off the side of these mountains,” Nededog quipped. “They never do,” he said with a grin. I smiled, and finally breathed.

That's what “Docs” do. They make everyone comfortable, a when you’re a corpsman for Marines in the heart of insurgent country, helping a photojournalist keep his lunch down and his lungs working is an easy day.

Nededog has seen worse.

After all, it wasn’t the enemy that made these combat veterans slow their pace, and rightfully so. It was Afghanistan itself, not the besieged Taliban, that claimed 3rd Platoon’s first soul in a Humvee rollover less than a month before this patrol.

Doc Nededog rolled that day too; still, he managed to treat his turret gunner who lay motionless, crushed between his weapon and the callous Afghanistan desert floor. It wasn’t enough. Third Platoon lost a Marine that day. Losing any Marine is terrible, but to these Marines, all Marines, the thought of losing a corpsman was unimaginable.

That’s how much Marines love their corpsmen.

“We’re a brotherhood out here. To lose a corpsman would be a huge blow,” said Marine SSgt. Matthew Morse, 3rd Platoon Commander, “maybe more than losing a Marine, because our corpsmen are our security blankets.”

And when you’re actively seeking to eradicate some of the world’s most dangerous guerrilla warfare fighters, you bring one hell of a security blanket.

“Corpsmen have the trauma training to react to any situation,” said Morse. “The corpsman who was in the vehicle that rolled and killed one Marine had enough awareness to recover from his injuries and still treat the Marine.”

And that’s what Marines expect corpsmen to do because history says they will. No single rating in the Navy is more decorated for valor than the hospital corpsman. The Marines don’t wonder if he will save their lives. They just wonder when.

“Being a Marine is hard enough, and we are their corpsmen,” said HMC Claude English, 1/3 Marines battalion medical chief. “We’re the ones who get them home to mom and dad. If they get hurt they come to you, and that’s why they cherish you.”

Rollovers are the least of Doc Nededog’s worries today. Just a few miles away from their convoy, black smoke billowed into the desert sky. Too far away to harm these Marines, it garnered no more than a passing glance. The sights and sounds of war don’t impress them any more.

But the smells do.

The burning trash and raw sewage odors linger like cheap perfume, giving some areas of Afghanistan an unforgettable stench.

“The smell always reminds me that something isn’t right here,” said Nededog.

Hours later, back at Firebase Torkhem, officially called Forward Operating Base (FOB) Torkhem, the Marines found out that the smoke, caused by a fuel truck explosion from an improvised explosive device (IED), may have been meant for them.

“The Taliban know we’re here helping the Afghan border police,” said Morse. “It could have been ugly, but the border police did their job. They found the bomb in enough time to get everyone away. Nobody was hurt, not even the driver.”

Just a year ago, according to the international police mentors, that bomb would have made it through to its destination. The training is working.

And that was why Doc Nededog and his Marines climb and drive Afghanistan’s mountains and cross its deserts. They play big brother to the developing Afghan border police, helping them stand on their own. The idea being few bullies would pick a fight with a little brother with such a ferocious sibling. So far the plan worked, making 3rd platoon’s corpsmen – combat-wise – very bored.

[FistFu68]

HONOR GOES TO THE MAN THAT KILL'S~GREATER HONOR GOES TO THE MAN THAT HEAL'S! SEMPER~FORCE

[DocBuzz]

Thank you for the wonderful article about today's Doc's. We have just grown to expect courage from our Marines so Corpsmen have to live up to that reputation if they want to serve with the best. Today's Doc's are better trained and smarter then we were, so they can do more to help their Marines. We just could never look a fellow Corpsmen or Marine in the eye if we did anything less. I Proudly served as a Corpsmen with D 1/5 in Vietnam and I can't tell you how much I loved and cared for my Marines. They were the greatest, bravest Men I have ever met. One of the greatest days of my life is the day they called my son Marine. From that day on we would have a bond that would be even stronger then just father and son. So thanks again and Semper Fi
Doc Buzz
D 1/5 RVN 69-70

[crimsred]

Not enough can ever be said about our devil docs..the best operarors the Navy ever gave us!

[Carl Rossitto]

We Devil Docs are only as good as we are because of the Men who trained us in FMF school. If we were not able to protect ourselves, we would not be able to care for our Marines. Yes...Our! I was lead corpsman at 1st HospCo, 1st Mar Div in Chu Lai and up in Da Nang. I helped other corpsmen patch up the Marines who came to us. And I thought of them as "my men", even tho' so many were only 18 and 19. They were smart, loyal, afraid, brave, happy, concerned, and, most of all: Marines. I was proud to wear the uniform, and I still am proud after these 37 years.
Semper Fi............

[SgtGorman]

Motrin's are all we can get!!!!!!!!!

[BEAST]

Because of Good Men, Marines we have the proud job of serving, we a raise by a power over other squids and set to a higher standard when we strip the navy duds off and strap on that Marine uniform of a Navy Doc.
Really, I was impressed with the Marines from the get go, I admired and respected them for every tighter and stronger link of discipline they set in me.

[ChuLai6566]

Gotta loce them corps men

[DOCFITZ67]

Great pride to have served in a Marine line company. Can't say I learned enought in Field Med but my squad leaders kept me alive until I caught on.
I sure was a sh!t bird on my first few patrols and ambushes.

Semper Fi
Fitz

[jrolfedrev]

It's been a pleasure to part of the best breed of fighting machine ever in the entire universe. I have chosen to be with the grunts and hang around with bunch of devil dogs than stay for so many hours on the ship.

Semper Fi.
Doc Jorge
Blt 3/5

[Docbuys]

Thank you for your kind words. I was an 8404 Corpsman for 10 years, from 1988 to 1998. I served with units from the Third Marines for several of these 10 years.

[jamespinsky]

All,
I just ran across this forum while I was researching some previous work. Thank you for the kind words. I am the Sailor who wrote the story you are all talking about. It was an honor to serve with Marines and write about them, and the Corpsmen who protect them.

Chief James Pinsky
james.pinsky@navy.mil

[hbharrison]

It is with a real pride that I say DevilDoc's are MARINES and always will be.

[doc h fmf]

I Was Very Honored And Privileged To Work With America's Finest Fighting Force.
Semper Fi My Brothers And Sisters Love You All.

Stephen Doc Hansen Hm3 Fmf

[HM3 Doc Wilder]

Great pride to have served in a Marine line company. Can't say I learned enought in Field Med but my squad leaders kept me alive until I caught on.
I sure was a sh!t bird on my first few patrols and ambushes.

Semper Fi
Fitz

..........Hey Doc Fitz-your name sounds familiar also-Were you in the Field Med Class -at 13 area-April 1967?.We had a large class-I had a picture of the Doc's-but when I learned of the Deaths in Nam of Corpsman-I threw it away.Probably superstitus-don't remember the Field Med Class number
Really didn't learn much there either.Learned how to make a Latrene-that's about it.Shot the 45 cal hand gun-could'nt hit the target if my life depended on it.Much better with the M14-I remember a lot of battle dressing stuff.Sucking chest wounds-never showed how to do a trak-or chest tube.I learned how to throw a blue-dummy granade-also did manage to complete the 6 mile survival-run.Corpsman were passing out like flies-I never sweated more in my life-from that run.Some one stuck their butt out of the window-across from a bar-ham-berger joint-.I think We-all got punished for that.Oceanside was not really a happening place.They had a soft-core-porno movie house there.Also there was the Play Girl #2-bar-but when I went to Field Med school-I was too young to get in.There was also a Hamberger Joint in Ocean-side that had a pin-ball machine-that you could actually win games.I think that If all Corpsman-went to 2nd ITR-they would have learned-alot about Marine survival.We had a good DI-he looked like Clint Eastwood-Always loved Marine Cadence-certainly beat the Navy's -A Womp-Two-Tree Four-Womp Two Thee Four-Marine Cadence-sounded like a secret langwauge-the spelling thing is not working here-sorry.........I was lucky -I was sent to an Air Wing-This probably saved my life.I had many close calls at the Air Wing and on C-Batt-which May turn out to really be B-Battery..But I was truly trained as a front line Company Aid Man-but God saved my life-and or Chief White did.Those Corpsman Bags are dead give aways to the NVA.Semper FI-my Marine Corpsman Brother.