ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE TINDAL, Australia (Sept. 14, 2006) -- Wherever Marines deploy to, there are always corpsmen to support them, and Southern Frontier is no different.

In addition to being open during the day for sick call hours, there is always a duty corpsman on call at the clinic standing by to attend to the needs of Marines, assured Lt. Khanh X. Nguyen, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12 flight surgeon and native of San Jose, Calif. The "doc" can also be reached 24 hours a day by phone if necessary.

In case of a serious injury, Nguyen explained, service members can rely on the base clinic, the services of the local civilian hospital and of medical facilities in Darwin, Australia. For more serious medical attention they can also be sent back to a U.S. Naval hospital in Japan.

This year the medical personnel are co-located in a spacious clinic with their Australian counterparts. This has benefited both Marines and the Australian airmen.

During the first week of the deployment U.S. Navy corpsmen treated roughly 20 patients. Six of the patients were Australians who were dehydrated, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Akram Sadoghianzadeh, MALS-12 corpsman from Bethesda, Md.

"If Aussies are prone to dehydration then our Marines are definitely prone to it as well," said Nguyen.

To prevent a visit to medical because of dehydration, the corpsmen always remind Marines to drink plenty of water and to salt food to taste.

"As the operation takes effect it's going to be a lot busier. We're worried about accumulated injuries, a lot of flu-like symptoms because of the different enviornment,” said Nguyen.

The “docs” explained they are also prepared to treat Marines for allergies, bug bites and unhealthy heat exposure.

“I believe that being here with the Marines is very important; to knock out the problems so they can go back out there and work,” said Seaman Dominick J. Hayes, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 212 corpsman and native of Mobile, Ala. “We get them in here and get them out to the fight.”