Photo By Sgt. Ruben Rodriguez | ATLANTIC OCEAN (Dec. 20, 2022) Hospitalman Wendy Rincon Martinez, assigned to the...... read more read more
Subscribe
Story by U.S. Army Sgt. Ruben Rodriguez Santiago
Wearing a sanitized uniform that she’d prepared the night before, Hospitalman Wendy Rincon Martinez approached the tan sickbay door at the top of the red ladder well. She knew the process. She’d walk in, and her leadership would assign a roll to each person and explain their duties. Then, people with a variety of illnesses and ailments would come in for help, and she’d assist them. During her final personal moments of the morning, she closed her eyes and prayed to God to give her the health, wisdom, and capacities to accomplish her responsibilities with excellence. She took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and walked inside to start her day.
Since she was young, Rincon Martinez had one main goal in life, to positively impact as many people as possible. A native of Manizales, Colombia, the main coffee producer in the central region of the northern Andes, Rincon Martinez spent the beginning of her childhood in Colombia. Then, in 2004, at the age of 18, she moved to the U.S. with her mother, and even though she left her home country, her passion for helping others carried on. She was initially interested in being a part of a non-profit entity, such as Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross. However, beginning in 2010, she entered the medical assistant program in Miami, immigration paralegal in 2015, and began working in the court system in 2017. During that seven-year period, Rincon Martinez assisted families with similar cases as hers, giving her the opportunity to bring families together through consular petitions. Ultimately, in November of 2020, she chose to join the U.S. Navy to serve in the medical community and provide help to others on a larger scale. After completing hospital corpsman school, she arrived at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia.
“This is my first command,” said Rincon Martinez. “When I got orders, I knew that I was going to be attached to a hospital ship that does humanitarian missions. In July, I was very excited when I was informed, I would be part of Continuing Promise 2022 (CP22) aboard the USNS Comfort.”
Aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) Rincon Martinez has three main roles, sickbay corpsman, tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) instructor and flight deck corpsman.
“In sickbay, once leadership assigns our roles, we complete checks on the medical equipment, making sure they are functioning, disinfected, and have all the necessary evaluation systems according to the patients’ needs,” said Rincon Martinez. “Then, I can start providing medical care to crewmembers assigned to Comfort who are feeling sick or have health concerns.”
Rincon Martinez is also responsible for training military personnel and civilian volunteers in TCCC, which is care provided to injured persons in the field to prevent death in combat with limited resources.
“Rincon Martinez’s medical knowledge and multilingual skills add an incredible amount of versatility to the CP22 subject matter expert exchanges, sickbay daily operations and overall mission,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Jeremy Feliciano, leading petty officer of Comfort’s sickbay division. “As an instructor, she helped fill communication gaps for TCCC and basic lifesaver courses by articulating medical terminology that our translators could not communicate. This allowed us to provide a complete context of course material and high quality content.”
As a flight deck corpsman, Rincon Martinez oversees the transportation of supplies to the medical sites and stands by during flight operations in case of medical emergencies. CP22 has also offered Rincon Martinez the opportunity to hone her skills and make an impact. One particular mission stop was significantly closer to home and to her heart, the stop in Cartagena, Colombia.
“Assisting Colombia is a big deal for me, because this is my family,” said Rincon Martinez. “It is a complete blessing for me to be able to connect my Navy and Colombian families. Whether I was providing care or participating in knowledge exchanges, I gave the best of me on this mission with my Navy family supporting and working alongside me, doing everything that we could to complete this mission and be successful, it has been a great honor.”
Previous Continuing Promise missions have included stops to Colombia, and Rincon Martinez hopes the partnership continues.
“Coming back to Colombia in the future is very important, so we can keep the friendship between both countries alive for years to come,” said Rincon Martinez. “We have so much to offer to Colombia and other countries. We were able to help and change the lives of a lot of people.”
While Rincon Martinez worked diligently with her Comfort team, she beliefs that one of the best parts of the experience is getting a chance to share her culture with her fellow Sailors.
“I am very thankful.” said Rincon Martinez “It’s enriching to have our Sailors experience and learn about the culture of Colombia. It was really nice seeing the Comfort crew in Colombia having a good time. Now, we can take those experiences and treasure them in our hearts forever.”
Learn more about USNAVSO/4th Fleet at
https://www.facebook.com/NAVSOUS4THFLT and @NAVSOUS4THFLT
-30-
| Date Taken: | 11.27.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2022 21:51 |
| Story ID: | 435413 |
| Location: | CO |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, COMFORTING CONNECTIONS: THE STORY OF HN RINCON MARTINEZ, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
