Photo By Cpl. Christopher Johns | Vehicle wreckage litters the ground after a convoy carrying Marines and other...... read more read more
Subscribe
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. – From the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima and battles overseas in Afghanistan to countries and cities with missions unknown, two things are always present: dedication to the mission at hand—and a Navy corpsman.
“It’s challenging, doing what the Marines do, but we do everything they do,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Alvin Prasad, a Fleet Marine Force corpsman with Naval Medical Center San Diego stationed aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif. and a San Diego native. “You have your own group of Marines who you look after. You get to know them and they get to know you, you learn what they are capable of and their needs as they learn the same of you.”
Prasad deployed with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, to Afghanistan where he oversaw the well being of Marines and other personnel.
During one of many convoys the unit conducted, Prasad’s skills and those of the Marines he worked with were essential to saving their fellow troops.
“The third vehicle in our convoy was hit by an IED,” said Prasad. “All three passengers in the vehicle were injured, but the driver had gotten the worst of the explosion. One of the Marines with me was a prior Emergency Medical Technician, so he helped me look after the wounded personnel.”
Having an IED explode close by can be a rattling experience on its own; however, Prasad and his men had countless hours of training to rely on.
“Your training just kicks in,” stated Prasad. “People say, ‘Oh well I’ll do this or that,’ but when it actually hits you, you don’t know what to do. Then your training kicks in and you go about your job-checking who is in worse condition, treating the victims based on their wounds, advising others on how to assess the victims. You do what you have trained to do in these types of situations.”
Not only do corpsmen like Prasad protect the lives of the Marines in their care with medical supplies, each one spends time learning the weapons systems Marines carry in to battle.
“The weapons systems are pretty awesome,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Sean Henby, an FMF corpsman with Naval Medical Center San Diego stationed aboard MCAS Miramar and a San Diego native. “We learn almost everything about the weapons Marines use, the functions, rates and ranges of fire and how to break down each individual weapon.”
In order to more successfully integrate into the Marine Corps society, FMF corpsmen learn all the knowledge Marines are required to learn about the Marine Corps, as well as knowledge of the Navy and their own jobs.
“We are like a Marine,” said Chief Petty Officer Allen Pate, an independent duty corpsman and the clinic leading chief petty officer with the base medical clinic and a San Jose, Calif., native. “It’s just like being a Marine, only with the added responsibility of all of the medical stuff you know.”
Pate has been an FMF corpsman for more than 16 years, most of which was spent with infantry battalions aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., before coming to MCAS Miramar.
“My favorite part about my job is just getting to know the Marines,” said Pate. “You can’t find the camaraderie [the Marines] have at any other short command, I mean, it’s there but just not to that extent. Whenever you suffer through things together, that tends to build strong bonds and that’s what happens in the Marine Corps.”
Pate was fortunate enough, in his opinion, to be deployed three times on three separate Marine Expeditionary Units with his Marines. Together he and his Marines traveled the world, circumnavigating the globe according to Pate.
“[Corpsmen] are considered as much a Marine as anyone else,” said Staff Sgt. Jonathan Ferguson, the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron gunnery sergeant, and a Dayton, Ohio, native. “In Iraq, when I was with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, I saw corpsmen in Fallujah go to the aid of wounded Marines without a second thought. They didn’t reach for their weapon to do that—they grabbed their Combat Lifesaver Bag to render aid to that Marine. It’s the same in Afghanistan.”
According to Ferguson, these corpsmen are referred to as “Doc,” which isn’t anywhere close to slander.
“Corpsmen are given the utmost respect by Marines,” said Ferguson. “They’re ‘Doc,’ it’s said respectfully and admirably for everything they do for us.”
These men and women have been referred to as ‘Doc’, accepted among every unit and have fought alongside Marines for generations. They learn to walk like Marines, talk like them, fire weapons the same way and suffer the same as any Marine does while in their care—but when the time comes to put the rifle down and to save the lives of their comrades these ‘Docs’ do not back down.
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2012 17:55 |
| Story ID: | 93994 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 805 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Fleet Marine Force Corpsmen keep Marines in the fight, by Cpl Christopher Johns, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
