Throughout the History of the United States Marine Corps, Navy Hospital Corpsman have served side by side with Marines to answer their cry of

"CORPSMAN UP"

Wherever you find the Marine Corps, there you will find the Navy Hospital Corpsman. In times of peace, he or she toils unceasingly, day and night, providing quality care to numerous beneficiaries. In times of war, he is on the beaches with the Marines, employed in amphibious operations, in transportation of wounded by air, on the battlefield, and on all types of ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, and landing craft. In short, wherever medical services may be required, the Hospital Corpsman is there, not only willing but also prepared to serve his or her country and his fellow man above and beyond the call of duty.

Semper Fi!

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.....

They carried P-38, can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks. They carried jungle utilities, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots.

They carried the M-16 assault rifle. They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-79 grenade launcher, M-14's, CAR-15's, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66mm Laws, shotguns,.45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence. They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes.

Some carried napalm, CBU's and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworms and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones - real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: "Don't mean nothin'!"

They carried memories. For the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed - or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said "Dear God" and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die.

They carried the traditions of the United States Marine Corps, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations. They carried the Marine's greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world.

THEY CARRIED EACH OTHER......

Tim O'Brien

Hospital Corpsman John Bradley was with the Marines as they raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi. He was one of the three survivors from the flag raising to leave Iwo Jima. John Bradley died January 11, 1994 at the age of 70.

From the halls of Montezuma
First words of a famous song,
When Marines go into battle,
A Navy corpsman goes along.

From its very beginning
The Corps has steadily grown,
And the attitude of a Marine is
"we take care of our own."

Marines may give up their water
Or even their last bean,
But never their Navy corpsman
Wearing the Marine Corps green.

When Marines and their corpsman
Are standing side by side,
The first thing you notice
Is the sharing of their pride.

If you are looking for trouble
Of a kind you've never seen,
Attack their Navy Corpsman,
The one in Marine Corps green.

Thank God for our Corpsman

by Ed Becker

He waits, silent 
clutching his Unit One 
Wondering about this time 
A flash as a 'copter 
drops a flare 
And midnight turns to noon 
And hell reaches them all 
racing forward, past sanity 
Insanity calls pushing him forward 
Regardless of death 
to a fallen friend 
Bullets falling 
that scream Die 
falling inches away 
Working his best 
Moving up, 
blood racing in his veins 
and dropping in a wound 
Made hours ago 
He thinks of himself 
His sergeant says stop 
but he remembers a Creed 
Taken years ago 
And again moves forward 
into hell blood and gun grease 
the sound of death 
The words of life 
his morphine spent 
And his plasma used 
Nothing left 
but a Creed sounds 
in his ears 
above 'copters and total hell 
Up to a fallen friend 
Who looks up to a face of Christ 
and smiles 
Bullets shatter the night 
Somewhere a mother 
perhaps a wife 
Thank God for a life 
She says a prayer for 
an unknown person 
who saved his life. 

A corpsman lying still.

Published in the Baltimore, (Maryland) Evening Sun, December 15, 1970