On a bus in the fields at Camp Pendleton and on the road back to Garrison, the LT was sitting up front behind the driver. I sat across the isle. In idle conversation, LT asks, “Did you ever serve aboard a ship doc? “Yes Sir, a destroyer and a troop carrier”. His inevitable question, “Which would you prefer Doc, Us or the Navy”. I am on a bus loaded with 2nd Platoon Marines who weren’t tired and it was a long drive ahead of us. All marines were listening to the conversation. My response to him came from my gut instinct… “Marines”. The LT looked doubtful. What else was I likely to say in my situation. Then I offered my explanation “why”. I began to speak from my heart. “The Marines are the most self-sacrificing, dedicated, resourceful, motivated, deadly and patriotic branch of service. If I had the choice to save the life of a Marine or a Sailor, I would automatically choose to save the Marine, over the fellow Sailor (assuming that doing so would not endanger the mission.) The LT said I had grabbed his attention with that statement. He said, “you are going to have to do some pretty good explaining. I told him that Sailors are too attached to their specialty systems. If their system fails, they are done, The Marine IS a weapon. I am proud to be counted among the Marines on the bus. At the start of the ride, the Gunny asks, “Sergeant! How many we got?” Sergeant responds,”We got 57 men and a Doc”. Just once I’d like to hear him say, we got 58 men. One of them a Doc.
I might be going out on a limb here , but I believe in today’s Marine Corps it could be stated “ 57 men and 1 female Doc.”
It could be 57 men and a Corpsperson or 58 Marines.
You sure got that right. After serving 2 tours in Nam and seen that Corpsman work, he is definitely one of us.
most respected person in the Company….2/5 Echo Co Wpns plt 69/70
Thank you Sgt. Doty. I considered myself as a Fleet Marine Corpsman with a heavy emphasis on Marine. When I joined my Marine unit, I did not expect any preferential treatment. I filled my share of sand bags and jumped water when required just like my Marines. My Marines took care of me and I tried my best to reciprocate. I only hope I did my job well enough to save a few lives that might otherwise have been lost. We have a yearly reunion and I haven’t missed one so far. I love my brothers in Lima 3/9.
Semper Fi,
Doc Wurth
Did you by chance know Fred Carroll?
God bless our coreman! Our coreman always took care of us and never had to pay for his drinks while out in the ville with us!
Corpsman! Kapena, Corpsman! Not coreman,Ugh. Harry
Ha! Ha! Roger dodger!
A men
I think everyone would agree, corpsmen are marines. I’m wondering garrison was not one of the words we used, Harry in training did you ever get on a bus, we used what we called cattle cars pulled by semi tractors
Cattle Cars ! Yes,our main mode,other than marching!
Marching?
We called it drill.
Close order drill
Sometimes it was “route step”, not drill.
Oh yea, that’s it “Route Step!” Thanx!
Route SteUS. as , belief is a ” Longer, Stretched Step “. Not Double Time though “…” Corpsman-Up”, yes Sir. One of ” Us.
MCRD 1155. C -1/7, 1st MarDiv.
I recall it being called “Force March” when we were moving to a different location. Didn’t resemble any “ Close Order Drill!” Harry 1371
Ditto
Nothing but respect for the corpsmen that I served with in Vietnam. Doc Quinonas was our Doc… Lima 3/4 68-69.
Simper Fi Bob. I was with H & S 3/4 in 66. Welcome home
Clark
Great story. we must remember political correctness.
Semper fi
Nam 12/67 8/69
I was proud of my 5 yrs as a Marine corpsman. I always thought of myself as Marine. As I get older and am seeing all my buddies passing on. I think of them all the time the best 5 yrs. of my 80 yrs on this planet Earth. God Bless the USMC.
The Marines thought of us as Marines too.
Perhaps we are preparing our way to be with them just as we were when we left them.
SemperFi Devil Doc. 8404 on the green side you guys are the best!!
God bless our corpsmen! They are Marines and more! Everyone respected our Doc and treated them as equals if not superior. One night at Fuji our sgt fell playing volleyball. He tore off his ear on the volcanic soil. We were all drunk but the doc sutured his ear back. My respect became solidified.
I’m a Doc, and I would rather be with the Marines. I learned more about team work, respect and, brotherhood, than I ever learned with the Navy. I was with the Tenth Marine Regiment 2nd Marine Division from July 1969, to January 1972, and I loved it.
I took care of Marines then, and for 39 years after working for the VA hospital.
I still try to look after Marines to this day. Semper Fi
Awesome story and history doc. My highest regard to you.
Semper FI Devel Doc!
Docs are ALWAYS counted as Marines ! The Sergeant giving the head count was wrong.
I’ll take a Doc over a REMF/ RAMF Marine ANY day !
OOOrah, Buckinator, Nam 1975, Frequent Wind – Eagle Pull
Think that was Operation Eagle Pool Buck but I could be mistaken.
C. Eggleston,
It’s a long shot but did you happen to be at OCS (Brownfield) as a Gunny, 4th Plt/Co. A, in the summer of 79?
My husband would consider the corpsman “doc” a Marine… he served in Nam 68-69 and knows what those “doc’s” could do in the heat of battle. My husband told me about them and I have the greatest respect for them.
Dan’s wife
Force march is a conditioning exercise and route step is for the field and no cadence to call. I read another BS story about the LT no knowing anything. Oh the BS about the LT not knowing is such BS. I am a Mustang Officer and everywhere I went I found almost 40% of my fellow Officers had at least one good conduct medal. The LT not knowing is pure bs all the time. Furthermore, the OCS training and TBS school will teach a Marine more about the Marine Corps than Boot camp, NCO School and the SNCO academy combined. I attended all of them and they were nothing compared to OCS and TBS. In the 8th week of OCS we were doing small unit leadership and every candidate gets the role of Plt Cmdr, Plt Sgt, Squad Ldr and Fire team ldr during the training. When we are commissioned we then sepnd the next 26 weeks in training to be a Platoon Commander. Then after TBS the 03 Officers must attend Infantry officer trainng. By the time a Lt gets to the FMF he has been on ship via track vehicles and exited the same way, and the use of LST boats too. The Marine Lt has been educated formally and operationally trained. We do not have any 9o day wonders like the Army . All Marine officers have at least 18 months of training commands before the enter the FMF. I was a SSGT before being selected for Warrant Officer and then entered OCS and retired as a Captain unrestricted and fully commissioned. Semper Fi Til I Die.
I agree 100%. On a lot of veterans groups web sites, the Army guys, especially the SNCOs are intentionally and regularly belittling 2d lieutenants. The most popular topic is land nav. I routinely respond that Marine officers spend a huge chunk of phase 1 (7 weeks in 1968 when our Class was shortened to 17 weeks and 7 weeks out of 26 when I taught there 83-85) in the field doing day and night land nav. An Air Force officer once told me that he wished they had a TBS: “Ask one of our pilots ‘What do you do?’ And he will reply ‘I’m a pilot.’ Oh, who do you fly with?’ ‘The Air Force.’”
“Your pilots would say ‘I’m a Marine.’ And ‘I’m a pilot.’”
Lots of jokes about 2nd Lts and compasses. But the bottom line is this: the Lieutenants’ incompetents is due to piss poor NCO’s. The NCO’s make or break a new Lieutenant. I’ve seen some “boot Lieutenants” who had a good collection NCO’s in his platoon and he turned out great. Also I’ve seen the reverse. Unfortunately for the Lieutenant his career didn’t get off to a good start.
I served as a combat corpsman with Golf Co. 2/1 July 67 to July68 in places like Con Thein and Khe Sanh. The Marines always told me you are one of us, and that’s the way I view myself. Any of the other combat Corpsman I have talked to feel the same way. I always tell people the Marines are the elite fighting force and how impressive they are. I witnessed that first hand. I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to have served with them.
I believe when I served in ‘Nam with Echo 2/4 as a 0331 – ’66-67, every Marine I served with believed the Corpsmen were Marines! Period! Semper Fi until I die!!
I served 3 years as a grunt. Our Corpsman were there on the humps,the field,and all the other training we did. As a Marine I have a lot of respect for the Navy Corpsman.
We Marines (0300) considered Corpsman as fellow Marines. They ate the same chow, wore the same uniform, slept where we slept, patrolled on all patrols, usually only with a 45 sidearm,entered harms way with one objective, that being to come to the aid of injured Marines. Nobody can put an accurate number of lives that they saved.
We put our life in their hands and trusted them….
It is amazing how people can post a reply that has absolutely nothing directly related to the article. Is it “attention span disorder” or simply wanting to attract attention?
Had a Physician Asst. for about 8 yrs. here in NY. He had been a Corpsman with the FMF. Made his day when I got him one of your “Devil Doc” shirts. He wore it to a convention and told me about the reactions. Never had to explain aches and pains, he took me at my word and never tried to baffle me with terminology. Worked for the Army at their equivalent of Wounded Warrior Bn. (SFAC), and met several Soldiers with Marine “combat patches”. One time, met a medic, talked and found out he was “broken time”, had served as a Corpsman, got out and joined the Army. Asked him why he left the FMF for the Army. “Ron, it was the worst mistake of my career….”
In my own experience with the FMF, and after, our Docs were among the most conscientious, loyal, and competent men I had the honor of serving with. I always made an effort to make them feel welcome and included, and I had the feeling that, among them, they were appreciative.
John G.
John……….Were you an 8404 as well?
Corpsmen are part of us. How many lives were saved because we had our Corpsmen with us. After I retired, I had to have some emergency surgery on a hour’s notice. It focuses your prayer life. In the next treatment station, a curtain away, I heard a PA telling the kid whose forehead was going to spout some stitches say “Some of my Marines would come to me with an arm attached by shreds of tissue and say ‘Take care of my shipmate; I can wait.”
I said “Sorry to eaves drop , but who were you with?” He had been with 5th Marines in Desert Storm.
After he finished up, he stuck his head through the curtains. “Whatcha in for?” I told him. He snuck a peak at the chart, nodded, and said “You got a good surgeon. Ex-Navy. You’ll be just fine. Semper Fi.” It made a bad night just a little better. “Thanks, Doc. Semper Fi.”
I have said it on more then one occasion that you guys on the green side serving as 8404’s with the FMF were some of the finest men I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet during my time, 70/72. Even to this date that regard still holds. Glad to hear your story devil doc!
It was my honor to serve as a Corpsman with Hotel 2/7 in 69-70
These Marines are my brothers and always will be
Semper Fi
Doc Smith
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class David R. Ray 2nd Battalion 11th Marines Artillery. KIA Phu-Loc (6)( Liberty Bridge) 19-March-69. Posthumously presented The Medal of Honor. RIP Corpsman! SEMPER FI!
Our corpsman was always considered to be an 03..he shared our blood sweat and sometimes tears and always had our backs..Semper Fi to all 0311 corpsman!
23 Corpsman have received The Medal of Honor. Semper Fi to all the “Docs”. Bill 0331
Semper Fi to all the Docs from day 1 til the end of time. Hell Yeah they are one of us. Used to rib them some, calling them pecker checkers & canker mechanics…..just DON’T call them a Squid!!
Our “Devil Docs” were considered fellow Jarheads. Every corpsman that I served with in the FMF showed a selfless dedication to duty. SEMPER FI DOC!
If he’s a Doc serving with Marines, then he IS a MAN! Semper Fi, Doc!