Navy corpsmen with Special Ops save lives in combat zone

Courtesy Photo | A Navy hospital corpsman closes a bullet entrance wound on an Afghan national policeman's leg. Coalition combat medics treated the wounded ANP at a forward operating base in southern Afghanistan recently and stopped the bleeding before the ANP was transported to an Afghan hospital.  

AFGHANISTAN

03.03.2008

Courtesy Story

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan

By Marine Staff Sgt. Luis P. Valdespino Jr.

Editor's note: Staff Sgt. Valdespino is a Marine combat correspondent assigned to Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan. He recently spent 16 days embedded with a Marine Special Operations Company in Helmand province, Afghanistan, to witness and learn about their role in Operation Enduring Freedom. During this time, he also saw the Navy hospital corpsmen and special operations combat medics at work in roles most people are not privileged to see. Because the military personnel mentioned in this story are special operations personnel, specific locations and their names cannot be published.

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan – On the battlefield or on the firebase, Navy hospital corpsmen routinely care for and treat Afghans with medical emergencies.

Serving in the Marine Corps for almost 20 years taught me to appreciate the role of Navy hospital corpsmen with Marine units, but before my recent time with them, I never realized how critical they are in a combat zone.

When medical doctors are not available, it is often the "corpsmen" in Helmand province, Afghanistan, who treat victims with life-threatening injuries.

Fleet Marine Force-qualified Navy corpsmen and Navy special operations combat medics in Helmand province with the Marine Special Operations Company from the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton have conducted amputations and treated bullet wounds, burns and even dental emergencies, said a Navy SOCM.

There is a difference between the "regular" corpsmen and the Navy SOCMs. All SOCMs are FMF corpsmen, but not all FMF corpsmen are SOCMs, explained another SOCM.

All the Navy corpsmen with the MSOC are enlisted sailors who fight side-by-side with the Marines in special operations missions, but their primary mission is to save lives on the battlefield.

In some respects they may as well be Marines, several MSOC leathernecks told me.

The corpsmen assigned to the MSOC demonstrated a desire to share in the Marines' lifestyle long before arriving in Afghanistan. An SOCM explained that Navy corpsmen who want to be assigned to special operations have to pass through basic Marine reconnaissance school with Marines.

But to be certified as SOCMs, the Navy corpsmen also attend a number of other rigorous military schools. These include U.S. Army Jump School; Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School; Marine Combatant Dive School and the Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman School, where they learn to treat neurological issues related to diving trauma, said a Navy SOCM. Finally, they attend a seven-month Special Operations Combat Medic School at Fort Bragg, N.C. While at the SOCM school, medics work with civilian hospital emergency rooms and with paramedics.

"If you fail one school, you are out of the program," said a Navy SOCM.

But those who successfully complete all the courses and schools earn the SOCM title. And all special operations require the support of certified SOCMs for their missions, said a Navy SOCM.

The training and skills they learn earn them the respect of every Marine.

Watching Navy Corpsmen in action at a make-shift firebase clinic treat an Afghan policeman with a gunshot wound was eye-opening to me. There was no hesitation. The corpsmen treated the entrance and exit wounds, stopped the bleeding and stabilized the patient until he could be transported to a hospital.

"We have the best corpsmen," said an MSOC leatherneck who often sees Navy corpsmen in action.

• Date Taken: 03.03.2008
• Date Posted: 03.11.2008 19:41
• Story ID: 17269
• Location: AF