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    “Corpsman Up!” Sea Story Series at Naval Branch Health Clinic Groton

    GROTON, CT, UNITED STATES

    04.19.2019

    Story by Kathy MacKnight 

    Naval Health Clinic New England

    Every six weeks, Naval Branch Health Clinic (NBHC) Groton Sailors gather in a semi-circle, much like sitting around a campfire, to share their military stories in the “Corpsman Up!” Sea Story Series.
    Lieutenant (LT) Jonathan Jacesko, originator and leader of the series, started the group get-togethers after having lunch one day with a prior-enlisted Corpsman, LT Eric Wright, who is now a nurse at the clinic. LT Wright told him a story about the day he almost died back when he was a Corpsman training with the Navy SEALs, and LT Jacesko knew that incredible stories like his should be shared.
    Jacesko intentionally keeps the sessions stripped-down and simple: no PowerPoint, no agenda or objectives to cover. Just Sailors in a school circle listening to one of their shipmates tell a cool sea story. His goal is for everyone to just have fun, and the Sailors like having this as a change of pace to their regularly scheduled training periods.
    There have been five sessions so far featuring 13 different Corpsmen. “The best thing about Corpsman sea stories is that they are rooted in all the various specialties of the Navy and Marine Corps team,” said Jacesko. “We’ve heard from Corpsmen who travelled under the North Pole in a submarine, flown off of aircraft carriers, sweated in the desert of Iraq, and handled shipboard emergencies in the midst of a trans-Atlantic crossing. Wherever there are Sailors and Marines standing the watch, there is a Navy Corpsman standing the watch over them,” he said.
    This was clearly demonstrated with the latest episode presented last week. Naval Health Clinic New England (NHCNE) Command Master Chief (CMC) Randy Swanson and NBHC Groton Hospital Corpsman Third Class (HM3) Ryan Bean shared their sea stories; CMC Swanson spoke of diagnosing acute appendicitis while undersea, and HM3 Bean shared how he took care of Marines in sub-zero temperatures while on a training exercise 300 miles above the Arctic Circle. They were joined by a special guest, Rear Admiral Leonard Dollaga, Commander, Naval Undersea Warfighting Development Center, who was CMC Swanson’s Commanding Officer onboard USS CHARLOTTE (SSN 766) during the acute appendicitis incident. RDML Dollaga spoke of the role and responsibility of Independent Duty Corpsmen (IDC) as the “Doc” for the crew and of his unquestioning trust in CMC Swanson as his IDC.
    As Jacesko concluded, “These stories are part of what makes military service so interesting, and it is not hard to find a good lesson or two in each one.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 04.19.2019
    Date Posted: 05.02.2019 08:52
    Story ID: 320400
    Location: GROTON, CT, US

    Web Views: 30
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN