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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
This is an excellent training experience for them. Good on the Navy for making this happen.

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Originally posted by Ronin1069:
The Navy medics, known as hospital corpsmen, typically receive 14 weeks of training in first aid and patient care in Fort Sam Houston in Texas after initial boot camp, and then have the option for additional training.

Since when do Navy corpsmen train at Ft. Sam? I don't remember any when I was there.

In 2011 the Corpsman school was moved from Great Lakes to Joint Base Sam Houston. Anderson Hall is the main building there and named after my little brother.

All branches consolidated medical training at Ft Sam. Classes are mixed with Army, Navy, and AF with a smattering of Marines.

In response to the massive influx of trainees, I was part of the initial crew to establish a new AFOSI office at Ft Sam, subordinate to the squadron at Lackland. We started in 2012, I took over in 2014 until my next assignment in 2015.

We were busy! Instead of just Airmen “touching” Airmen, we had mixed-service sexual assaults...lots of joint cases with CID and NCIS.

This Navy program is nothing new; AF has been sending ER med-techs to Baltimore trauma centers for at least 15 years.

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Originally posted by brywards:
This Navy program is nothing new; AF has been sending ER med-techs to Baltimore trauma centers for at least 15 years.

My, how things change! This time for the better. Back in '86 we had nothing of the sort. The best we had was an instructor with a profound speech impediment trying to teach us how to be medics. No offsite training whatsoever. And to top it off, I was roundly criticized by my NCOIC and 1SG when I got to my unit for enrolling in a paramedic course, doing time in a local ER, and getting a part time job on the IV team at a different hospital. Apparently I was trying to be better than the others and this was looked down upon. Evidently, back then, being the best that you could be wasn't very favorable. They had no problem promoting the cute young gal, who came in two years after me, over me though. In her defense, she was really attractive and looked great in her PT uniform. Dumber than a pail of wet sand though.

And 2000Z, that is quite the honor. I hate that you lost your brother, but I suspect that his sacrifice will inspire others, and in the grand scheme, that's a good thing.

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Originally posted by rekstrom:

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Originally posted by FRANKT:

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Since when do Navy corpsmen train at Ft. Sam? I don't remember any when I was there.

HM school, at least A school, was at Great Lakes when I was there in '69-'70. So was a big-ass beautiful hospital that was chock full of 'Nam casualties. This training with the Army has got to be part of the joint base crap that seems to be spreading. HM training is now gone from there as is the hospital.

The Corpsman school moved from Naval Station Great Lakes to San Antonio in 2010. The new James Lovell Federal Health Care Center opened in 2011, which is a merger of the VA hospital in North Chicago and the Great Lakes Naval Hospital. They closed the old Naval Hospital on the Naval Station.

Graduated from the old school in Oct. 1978 myself. Never was offered the chance for more trauma training local to Great Lakes, just handed my orders for Field Medical Service School at Camp Lejeune and a ticket home. In all seriousness, it sounds like the "Docs" of today are getting more and better training than I had.

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Originally posted by brywards:...All branches consolidated medical training at Ft Sam. Classes are mixed with Army, Navy, and AF with a smattering of Marines....

I was trained as a combat medic (actually FEBA, Front Edge of the Battle Area) at Fort Sam in 1970. I was a reservist, never activitated. All of my training cadre had been combat medics in Viet Nam. A number of times the training was "here is what the book says, here is how it really works". The consciencous objectors in our training company were quite dismayed when they found out combat medics carry guns.

That's s shameful waste of a good Navy Corpsman Medic.

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
And 2000Z, that is quite the honor. I hate that you lost your brother, but I suspect that his sacrifice will inspire others, and in the grand scheme, that's a good thing.

Thank you. I gave up a long time ago trying to reason through all the honors that Christopher has received. I quit looking for the reasons and just accepted them as part of God's plan for helping others move forward. There are a lot of Marines home now raising their families thanks to Christopher's efforts and quite a few children of Marines have been named after him.

Christopher was a Corpsman deployed with the Marine infantry during the Second Battle of Ramadi. Three previous attempts to retake Ramadi had failed. This time they tried a new strategy; retake the city starting from the inside and working their way out. On combat patrols they would station Christopher and their radio operator in a safe house while the team conducted operations.

What Christopher was horrified by was the Iraqis hiding their children. If children went outside on the streets to play, they became targets for Chechen snipers. Growing up, the street in front of Christopher's house was the neighborhood playground; football, soccer, skateboards and bike jumps made out of scavengered lumber from construction sites.

While he was in the safe houses Christopher did what he could for the children. He gave them candy and snacks and more importantly offered basic medical care. Word got out about the American taking care of children. One Iraqi grandmother brought her granddaughter to him to reset a broken arm. He did what he could and found it hard to understand why the grandmother was so scared of him. Then it was explained she had been told that the Americans were monsters who killed children and raped women. But she was desperate to get care for her granddaughter and Christopher was her only hope.

Three days later she visited their base with a present to thank him. When she heard the news that he had been killed the day before during a mortar attack she absolutely whaled. She returned the next day with a handwritten list of insurgents operating in Ramadi. Naval Intelligence was able to use that list to absolutely clean house in Ramadi and eliminate the insurgency.

So a kid from Colorado who thought it wasn't right that kids couldn't play in the street helped bring an end to an uprising. A lot of times we hear the phrase winning the hearts and minds and react with cynicism, but this was a case where providing basic human kindness helped to win a battle.