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History Of The Hospital Corps
By HMCS(FMF) Mark T. Hacala, All Hands Magazine, June 1998
For 100 years, tradition, valor and sacrifice have marked the history of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps. Since 1898, hospital corpsmen have cared for wounded and sick Sailors and Marines. Their continuous dedication to saving the lives of their patients, frequently at the risk of their own lives, has earned them accolades at sea and on land through every war and conflict of the 20th century.
Prior to the establishment of the Hospital Corps, enlisted personnel assisted the ship's surgeons in caring for the sick. Junior and senior medical department personnel changed rating names several times between 1775 and 1898, using colorful titles at each phase. The name "loblolly boy," one who carried loblolly or porridge to the sick, was used until the Civil War when it was replaced by "nurse." In the 1870's the name "nurse" was retitled "bayman," because the Sailor worked in sick bay. Senior personnel were known as surgeon's stewards and later as apothecaries.
By the late 1800's, the Surgeon General of the Navy advocated a new system of employed medical department Sailors. Rather than assigning one of the crew out of necessity as was done with many loblolly boys and baymen, a trained group of volunteers was advocated. Based on the model of the Army's Hospital Corps, the Navy would seek recruits, pay them better, and train them uniformly. This plan was adopted during the Spanish-American War when President William McKinley signed into law a bill establishing the Navy Hospital Corps June 17, 1898.
The early history of the corps set a pace of conspicuous service that continues to the present. During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in Peking, China, Hospital Apprentice Robert Stanley volunteered for the dangerous mission of running message dispatches under fire. For his bravery, Stanley became the first in a long line of hospital corpsmen to receive the Medal of Honor. Five years later, when USS Bennington's boiler exploded in San Diego harbor on July 21, 1905, Hospital Steward William Shacklette was badly burned along with almost half the crew. Although seriously hurt, he rescued and treated many of his shipmates. He too was given the Medal of Honor.
Within a few short years, the Hospital Corps would face the rigors of combat with the Marines in World War I. Through machine gun fire and mustard gas, hospital corpsmen treated more than 13,000 casualties in France. This group of 300 Sailors would earn two Medals of Honor, 55 Navy Crosses, 31 Army Distinguished Service Crosses and 237 Silver Stars. Their 684 personnel awards would make them the most decorated American unit in World War I. "There were many heroes who wore the insignia of the Navy Hospital Corps," noted a Marine Corps regimental commander at Belleau Wood where 4,000 Marines fell to enemy fire.
Hospital corpsmen also set an exceptional record of valor in World War II. They worked in hospitals and hospital ships all over the world, set up beach aid stations in Italy and Normandy, bandages kamikaze survivors at sea, and dodged bullets and shells during the bloody island campaigns in the Pacific. Their initiative and skill was noteworthy. Pharmacist's Mate First Class Wheller Lipes, Harry Roby and Thomas Moore each performed a successful appendectomy without the aid of a physician, while aboard submarines in enemy waters.
Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H. Bradley's heroism with the 28th Marines on Iwo Jima is typical of acts repeated by hospital corpsmen throughout the war. Bradley rushed through a mortar barrage and heavy machine gun fire to aid a wounded Marine. Although other men from his unit were willing to help, Bradley motioned them to stay back. Shielding the Marine from fire with his own body, the hospital corpsman administered a unit of plasma and bandaged his wounds. He then pulled the man 30 yards under fire to safety.
Bradley was awarded a Navy Cross for his valor, but it was another courageous act that would put him in the history books. Days later, he and five Marines were captured in Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph of the second flag raising on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi. This image has been reproduced perhaps more than any photo in history. It was the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., and made Bradley the first
U. S. Navy Sailor to appear on a postage stamp. But Bradley's heroism was not an isolated act. In World War II, the Hospital Corps would earn seven Medals of Honor, 66 Navy Crosses, 465 Silver Star Medals, and 982 Bronze Star Medals, as well as countless other commendations and debts of gratitude.
Although the U.S. commitment to the Korean War was limited, 30,064 Marines and Sailors were killed or wounded. As in previous conflicts, hospital corpsmen distinguished themselves. All five enlisted Navy Medals of Honor for the Korean War were awarded to members of the Hospital Corps. One of those awardees, retired HMCM(SS) William Charette, reflected years later on his pride in being a hospital corpsman in Korea. "It's amazing that somewhere there are some people walking around that wouldn't be here unless we had been there."
In Vietnam, hospital corpsmen played a critical role in aiding the 70,000 Navy and Marine Corps casualties. As station hospitals in Saigon and Da Nang, aboard hospital ships offshore, with medical battalions and in the field with Marines, hospital corpsmen ensured the best possible care for the wounded, often at the risk of their own lives. When an enemy grenade landed near HM3 Donald Ballard and several casualties, he covered the grenade with his body to save his Marine's lives, earning him the Medal of Honor. "My job was needed," Ballard said recently. "I felt good about it." Bravery earned hospital corpsmen 450 combat decorations in Vietnam, but not without a cost. The Hospital Corps lost 638 of their own.
Hospital corpsmen continued to serve in peace, in war and in situations that straddled that line during the 1980's. They treated gunshot and shrapnel wounds in Beirut in 1983, when a peacekeeping mission escalated into a shooting war. Of the 18 hospital corpsmen in the Marine Battalion Landing Team Headquarters building on October 23, only 3 survived the truck bombing which killed a total of 241 Americans. Days later, other hospital corpsmen would participate in the invasion of Grenada. In the Persian Gulf, independent duty hospital corpsmen would care for casualties aboard USS Stark in 1987; USS Samuel B. Roberts in 1988 and in Panama in 1989.
Iraq's 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait again provided challenges for the Hospital Corps. Corpsmen around the globe reacted as their ships, stations and Marines deployed or prepared to receive casualties. Their numbers were augmented by 6,739 Naval Reserve hospital corpsmen who were recalled to active duty. The first Purple Heart awarded to a Sailor in the Persian Gulf War was given to a hospital corpsman.
While technology and equipment have changed through the years, today's hospital corpsmen continue to epitomize the tradition, valor and sacrifice displayed by corpsmen during the past century. As in the past, dedication to duty and devotion to their patients remains hospital corpsmen's greatest asset.
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