Ground Truth HELP YOUR CORPSMEN Help take CARE of you
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Article courtesy of Commandant of the Marine Corps Safety Division
hether a unit is conducting a training exercise to maintain its readiness and lethality or is forward-deployed supporting real-world operations, one of its most important resources is the Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman.
Navy and Marine Corps units rely on these individuals to provide the best possible health services to members in both peacetime and war.
These individuals receive medical training from a variety of institutions to help them provide medical support for any mission or task assigned. Regardless of the initial medical training schoolhouse, sustainment training is necessary for these individuals to keep their medical skills sharp and usable. Similar to every other member in a unit, the corpsmen’s skill set degrades without proper sustainment training.
It’s imperative leadership prioritize sustainment training for these individuals, find venues for new training to increase their proficiency, and ensure their skills remain current and the corpsmen remain a valuable resource to their organization and the services. Hospital corpsmen are not a one-sizefits-all resource and many have received additional medical training certifications over the course of their career. When units plan for a training exercise or a real-world operation, leaders must ensure medical representation is integrated in the planning process. This is reinforced in MCRP 3-40A.5, Health Service Support [HSS] Field Reference Guide, which states “Commanders are ultimately responsible for the health and medical readiness of their commands. Each commander is provided HSS through organic medical elements or medical elements of a designated supporting structure. If additional medical support is required for a particular operation, the command must identify its requirements early in the planning process, identify the required units and request support through the operational chain of command.” Proactive thinking and proper planning that identifies medical requirements for personnel and equipment helps ensure overall unit and mission success. The hospital corpsman resource cannot be overlooked or neglected and still be expected to remain valuable to a unit. For corpsman training resources, a good place to start is your closest military medical treatment facility's staff education and training department. They offer a wide array of courses to promote continued learning and development. Help your corpsmen take care of you! U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class MacKinley Goldthwaite, a Franklin, New Hampshire, native and senior line corpsman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division in Jeremie, Haiti, Dec. 17, 2022. (U.S. Marine Corps photo 15 by Lance Cpl. Ryan Ramsammy)
