This book includes both Hospital Corpsman NAVEDTRA 14295 and the Advancement Handbook for Hospital Corpsman. The United States Navy training programs have long been the standard used as the pinnacle of training achievement. The Hospital Corpsman training program has been continuously tested and updated to successfully educate every member of the Navy Hospital Corps since its inception. The needs of the instructor, the student, the patient, and the Navy are perfectly balanced. This is the model all educators should follow when developing training programs.

"A US Navy Hospital Corpsman with a US Marine Corps Reconnaissance Patrol Team in the 1950's on covert Korean missions." I could add that "The five missions made by 'Doc Gentry' (assumed name for covert missions) with the Recon Patrols were all successful but, sadly, they suffered casualties on each mission."

"Corpsman Up" is the cry that echoes across the battlefield whenever a Marine is wounded in combat. The book tells the story of men at war from a unique perspective; that of a medical specialist assigned to a Marine combat platoon. It is 1969; Hospital Corpsman Mike Lombardo arrives in Vietnam determined to follow in the footsteps of his Dad and Grandfather in war. He quickly discovers there is nothing glamorous or heroic about war. Through Mike's eyes you go on a journey into a living hell and experience the thrills and horror of combat, the agony of the wounded and dead and see foxhole relationships develop between blacks and whites, farm boys and city kids. Experience the anguish, and concern with Mike, when friend after friend is wounded and he knows that their lives are in his hands and then wonders for the rest of his life if he did the right things.

Fought on almost every continent, World War II confronted American GIs with the unprecedented threats to life and health posed by combat on Arctic ice floes and African deserts, in steamy jungles and remote mountain villages, in the stratosphere and the depths of the sea.

Navy Medicine in Vietnam begins and ends with a humanitarian operation-the first, in 1954, after the French were defeated, when refugees fled to South Vietnam to escape from the communist regime in the North; and the second, in 1975, after the fall of Saigon and the final stage of America's exit that entailed a massive helicopter evacuation of American staff and selected Vietnamese and their families from South Vietnam. In both cases the Navy provided medical support to avert the spread of disease and tend to basic medical needs. Between those dates, 1954 and 1975, Navy medical personnel responded to the buildup and intensifying combat operations by taking a multipronged approach in treating casualties. Helicopter medical evacuations, triaging, and a system of moving casualties from short-term to long-term care meant higher rates of survival and targeted care. Poignant recollections of the medical personnel serving in Vietnam, recorded by author Jan Herman, historian of the Navy Medical Department, are a reminder of the great sacrifices these men and women made for their country and their patients.

The captivating individual stories of 17 U.S. Navy corpsmen who served in Vietnam, told in their own words. Their accounts relate why they joined the Navy in wartime, why they became corpsmen--the enlisted medical specialists of the Navy and Marine Corps--along with many day-to-day, sometimes minute-to-minute recollections of caring for both the wounded and the dead under fire. They also reflect on the long-term effects the war had on them and their families.