Corpsmen Moms and Dads

Camp Lejeune here and his 5 years is up mid year this year!  He's been accepted into Univ. of AL for Fall 2014 and plans to start as soon as he gets out!

Hello to all!

My daughter will be leaving for BC on Feb. 19. She is going in with the interest of being a Hospital Corpsmen. She did one year of college in a Surg. Tech. program and then took a biomed class at a community college. Her dream and vision is to be in the medical field and serve our great nation. I am so proud of her. Any other moms out there with sons/daughters in the interest of Hospital Corpsmen or have been thru the experience?

Tragic news.  We loss a FMT Corpsman, Kris Kolodzik yesterday from injuries sustained in a traffic accident in Highland, CA on Thursday, 01/09/2014 as a passenger in a truck with his twin brother.  The brother was not seriously injured.  Kris had completed his service three days before the accident.  Please pray for Kris and his family.  His father, Karl is a dear friend and needs our support.

Diane2222....I am so sorry.  Sending prayers.  Fair winds and following seas...

So sad; prayers for peace for his family and loved ones.

Leach - Please come join moms of future corpsmen in our group for Hospital Corps A School - http://navyformoms.com/group/hmhospitalcorpsmanaschoolinsanantonio - be sure to introduce yourself!  

NavyMama23,

You might want to look at the basic training site:

http://navyformoms.com/group/pirreferenceinformation

Welcome NavyMama23!  Please join other moms of future corpsmen in this group for the "A" school your son will attend after bootcamp; lots to learn about!  HM (Hospital Corps) A School in San Antonio   

Diana.. so sorry to hear.. will keep his family in our prayers.  

Any family members of newly graduated FMTB corpsmen (Dec 2013) here?  My son told me that they received four of the new grads at Area 21 Clinic (it is right by FMTB).

Reason I am asking this is that my son like to help new corpsmen learn new procedures.

Hi, IDCmom#1-    My corpsman just graduated in December from the Camp Pendelton FMTB.  He is currently at the headquarters taking more classes that are only done once every 2 years for corpsmen in the San Diego and 29 Palms area.  He is waiting for orders to where on Camp Pendleton that he will go next.   He has 2 years of hospital experience in Jacksonville, FL.   

Me too!  What a good looking couple, by the way - or should I say, of course!  ;)

I liked as well Kathy!!!!

Yay!!! 

Velvetlace, wonder where he will end up after the class.  If he ends up in
Area 21 Clinic, let me know.  I'm sure my son would like experienced corpsmen and not just newbies.

IDCmom-  My corpsman has not received his assignment yet.  I will let you know  if he is assigned to Area 21 Clinic.  I am sure he would love it if he were assigned to a clinic.

For anyone who lives within two hours of JBSA - Lackland in San Antonio, TX - want to foster a future Military Working Dog?  25 puppies need homes for seven months!  https://www.facebook.com/DoDMWDBreedingProgram

Hello to all the Navy Moms

I don't come on the site as often as I'd like to but when I do, I'm glad to see new things that help me learn more about the military life and what to expect.

My daugther leaves for BC on Feb. 19th. We are from the Chicago area so thankfully she doesn't have to take a flight or bus in from another state.

That date is coming up soon and with just a few weekends to go, I'd like to plan a little going away party for close family.

Any ideas? suggestions? Thanks in advance for your responses.

Welcome Leach73!  We have a group for Hospital Corps A School that's great for you right now too - http://navyformoms.com/group/hmhospitalcorpsmanaschoolinsanantonio

The party sounds like fun!  Since they can't take anything to BC, one thought is to plan ahead for A school and get her a Visa gift card for buying incidentals at the Exchange when she arrives in San Antonio.  You can give it to her at graduation or mail it.   As for party ideas, I found this :)  http://www.pinterest.com/melsmark/party-medical-theme/   I love the thermometer pretzel sticks and all the skeleton stuff LOL 

Kathy....YOU ARE AWESOME!!! Thanks.  I will be here as it gets closer to his time to leave.  Starting to save for my visit!

Mine is at Camp Pendleton

Thanks, Dina-Gay.  As it gets closer, I know I will have lots of questions!

Greetings to all!

I come to N4Ms to look for answers and encouragement. It is like a life-line for me right now. My daughter is leaving for BC on Feb. 19th.

I have a question for all of you seasoned parents...hope I explain it well:

She signed and swore in back in early November after waiting a year and 8 months after her initial visit to the recruiter. At that meeting her father and I were with her and asked a million questions and I am thankful that the recruiter was patient and very understanding. Well, that recruiter ended up leaving and a new one took his place. My daughter's plan was to go in to do something in the medical field and come in to the Navy for the hospital corpsman group. She did her freshman year of college and was in a surg. tech. program but came home after her first year because she thought she was going to go to BC in summer of 2013...well, other things came up and then she finally signed and swore in in November 2013. At the time of her signing-in, she was told she would have to wait til JUne 0f 2014 to go in for the hospital corpsman opportunity. The person at MEPS told her about the PACT program and so as to not wait, she signed in with that. Initially she was under the impression that thiswould give her a hands-on feel for the corpsman and she said that is what she understood and that it was better to get into BC now instead of waiting til June. Her dream is to serve God and serve humanity and our country. I am hoping that she will be able to fulfill her goals in the Navy and not be disappointed doing something else that she didnt want to do because she had no choice.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? has anyone's child gone thru the PACT program?

thanks in advance for your time and attention and support!

Leach73...My son has been a Corpsman for about 18 months now.  He had the same opinion as carfruit's son did.  My son was in DEP about 7 months waiting for an opening in the Corpsman A school.  He was also told NOT to go in without the rate (job) he wanted.  He would've waited longer if he had had to do so.

CNN has a segment today featuring USS Iwo Jima, topic Sailor health and disease prevention. The US Navy Surgeon General is interviewed. Today at 4:30pm EST and Sunday 7:30am EST. Love our LHD corpsmen!

Thanks, Marcy!  Gotta ask...LHD?

OK Dramasoul, here goes!  As I've come to know about and visit these ships, I find them fascinating.  First - Landing Helicopter Dock is the Navy's classification for the largest of its amphibious warships.

At 844 feet long, the LHD is second in size only to aircraft carriers (1,092 feet).   While the aircraft carrier is single-use, the LHD is multi-dimensional.  She carries jets and helicopters (29 in all), and in addition to her crew of 1,000, she can carry and deliver up to 2,000 Marines to land, including their vehicles and equipment.

But what's really cool are the LHD's extensive medical capabilities that makes this amphibious assault ship also the choice for providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.  In such a mission, an LHD can not only transport people, deliver food and make drinkable water, the medical crew  (including some two dozen ship's-company hospital corpsmen) can provide top-level medical care in the onboard facility that includes operating rooms, x-ray facilities, a blood bank, laboratories, and patient wards.  In a catastrophic event, the hangar bay and flight deck can act as an overflow triage area.

As an example, following Hurricane Katrina the Iwo Jima was used as a command and control platform and as a hospital for those who could not get to area hospitals; and its search and rescue efforts lifted 3,400 people from rooftops, rescuing them from rising waters.  These ships are called upon in rotation with USNS Comfort and Mercy for the humanitarian missions Pacific Promise and Continuing Promise.  

When he was part of a Fleet Surgical Team, my son took part in Continuing Promise 2010, when USS Iwo Jima visited eight countries in four months, providing medical care - over 160,000 medical, dental and optometry services!

Since then I've been so fortunate to tour the Iwo, including viewing the enormous 'well deck' than can fill with seawater for the amazing landing craft), and visit the medical departments on the Wasp and the Bataan.

 If you can't tell by now, I really am fascinated by these ships - they truly inspire the word "awesome"!  :)   

Marcy...WOW!!!

I think an LHD was used in "Capt. Phillips".  At least it looked like the Iwo Jima. 

I love that they are used for humanitarian missions....

Thanks Marcy! YOU ROCK!!!

You're exactly right!  He was flown from the destroyer Bainbridge to USS Boxer (LHD-4).  And you probably know that the corpsman (HM2 Danielle Albert) in the movie is the actual corpsman who treated him.  That scene wasn't part of the movie's original script and they winged it in a couple of takes.  There is a great interview on NPR with Tom Hanks and the director, and they talk about that at the very end.

The Navy has eight LHDs.  Here are their homeports:  USS Wasp, USS Bataan, and USS Iwo Jima in Norfolk Virginia; USS Boxer, USS Bonhomme Richard, and USS Makin Island in San Diego CA; and USS Essex in Sasebo Japan.

Each LHD has two smaller transport ships that make up its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).  In fact, the three-ship Bataan ARG departed Norfolk just today for an eight-month deployment.  The Iwo ARG is moving its homeport to Mayport Florida this year.

Marcy, I saw it! Both the film and the NPR interview.  I saw the film with my son when he was home on leave for Thanksgivukkah.  It was an unbelievable experience to share it with him and then to spend time afterward talking about it.  I had read about HM2 Albert as well.  He told me about the ship but I didn't realize they are called LHD's. 

I read about the Bataan ARG departing online.  Pretty amazing.

I think that was my son's first choice for his next orders...to be on an LHD. It wasn't available soooo....you know where he will be going!

With the recent Norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships, CNN's Sanjay Gupta asks why Navy Sailors don't get sick.  Great story that aired February 8 and features the Medical Department on USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7)!  Can you say 'prevmed'?  :)  

Here's a great link to save and share - an interactive map of the Navy's major bases in the continental U.S., plus a list of ship homeports.  Clicking on the name takes you to the website for that location.  Navy facilities in the U.S. - interactive map.

Marcy, thank you for providing the link to Navy bases.  I didn't realize there were so few navy bases.  My husband told me a few of these bases are pretty much closed down. 

My son starts looking for "sea duty" orders next month for December PCS.  Because he is an IDC, his choices get even more limited.  Would be wonderful if mothers could do the selecting, especially now that we know our third grandchild is on the way in October.

Okay Marcy, let's get down to brass tacks...the important stuff.

Where are the NavEx with good Corpsman gear? I need to get a new hat and a Tee would be nice.

:-)))

The biggest and best N/EX is in Norfolk VA (love shopping there, just ask my son LOL) but the shirts and hats are mostly generic Navy.  Better to browse http://www.zazzle.com/corpsman+gifts and http://www.cafepress.com/+corpsman+gifts for designs you like.  And this is a former corpsman with some cool designs; I like his "signature" corpsman shirt. He donates 10% to corpsman groups too - https://www.facebook.com/FlexAbiliTees. 

Thanks Miss Marcy. As always, you do not disappoint. That is very gracious of you to volunteer to shop for me the next time you go to Norfolk. I am overwhelmed, actually.

Also, you are right. The former Corpsman's shirts are the bomb.

But of course Bob!  Unfortunately my corpsman is 6,000 miles away, doesn't help me a bit right now.  Hey wait - your son goes home on weekends, and you have the N/EX right there in San Diego…come to think of it, I need a few things LOL  Seriously, what is the N/EX like there?  The one in Norfolk is two story, like walking into Macy's meets Best Buy plus the uniform store, the food court, barber shop, beauty salon, and attached commissary.

Marcy, I could not, am not ready to solo on this. I will have to wait until the next time you come to San Diego, I guess. You can teach all you know.

PS My son doesn't come home every weekend...only about every three weekends now. ;-)

For anyone in SoCal, Gary Sinese and the Lt. Dan Band ("Honor. Gratitude. Rock & Roll") will be appearing at the Riverside County Fair on Feb 17!  http://www.ltdanband.com

Anyone have Corpsman in SD?

No, it's not your eyes ;)  NavyforMoms.com has undergone a makeover, unfortunately not for the best I think, unless you love scrolling.  Here's their statement from last week.  

NavyforMoms.com is produced by the Lowe Campbell Ewald advertising agency, and they've been planning this update for some months.  

Send your feedback about the new version to the current admin there (Tiffany) at navyformoms@gmail.com.