Corpsman Moms

Lori.. glad to know your son is ok.. it is scary!  

Have any of you all joined your local Blue Star Moms?  It is a great support group. Our group dropped out of the BSM and started our own group called WWUG,, What Would You Give and we support local Vets and those serving now.  It is so awesome.. there are moms, grandmas and wives from every branch.  They usually try and pair us newbies up with someone more veterend in the same branch. 

Mamawalrus. . .do the Blue Star Moms have a website?  Where do I find information to join?

Tamme, you can check anysailor.com   anysoldier.com  anymarine.com for names and addresses of service personnel with lists of needs and wants of their units in war zones. Good for you! thanks!

psssst01 - my son did the same thing.  He joined and signed as a Corspman in September of his senior year.  He graduated and now leaves on August 3rd. 

This site is a great place to get information.  I have been on it since the beginning and really appreciate everything I read and learn.  It makes it easier when you know what to expect. 

Today I'd like to remind ALL loved ones of Navy corpsmen that this group is open to all, and that it doesn't matter a lick what faith your are or if you support a religious faith at all. We're Navy families, we step up for each of YOU, and we do not make one religious doctrine part of the requirements for participating in this group.

If there is ever any promotion of any kind,  be it commercial, political, religious doctrine, whatever that makes you uncomfortable, please do not hesitate to let me know either on this thread or by pm and we'll discuss it. It is critical that these support groups remain apolitical and without endorsing any religious doctrine. On Navy4Mom's site, we have all faiths, from Christian to Pagan to atheist, and all are welcome here.

Cathy, I did watch most of Combat Hospital...and I have to say I was torn...I like a good tv show, I was a MASH addict, but I think the humor side of MASH made it such a favorite AND the fact that the war they used for the show was in the past. This is maybe?? too current? so many of us can see our kids in those beds and on this board, see those medics bringing in severely injured soldiers and marines as our kids. On the other hand, it's a big concern to me that there is a large segment of America that pay no attention at all to the fact that our kids serve in warzones. and that needs to be pushed in front of their faces on any level.

Did I make any sense at all?

ABC, Mammawalrus...on Tuesday (at least last night).

Thanks for the info, mamawalrus! :)

Mari, thank you. I needed that today!

TexasDocMom-I compeletely understand that and when I post my prayers it is for all of us including myself, prayer never hurts it takes faith whether we believe or don't, either uplifting scriptures or quotes help everyone of us every day :)

Tenn-that is just RIDICULOUS. In our PIR group, one woman's friend made a comparison about sending your child off to college is the same as sending them off to boot camp. I completely disagree with that, but see how she could easily make that assumption not knowing how limited communication is at RTC. But being deployed and going off to college? Seriously?  You handled that situation a lot more gracefully that I would have. ;)

Mari-I agree. Even for non-believers, prayer can't hurt and sincerely hope it does not make anyone uncomfortable. I welcome folks from any religion (or lack thereof) with open arms. :)

Tenn Navy mom...we hear a lot about that comparison to college/boot camp/deployment thing in our group for those with deployed kids....I have to tell you, it made me crazy early on, but I've learned to be the rational one about it, usually. There is no comparison. I've had a kid leave for college and I've had a kid leave for Iraq and let me tell you, college was a piece of cake. You could still talk everyday on the phone and home on holidays. Well meaning people, I'm sure, but they don't get it. They just don't get it. The older women in my water aerobics class got it...bless them, they had been through a couple of wars, with husbands and brothers and sons....and they got it. They were so much support, just the hug and the touch on the shoulder, they knew. Sometimes I just wanted to say to those others "my son is in a country where people want to kill him because he's an American. Because he's blonde. Because he wears the uniform of a US Navy Corpsman. They don't know him, they don't want to...your kid is safe in the USA, there is no comparison."  The other ones that bug me are that seem to be convinced that the law of averages guarantees his safe return. Or that he could more easily be hit by a car here in Austin than injured while deployed. WTH?? To them, I simply ask "where is your child stationed?" ....and when they say their kids aren't in the military, I smile, very sweetly and say "I could tell." grrrr.

I don't know if that TV show will show enough of the real ways of war to stop that ignorance. Even some of the things new moms here say just can floor me. I feel so bad for them, truly believing that because this is the Navy, their child will not end up in a war zone. Having that hard time accepting that their child is rapidly becoming a military professional, maturing at a rate probably 100 times faster than his best friend that didn't enlist. Accepting things we view as hardships as part of every day life, part of doing the job.  And all we want is the ability to pick up a phone and talk to them on a regular basis...just to know they are safe and sound...see them in a facebook chat, or that they posted a status, and we know they are safe.

As to the scripture being posted, there are many groups on this board with that as their focus. This group is for the moms of corpsmen, apolitical and no single religious doctrine, please. I do not want one mom to come read this board and think that they will not be welcome because they are Jewish, or Bahia, or Muslim or Pagan, or practice whatever faith they have. We may be all that woman has to hold on to if she has a kid in Afghanistan and it's 3am.

docs mom...7 years as a Doc!! are you in our group for moms with kids deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan? we need every experienced voice there, especially those with a son like yours.

And the woman who would not "let" her son join the service! ha! we had a similar experience and really it comes down to this (and this is a corpsman's opinion too)...Do we want our kids serving next to anyone who relied totally on his mom "letting" him enlist? no. we don't! I know my son played me with the "I don't want to join the Marines, I want to join the Navy" and then volunteering as a greenside corpsman, the little sneak (and yes, son, I know you read this!) but he was old enough to enlist and did want my good wishes, but mainly, I think because we lost my nephew to brain injury that changed all of our lives....He also gave me the two years of college I asked for, so he went in at almost 21, and that was my goal. I knew he was going to enlist on 9/12/2001. He made it perfectly clear. Our young all volunteer military today are the ones who step up, and take on the world, just like our fathers and grandfathers did in WWII. I know that those good men would be so proud of this generation's military.

Can you give me more information on that ceremony? maybe I could make it there and get some photos...I'd love to see that new section of Fort Sam. 

TexasDocMom-Thank God we were made unique and different. Amen! I will definately keep him in my prayers.

Gnome-Hooyah! ;) July 2nd here we come! Go Navy!

Tenn Navy Mom

HOOYAH!!!

I'm a corpsman wife but I was just wondering if you ladies might know about the deployment schedule for HM. I read this on About.com: "Note: Enlisted sea shore flow career paths for the Hospital Corpsman community are dependent upon the sailor's specific NEC or specialty. Sailors in the HIM community can expect 36 month sea tours followed by 36 month shore tours except for those with NEC's that are shore-intensive. Those with operational extensive NEC's can expect longer sea tour lengths."

Does this really mean that he could be gone, on a ship, for three YEARS? Or is it more like that's the three year window in which he could be deployed at any time? Very curious and hoping for some help! Thank you!

NBC Nightly News did a story on a female Corpsman, it's been shared on FB...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43502640#43502640

NavyWife9. . .my husband is retired navy and spent 20 years as a submariner.  I don't know about surface ships, but each sub has two crews.  While one crew is out at sea the other crew is at the home port.  Generally speaking, the small attack subs go out on 30 days of sea duty and then come back into port, and the crews switch.  The larger "boomer" subs go out for six months then return to port and change crews.  That is how the 36 months of sea duty went, and then they also rotated back to 36 months of shore duty.  During my husband's shore duty he did such things as teach at the school in Conn., work in a recruiting station, train reserves, etc.

TennMom ~ another thing Moms who send their children off to college don't understand is we don't get to see our children very often.  My sailor has only been in for six months, but I have only seen him one time, and don't expect to see him again until his one year anniversay.  And even when I was talking to him about that he seemed hestitant to request a leave chit because he is anxious to complete his training.

I sometimes get the feeling here, as a "new" Mom, that since my son has not served our country for 5+ years, or been in a war zone, somehow his service is "lesser" and it really bugs me.  I am proud of my son, and the commitment he is making to our country and himself.  He is doing everything the Navy is asking him to do to the best of his ability, graduated BC an E3, graduated A school with honors, and is now studying his butt off in C school.  These are huge accompishments!

Karenmjm, there are no important jobs in the military, every single volunteer member of our military are important! At any given time, in a time of war, any of them can be pulled off of their job and sent to war zones. In the heat of the Iraq war, those guys manning those check points were not doing the job they trained for...needs of the military. And personally, anyone who can go into a sub and stay there for months has my undying admiration and gratitude because that would drive me stark raving mad.

Do those of us having greenside corpsmen in a war zone have experiences that perhaps moms with kids serving in ships/home bases do not? Yes. And we don't wish them on anyone. But if your son is a corpsman, he can end up in that war zone just as easily as ours do...and we'll be there for you as well. We discuss this more in our other group than here. I just like the new moms to understand that if they have a kid going into a corpsman rank, that kid has a good shot at being in combat at some point. I don't want anyone caught up in thinking that someway that the Navy cannot switch things on a dime, and send any of them to FMTB and then to a Marine unit.

And yes,  in the ebb and flow of a group that's been up this long, many of us have kids that have been in the Navy for many years, my son is on year 7, I think. And at the moment he's trying to decide if there will be a year 8, 9 and 10. We'll see! Sometimes this group is full of new moms, but the experienced moms come to advise and share, with your experience as a Navy wife, your voice will be invaluable!

Thank you, everyone!

Mark's Mom. . .there is a lot of pressure in A school to do well and a lot of information to learn.  I was amazed how much training our sailors are given in the 12 weeks of classroom instruction.  I found myself walking a thin line between wanting to know what and how my sailor was doing, and just allowing him to blow of steam when he was talking to me.  On top of everything Inga mention they are also assigned duties.  My sailor's favorite (NOT) was standing fire watch from zero hundred hours to 0400 and then having to be in class until 1600.

Hi everyone!  I haven't been on too much here lately, but have managed to read the last several pages and have to say there are so many good points made.  No matter what stage of their Navy career our Corpsman are in, they are all important.  There will come a time when our Corpsman (my son's been out of boot for a year now) will be the seasoned veterans and will pass on all the knowledge and skill taught to them by the current seasoned Corpsman's.  Such is life, right?

My question to the one's that have been at this longer, does the missing them ever get easier?  I know it comes and goes, but darn!!  My son's been in Italy for nearly six months now and I'm ready for a bear hug and a good laugh with my first born!  Yep, one of "those" days! 

Welcome to the group wamom!  I hear that term about it being a "calling" a lot from the one's that have chosen to become Corpsman.  And the medical profession in general.  I work with attorney's which is about as far from the medical profession as you can get!  ha, ha.... It's takes special people to be in education and medical professions in my opinion.  God bless them for doing what they do.