Corpsman Moms

Halia, my son was at GTMO.  Am sending you friend request.

MichelleC-My son has been stationed in Okinawa since January.  He is doing very well.  Really enjoying his duty station.  He has met a great group of friends.  Time zone is a bit trickey but when I can communicate I do it around 730 am or 9-11pm.  My son is not one reach out so I have to be the one to initiate our conversations.  Good luck to your sailor.  My son is working in an outpatient clinic not really doing much medical work. He is a paper pusher right now.  He said he can post for another assignment next year.  He is hoping to get to the Naval Hospital to do more pyschiatric work.  He is a Psych Tech. 

Going to post this here and at Corpsmen Moms and Dads.

I having been living an "ostrich" life recently.  If you put your head deep enough in the sand, you can pretend things are not happening!  Well, that didn't work.

My son did not go on the USNS Mercy deployment because he was ill.  I naively thought that meant no more being called for deployment while on shore duty.  Not so, said the little Navy bird.   He now has orders for Africa.  Goes to SC for combat training first and then off he goes for six months.  Don't know what his mission will be there but know there are several IDC slots there.  All we can do is pray and hope the time goes by quickly.  I guess only two deployments in almost nine years is not bad.

Because my d-i-l is still deployed, I will be taking my granddaughter back home with me.  Just miss my family too much to stay here at Camp Pendleton any longer.  Granddaughter lived with us while her parents were in IDC school so she calls it her "Florida home" and she will go back to the same preschool where she knows the people and they love her.  Won't be quite as easy because my daughter has finished nursing school and moved out.  It was nice to just send sweetie pie downstairs to auntie's room at the crack of dawn!  Thank goodness my husband retires in December so he can get up early!     

Docsmom,

Sorry to hear that Doc is being deployed to distant shores.  I can hardly blame you for being ready to go home, and I'm sure the little girl will be fine with staying in her "Florida home."  I would thank your son for his service, but I think you, too, deserve to be thanked for your service.  All the Navy Grandmas who fill in for parents far from home are doing their part for the country too.  I will keep your family in my prayers.

Docsmom, Sorry to hear that he will be deployed so far away. Bravo to you for being there to help take care of your granddaughter. You deserve a great big thank you for your service. I am facing deployment of my son too. He won't be leaving until January though. He is going with a Marine artillary unit. I am proud of him but scared to death at the same time. It is hard to let them go. Here's to your son and daughter in law returning home safe and sound.

Barbie, which clinic?  I think there are three there.  My son was at one and my daughter-in-law was at a supply battalion (I think that was what it was). 

I was not crazy about their assignment in Virginia; just seemed too crowded to me. But my darling granddaughter was born at Portsmouth Naval Hospital so that makes it special to me!  

Just dropped my son off at the airport for his flight to Hawaii.  He'll be working in a clinic in Hawaii for the next two years.  I am so proud of him!

I'm pretty new to this group and enjoy hearing your stories.  I'm waiting for my son to get home from North Carolina before checking in at Pentleton next week but in a hold pattern due to flight delays at the airport.  Looking forward to his being near for the next few months. 

Hi everyone. N4M has so many places to get information that I can't remember where I read things! I'm hoping you can help me. My son's PIR is 7/27 then off to A school. Someone recommended an EMT book that was great preparation for them. Was it one of you? What was the title of the book and author? I'd LOVE to get a copy of it! Can anyone point me in the right direction?

My son finished MEPS and is on the DEP. He changed his rate from Damage Controlman to Hospital Corpsman.  Does anyone know where the "A" school is ?

Matt's Mom...Corpsman A-school is in San Antonio at Fort Sam Houston...it is a joint services school with the Air Force.

Hi, Matt's mom, if you look above the discussion area on this page, there is a list of websites with info about the Corpsman program. The link to METC will give you a lot of info about the A school in San Antonio. All branches of the military train their medical personnel there. Welcome !

Thanks for the info TexasDocMom and Cindylou61.  I have a few months to enjoy with him.  He doesn't leave for boot camp until February 28.  I will definately enjoy the holidays and his birthday this year.  I will check out the link to METC.

Welcome Sandy.  Before he goes to boot, join Bootcamp moms as well.  Wonderful information and support.  Once he is there and finds out what group he is in, search for and start a discussion that that group and you will make friendships with Moms and sailors that will last forever.  We are all here for you.

Hi Matt's Mom,
Welcome, They train all branches of the military as Corpsman in San Antonio, TX. If you get a chance to go visit you will love it. Do the River Walk we took a boat ride and it was wonderful when our son was in A School I came for his graduation. He is now in Japan and loving it. He got to go out with the Marines and cover them while they blew up stuff EOD's I think he called it. I don't know why boys like to do those kinds of things they just do, but it sure does make we mom's nervous. Blessings to you.

my Son will be leaving 12.12.12 for Boot Camp, we are a Texas family, so excited that his A school will be in San Antonio, only 2 hours down the road from us!  I have an older son Stationed in Guam right now, he is a HT2.  My husband, our Dads and Grandfathers were also in the Navy, I have a Son at Texas A&M in the NROTC program right now, he will be a Soph and is in the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, and a Son who is a senior this year, trying to decide on tech school or Navy.  So excited to be on N4M again, it was a huge help when my oldest joined 4 yrs ago!

Thanks Tamme and CDMom, I will check out Bootcamp Moms.  He has talked about this for months and finally went to MEPS and is on the DEP.  I have until February to enjoy being with him.  I am going to make the most of the holidays this year.  I know the closer he gets to his date to leave the more of a mess I will be.  But, I am very proud of him and support him in every way I know.  Thank you both for your support.

Where is the USS Nimitz headed?

If someone has the answer to Janice's question, it should probably go in a private message.

Thanks, Ruth.

I want to scream, but I don’t know who to scream at so I’ll vent my frustration here.  I just got done talking to my sailor, the moving company the military contracted with to move his personal belongs, stole over $1,000 of his personal belongs.  All of his game consoles, hand held games, CD games , CD movies, CD music, along with other stuff.  He said all of his boxes had been opened, and the stuff was just thrown into a different box.  He talked to his LPO about it and his LPO’s response was, “The same thing happened to me.  You just need to file a claim.” Really!!!!!!!  Why is the military still using this company?  It’s perfectly acceptable for the military to tolerate this kind of personal violation? This situation is totally un-necessary, and just adding additional stress to my sailor who is already trying to find his way around a new base, and learn his new job.  Thanks for reading my rant, I still don’t feel any better.

ONE THOUSAND MEMBERS!!  That's a lot of Corpsman Moms - a Navy family I'm very proud to be a part of.  

Ohmygosh! I hadn't seen that!! we're kickin' butt!!

I saw 999 yesterday and thought, hmm, here we go!  You've done a great job compiling so much good information, as well as providing a forum for support for each other.  

Bravo Zulu TDM!!   :)

Thank you...BUT...I came on board here after another mom started this group! this group helped me and Inga, and other corpsmen moms get our heads around our children's Navy career as much then as it does now. I took over as admin a couple of years ago to make sure this board stayed up, and to insure that every mom had a group that would be a good fit for her (there are several groups for corpsmen's moms here on N4M), and to try to keep links up to help each of us find our way. This group belongs to ALL of us who contribute to it, and to each of us who has questions or fears or laughs about a corpman finding his/her way. 1000!! that's just cool!

Awesome!  Love this forum.  I've seen the others and they just weren't for me. 

Navy Corpsman Receives Bronze Star  okay, they called him a Navy Nurse, but we all know he's a freakin' corpsman and he's running a unit as well...there is a reason corpsmen are the most decorated service members in the military and this man is one of them. He stepped up when he could have sent someone else in, but he wasn't sending his corpsmen in where he wouldn't go himself. It's the little things that helps a corpsman's mom to sleep at night, knowing they have good leaders.

Since he's a Lt Cmdr he's probably both a corpsman and a nurse

Probably but they're all called Docs over there... brave man, whatever it is they call him!

Um, in the last paragraph he's quoted as saying, "I'm a nurse." So he is a nurse!  I saw this story a few months back on CNN - just awesome, way to go!

Thank you for the correction. Next time I'll do it on one of the days I'm allowed to have coffee and save my screw ups for my other group. thanks again.

Haha it's just cause I was on the phone and reading through it, plus I saw if before.  Plus our corpsmen are doing such awesome stuff every day we're used to it :)  I met a Navy reserves nurse last month who had just gotten back the night before from eight months in the sandbox (hospital at Kandahar).  The super-high regard she had for our corpsmen and their work that she saw was so wonderful to hear about!

You know that your sons job is when admiral tells you your son is the mvp of the Navy.

I worry about my moms with kids in war zones if they stumble on that show, they can barely watch the news much less people playing at war. What do the families of Marines, soldiers, sailors in war zones tell their small children about that show? None of those people will die, or be injured for a life time, it's a game show, and I cannot believe it's on the air in the USA during a time of war. If those people want to be in a war, they need to go talk to a recruiter and enlist and put their money where their mouths are.

I am looking for any Mom who's son/daughter is or has been at Field Med Training at Camp LeJeune.  I seem to have been mis-informed or just misunderstood exactly what this was and I guess I am just needing to talk to someone.  Is anyone gone throught this or going through it now?

My son graduated Corpsman A-School yesterday and is headed to FMTB, but is going to Camp P in CA.  But I'm glad to share what I know.

Also, here is a link to the FMTB East web site...

http://www.marines.mil/unit/tecom/fmtbn-e/Pages/default.aspx

And here's the link to the Camp Lejeune group (it's also above) - http://www.navyformoms.com/group/CampLegueneMoms 

Please let me know if any of the links above are not working so we can put in good ones! I think there are N4M groups for each of those bases as well. My son was at Lajuene, but it was 8 years ago, altho I'm sure the basis of FMTB have not changed! 

bpa1955 - You have come to the right group : ) Cindy - Congrats to your son

Wow 1009 ! how awesome is that : )

bpa1955, I missed your post. I'm assuming you're talking about FMTB, Field Medical Training Battalion. I'm not sure how it is now, when my son came out of Corpsman School, he went to Camp Lajuene FMTB. At that time, almost every corpsman out of A school went through FMTB immediately following A School. FMTB trains them to serve "green side" with a Marine Battalion as opposed to staying "blueside" with the Navy. Thankfully, with only Afghanistan in the war zone mode at the moment for Marines, I think there are not as many training so quickly to serve with them. My son volunteered to go greenside...of course he neglected to tell his parents that until he was assigned to the 2/2.  Sneaky. 

Once they are serving with the Marines, and if they deploy, they earn an FMF pin. FMTB is training, FMF is a qualification

FMTB will bulk up your sailor. Now my son is out, I know he's working to stay fit so all of that muscle will not turn to fat. It's an intense course, but they love it. I'd get phone calls about how many IVs he hit in a helicopter and how cool it was when Marines went "down" in the heat and they took care of them...it's all new and they practice on their Marines. Those Marines love their corpsmen. 

Please take a look up above at the links there, there are a lot of answers for you, lots to read. And welcome!

And that reminds me of one more thing - FMTB (aka Field Med) students can be held back a class if they fail the Body Mass Index (BMI) assessment by more than 3%, or fail the initial physical fitness assessment.  If held back, they'll do Marine Corps PT three times a day, be put on a nutrition program, and run the risk of having their next orders changed.  So wise students show up in good shape and ready for push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and long hikes (four miles-plus) with heavy gear. 

With all that said, my son had a blast and wishes he could do it again!  :)

My son did too...and those phone calls were hilarious! Yep, my long lanky boy went to a well built man, with thighs like steel, running up and down hills with 250 lbs thrown over his shoulder for hours. I think those thighs are his concern now, he wants to bring them down slowly so they don't turn to flab.

Hey! Marcy~Corpsman Mom (now known as M~CM for short) has joined me as admin on this Corpsman's Mom's Group! I'm so thankful! 

My son wanted a Gerber...Gerber link  Now I've found them at the Airport shop, where all the confiscated knives, scissors, etc go at the baggage check. A lot cheaper!