Jordan Laser
Military History
Professor
7 May 2018

Corpsman

From the early 1700’s during the Revolutionary War to the modern combat in Afghanistan, Corpsman have served with marines, and on the ships with sailors like themselves. Corpsman work with a variety jobs and locations. From shore locations to ships at sea. Hospital corpsmen are frequently the only medical personnel available in many fleet or Marine units on extended deployment. In addition, corpsmen perform duties as assistants in the prevention and treatment of disease and/or injury and assist health care professionals in providing medical care to sailors, marines, and their families. The earliest form of the Hospital Corpsman was during the age of the Continental Navy. At the time the job of a Corpsman was to keep irons hot and buckets of sand for surgeons to do their amputations. Irons were for the purpose of closing lacerations caused by battle and sand was used to keep the surgeon from slipping on the bloodied floor. Navy medicine at the time consisted of only one article of the Rules and Regulations of the Navy during 1775. The article states “A convenient place shall be set apart for sick or hurt men, to be removed with their hammocks and bedding when the surgeon shall …show more content…
After the eight week course in North Carolina, the Corpsman goes through another intense 10 day course in Operation Emergency Medicine where they learn how to treat combat wounds that are both extreme and/or routine. The FMF Corpsman main priority towards his/her marines is to stabilize the marine who is wounded. The wounded marine needs to be stabilized so the medivac can get the wounded to a hospital in the “Golden Hour”. The golden hour consists of the first hour after a battlefield injury which is considered the most critical for successful emergency