Our Commander In Chief Doesn’t Know How to Pronounce Corpsman
By Bronwyn's Harbor on February 5, 2010 at 10:15 AM in Current Affairs
President Obama mispronounced the word corpsman THREE TIMES (!) at the National Prayer Breakfast. Many are excusing him for his over-dependence on a teleprompter. Come on. Anyone who knows how the word is pronounced properly — particularly the Commander in Chief of all U.S. military — will also know how to read it from a teleprompter. Furthermore, doesn’t Obama know that it is Navy corpsmen, often at the highest risk on battlefields and who suffer the most deaths in the Navy? Does Obama know that 22 Navy corpsmen have received the Medal of Honor, most posthumously? I couldn’t find complete stats on Iraq and Afghanistan, but here’s a 2007 figure of the number who’ve died in Iraq:
Through mid-July, 82 Navy service members have perished in Iraq, most assigned to specialties such as Navy SEALs, pilots and corpsmen duties, according to Defense Department statistics.
Moore said that Noble is the 30th medical corpsman to be killed [as of July 2007] in Iraq.
BELOW you will find “Sailor medics earn high respect,” a moving tribute to the corpsmen who’ve given their lives:
Today’s corpsmen must be appalled that their Commander doesn’t even know how to pronounce their title.
Here’s an exceptional article, from Corpsman.com, that details the contributions of Navy corpsmen:
Sailor medics earn high respect
By Ron Martz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionNaval Station Great Lakes, Ill. They are among the most respected members of the military.
They also are among the most at risk.
They are Navy corpsmen, medics who treat both their fellow sailors and Marines.
Known affectionately as “Doc” by those who serve with them, these sailors can often mean the difference between life and death on the battlefield and on ships.
And, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, the demand for them is increasing, as is the respect for what they do.
“Sometimes when I see people [on base] I hear them say: ‘Don’t mess with her, she’s a corpsman; she could save your life some day,’ ” said Seaman Recruit Ranaujua Bonner, 18, of Atlanta, who is training to be a corpsman.
For Seaman Recruit David Styles of Kennesaw, who has volunteered to serve with the Marines, “there’s a certain level of respect and professionalism that people give you as a corpsman.”
Styles, 18, has six more weeks of training here before he ships out to a Marine base for advanced medical training. After that, it’s likely off to Iraq to serve with a ground combat unit where he will be the first responder in any battlefield emergency in his unit.
And that often puts those who help the wounded more at risk because insurgents in Iraq have been known to target corpsmen and Army medics.
Navy officials here did not have the exact number of corpsman deaths in Iraq. But the Web site icasualties.org lists at least 15 corpsmen among the 59 Navy deaths in the war.
During the 10 years of Vietnam, 692 Navy corpsmen died.
“I’m not that worried about it,” said Styles, a graduate of Paulding County High School. “I’ll help as much as I can, support the Marines and do the job to the best of my ability.”
Hospitalman Craig Pasanen of Orange Park, Fla., an instructor at the Navy Corps School here, said that last year about 3,500 sailors went through the school.
By the end of this year, about 4,800 more sailors will become corpsmen.
During peacetime, about 45 Navy corpsmen are assigned to a battalion of about 750 Marines. During wartime, that number jumps to 65.
Still, said Pasanen, “It’s not a lot. These guys are expected to take care of 30-50 Marines by themselves.”
Navy Capt. Mary Kolar, chief of staff for the Naval Service Training Command here, said those who volunteer or those who are selected to be corpsmen typically have some of the highest scores on the military entrance exam.
What once was a 14-week course for corpsmen has been compressed to about 10, with participants learning basic emergency medical training, Pasanen said.
After training, those who plan to serve with the Marines go to either Camp Lejeune, N.C., or Camp Pendleton, Calif., for more advanced training in combat medicine.
“Emergency medicine on the battlefield is a lot different than what we teach here,” Pasanen said.
Hospitalman Marcus Williamson, 23, of Carrollton said it’s tough to absorb the amount of information corpsmen-in-training have thrown at them in school.
But, he added, “one of the things they teach us is to be confident in everything we’re doing.”
Williamson’s first duty station after completing training will be at one of the Navy facilities in Jacksonville.
Bonner, a Mundy’s Mill High School graduate, does not know where she will be sent, but it won’t be into combat since corpsmen who serve with the Marines are all males. While in the Navy, she expects to be a lab technician.
In addition to the medical training, corpsmen receive heavy doses of the history and traditions of this special branch, which was formally started in 1898.
Since then, Navy corpsmen have been awarded 22 Medals of Honor for heroism in combat, most of them posthumously.
And, they count among their ranks John Bradley, the only non-Marine among the six men who planted the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the World War II battle on Iwo Jima, currently the subject of the movie “Flags of Our Fathers.”
“They teach us to have a lot of pride in what we do,” Styles said, “because we represent all the other corpsmen who served before us.”
__________________
Combat Medics–God’s gift to the Infantry
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
