40. HISTORY OF THE HOSPITAL CORPS

Portions of the following paragraphs were derived from the section sub-titled, “The U.S. Navy Hospital Corps: A Century of Tradition, Valor, and Sacrifice” of History of the Hospital Corps by HMCS (FMF) Mark T. Hacala, USNR. It is an excellent rendition that takes the history from 1775 to 1998.

In the Revolutionary War Navy, a place later to be called a “Sickbay,” was established by the “Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies of North America” of 1775. Article 16 required:

“A convenient place shall be set apart for sick or hurt men, to be moved with their hammocks and bedding when the surgeon shall advise the same to be necessary, and some of the crew shall be appointed to attend to and serve them and to keep the place clean. The cooper [barrel-maker] shall make buckets with covers and cradles if necessary for their use.”

(A nice comfortable cradle of wood must have been pure delight for a sick or wounded man.)

Such names as “Loblolly Boy,” “Surgeon’s Mate,” “Surgeon’s Steward,” “Nurse,” “Baymen,” “Apothecary,” “Hospital Apprentice,” and “Pharmacist Mate,” were used down through the centuries before arriving at the present-day titles. The first graduate “Hospital Corpsman,” to join the fleet, was in December, 1902. Assignment to the Marines was nothing new. They had been in medical support whenever marines went ashore as landing parties or occupational forces. In one title or another, they have fought in every skirmish, police action, invasion, or war that has come along, at sea or ashore, on the ships, in the air, on submarines and Fleet Marine Forces. On occasion, they have given medical support to the Army, Air Force, Merchant Marine, and Coast Guard, not forgetting to mention, civilian inhabitants of their many places of deployment. They have been wounded, killed, captured, tortured, gassed, bombed, shot at, starved, frozen and otherwise exposed to unpleasant circumstances since being given the responsibility for the medical care of their comrades. Of the Korean War, the article states, “Although only one Marine Division was involved in the war, the Hospital Corps lost 108 killed in action.”

Disproportionate to their numbers was their heroism. In Korea, hospital corpsmen earned 281 Bronze Star Medals, 113 Silver Star Medals, and 23 Navy Crosses. All 5 enlisted Navy Medals of Honor were awarded to Navy hospital corpsmen serving with the Marines. Then HM3, William R. Charette, USN, was the only corpsman during the Korean War who was awarded the Medal of Honor and lived to receive it.