What are some of the duties and risks a Navy Hospital Corpsman (HM) has to experience?

Question

I'm going to be a Hospital Corpsman for the US Navy and I understand there's a chance I may end up in Iraq helping out wounded Marines and such...

Aside from that, what are other things that HM get to do besides going to the battlefield?

What is the chance of getting sent to The War?

Answer 1

I'm a former Hospital Corpsman First Class...

The chances for going with the Marines are good. A lot of HM's go with the Fleet Marine Force...but not all. (I never did in 14 years)

You can go on all types of ships or subs

You can go with the Fleet Hospitals. (They are like a MASH but Navy)

A lot of Fleet Hospitals are set up for humanitarian reasons all over and to aid in disaster relief or to support ground forces.

You can support a Sea Bee unit.

You can go aviation. Medivacs. Sea Air Rescue

Some select few go to Camp David and assist with presidential duty...(Very few hand picked...I've meet one person who did this...he was a very squared away person.)

You can train and go with the SEALS. (That is tough duty...but the few who do it love it.)

You can work in a hospital on base...I did a lot of that. Right now as a civilian I work at a hospital and there isn't a lot of difference.  Many of hospitals are run with JCAHO and other regulations that are equal to civilian care. Some HMs hate hospitals, but I was one of the few who liked them...It really depends on your chain of command, I guess I was lucky and got good duty most of the time.

You can work at a Branch Clinic. These are most like doctor's offices and fall under a Hospital Command. They are all over the place. Sometimes bases are small and don't have a hospital so the clinic is where everyone goes to get medical care. I was at a few of those too. Good duty, a lot like a hospital but on a smaller scale.

You will likely have to learn EMT duty if you go to shore duty. Most HMs are EMTs when they get stationed at a Branch Clinic. I learned to drive an ambulance. I didn't like the driving part. I don't like driving big vehicles. But it is cool to go through traffic with lights and sirens.

You really get to do a lot of things. You can qualify on weapons, qualify to fast rope out of a helicopter, diving, land and sea rescue, and the list goes on and on.

HM is a very versatile rate. There is a lot you can do along the way. It depends on how "gung-ho" you are or want to be.

There are a lot of good C schools where you can specialize:

Pharmacy tech, X ray tech, lab tech, bio-med repair (repairing medical equipment), surgery tech (you can work in the OR), optometry tech (make glasses), psych tech (talk to crazies), dental tech (dental and corpsmen merged), preventive medicine tech (what I was...that is like the health dept.), and Independent duty (but you will have to wait on that until you make some rank...independent duty is where you work alone and treat illness and injury sometimes by your self)

There are other specialties I left off the list..(not on purpose, but there are a lot to choose from.)

HM is about the best rate in the Navy and it has the most advanced schools. HM's are at EVERY duty imaginable. HM's go everywhere. That is what I liked about it. When you get bored, you can change duty types when your rotation for orders come available. Most schools are fairly easy to get into. So you are picking a good rate.

Answer 2

It depends as a regular (blue side) Corpsman you will mostly be working on ships or in the hospitals and clinics on base. If you go Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Corpsman (Green side) you will be assigned to a Marine unit and serve were ever they do. Some people get to make this choice and some are sent straight out of A-School.

Good Luck to you.