Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Unsung Heroes: U.S. Navy Corpsmen” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/unsung-heroes-us-navy-corpsmen/.
Unsung Heroes: U.S. Navy Corpsmen
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
My dad would have liked this story. He was an army combat medic during Korea. His mom signed is papers at 17 so he could join. He was lucky enough to never have seen combat and was stationed in Trieste for his time. I think those were the best year's of his life. He talked about them until he died.
blues_hawk
Operator
I had to log in the minute I saw this! That's my dad! 2 tours with the CB's in Vietnam and many years of service from x-ray tech to medical repair to founding a volunteer rescue Squad to RN in civilian life.
blues_hawk
Operator
I left out a bit that I kept thinking about. My dad got out after 20 years, and never made chief because he was a corpsman attached to Marines so his overseas duty did not count as sea duty in the eyes of the gorm refusing it. Meanwhile I delivered papers to officers housing walking past BMW, mercedes, Opel and Jaguar e-types to help get by.
Unsung heroes indeed.
Last edited:
bruce.sawyer
Alpha
I wish there had been just a tiny bit more info about this story of Doc Giese's last day in the field. I was platoon commander for 2nd platoon, H/2/3 in July 1968. On the 4th we were dug in along the Cua Viet, but then moved out the next day. On July 7, we went up to the last of a series of sand dunes just in from the ocean and only a couple of clicks south of the Song Ben Hai. It was part of a division-wide operation--obviously the same one referenced in this article. We waited while the New Jersey fired 16" shells over our heads towards something well inland. Finally, we got the order to move out, down the western slope of the dunes to a valley below and then south toward a "deserted" village. 1st Plt. was on point, and they ran right into an L-shaped ambush. My platoon came up and engaged the NVA who were holed up in the village. This went on for a couple of hours, and then we somehow discovered that the NVA had slipped out and we were now shooting at G/2/3, which had moved in on the village from the other side. About that time we started taking incoming rocket fire, and it was murderous. We were out in the open so there was nothing we could do but run through it. I was lucky and never got hit, but my corpsman, Doc Royall, went down. We picked him up and carried him through the rocket fire and back over to the base of the dunes. Then we started stripping him down to try to find out why he was turning blue. There was layer after layer of bandoleers around his chest and it felt like it took forever to get his shirt off. Then we saw it: a tiny little pinhole wound in his chest, and his lungs were nearly collapsed. We plugged it with plastic and gave CPR while we waited for a medevac. Doc Royall died on the medevac on his way south to Dong Ha. RIP, Leslie W. Royall III, HN, US Navy. He is on the wall in Panel 53W, line 39. As I said, this story sounded like the same place and same time, so I can't help but wonder if Doc Giese was in my battalion. The name is vaguely familiar.
Lost one of my best friends on 23 Dec 1969. Doc Will Johnson. We were his Marines! Semper Fi bro!Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Unsung Heroes: U.S. Navy Corpsmen” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/unsung-heroes-us-navy-corpsmen/.
Proud Devil Doc here. This brings back a lot of memories, both good and bad. The article reads true for most Corpsmen. These aren’t just Marines, Leathernecks, Jarheads or crayon eaters, they are MY Marines, Leathernecks, Jarheads or crayon eaters! I was THEIR Doc. Anybody tries to hurt them, deals with ME first! I’m proud to say that MY Marines felt the same (we proved it to each other countless times). Oorah, Marines!
John Wayne
Operator
We are sure fortunate and blessed to have good men like these!