When the treaty was signed in 1973 to so call end the Vietnam war, the withdrawal by US forces took a few more years. My first year of active duty service, 1975, was mostly in training. After boot camp at NTC Orlando, I attended the Hospital Corps School at the US Naval School of Health Sciences, San Diego, Ca of which the command, the US Naval Medical Center, Balboa hospital, is the largest and most comprehensive Naval medical center in the world. In the months between the basic A school and the advanced training C school that I also attended there in 1976, I was put on rotation through all the departments in the hospital, seeing and caring for patients in the wards, such as SOQ (sick officers quarters); the dermatology ward; female surgical ward; orthopedic ward; the ER; ICU/CCU; general surgery ward; the eye, ear, nose and throat ward; proctology ward; enlisted general medicine ward; and others. There, the census of patients from the active duty ranks that we treated were mostly from the fleets and a huge number were post Vietnam casualties, sailors and Marines who were still cleaning up and evacuating that zone, or who were the wounded during the VN war. The helicopter pads at the Balboa hospital often looked like that of the air traffic volume at OHare with choppers landing and taking off around the clock, 24/7 bringing in the worst cases that had been medivac lifted out, directly from out of the field and/or off the ships. After the schools and training ended, I was transferred to serve active duty at the Naval Regional Medical Center (NRMC), Camp Lejeune, MCB, NC in the department of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology (EENT) clinics and OR. Having to also train, while there, in the Field Medical Service School (FMSS) with the Marines as required, too. There, at Camp Lejeune, the majority of active duty personnel that we cared for were USMC casualties. We also medically/surgically cared for the military retirees, dependents, civil service personnel, and active duty military personnel from the region serving at all nearby military commands of all branches of service; US Army, US Air Force, US Navy and US Coast Guard, as well. I spent the remainder of my active duty time at that duty station seeing and medically/surgically or assisting specialty MDs in treating patients, caring for a huge volume of trauma cases of eyes, ears, noses, and throats; everything from the shoulders up. After my honorable discharge, I left to attend UT Knox on the GI Bill, and I then returned and stayed for twelve more years as a civilian, living and working among the US Marines and Navy personnel in the town of Jacksonville, NC, home of Camp Lejeune. There is nowhere that one can get more experience or better training in medicine, whether as a medical doctor, RN, or as a paramedical professional, than that of the US Navy, in my opinion. The experiences gave me the initial training and education that provided me my living for more than twenty five years after my discharge from service and I am forever grateful to have served.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:25:09 +0000
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