Comments

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  Joshua Alexander, MBA September 13, 2010 at 11:04am

  When I first got out I went back into EMS which is what I did prior to coming in. But over the years I got burned out and switched to going to school for business and now own a business and internet consulting firm in Chicago.
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  M E Leclerc September 13, 2010 at 7:03am

  My last medical job was in a tumor registry and health records. I had given up clinial; just didn't seem the same. I went into technical writing and law enforcement but that was long ago.
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  Jeremy Herrera September 13, 2010 at 12:44am

  After getting to Great Lakes NavHos as my last command I didn't touch another patient. They put me in the Facilities Management Dept. to run the motor pool. From there I went into the IT Dept. because of self teaching myself computers and web design. So when I got out I was able to cross over to IT. I will admit that there are times I really miss the medicine experience...
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  Randall Keith Hunter September 13, 2010 at 12:36am

  I stayed in medicine, I've kept my EMT certs up and am still a Firefighter/EMT. I retired in '94. And yes, sometimes it's still a shock at what I'm not 'allowed' to do that I did while on active duty. It usually hits me when I'm working a trauma call.
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  David Freeman September 12, 2010 at 10:41pm

  Did any of you guys (gals) stay in medicine after getting out? It was a total culture shock what we were allowed to do but as a civilian with anything less than an MD we would be fired for.
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  Steven D. Kyle June 11, 2010 at 10:32am

  Corps school NRMC Balboa, San Diego, 1974 ... NRMC Yokosuka, Japan 1974-1976 ... Area Clinic 43 Camp Pendelton, CA 1977 ... NAS Miramar, Fightertown, USA APTU 1977-1979.
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  Jeremy Herrera February 18, 2010 at 12:45pm

  If my memory serves me right, They kept issuing the NDM until about 1997 0r 1998 while I was stationed at Great Mistakes Nav Hos. My friend and I used to question the new HM's when we had a chance to use their services while wait for orders about it and most had no clue as to why they were getting it.
  
  I will have to say that is some respect it probably wasn't the best for them to send fresh quad "0"s to us before sending them to FMF School. I remember getting cut by a tri-wall box and one of them about to freak out because I grabbed a roll of electrical tape and a tissue to make a make shape band-aid. That poor boy kept telling me he would go to the ER and get a band-aid for me.
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  Michael J Sanchez July 28, 2009 at 10:30pm

  I was being funny, Doc...the Marines used to call the National Defense ribbon the "Fire Watch Ribbon," because all you had to do to get it was join and stand fire watch. It was a joke in the platoon.
  The other day I was talking with a high school friend whom I've not seen since '71 and we were catching up...I got to talking about the times overseas and I realized how much responsibility I had at 20 yrs old...more than I've ever had since, I guess, now that I think of it.
  Like The Boss sings, "Glory Days, well, they'll pass you by..."
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  Joshua Alexander, MBA July 28, 2009 at 4:58pm

  They never had firewatch badges when I was in. They did have combat action if that's what's your referring to. National defense is still in play.
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  Joshua Alexander, MBA July 28, 2009 at 4:57pm

  No FMF for me I was sent to the Blue side before hand. They lost my Field Med School paperwork by the time I was able to prove I had it and looking to go back to the green side the blue side had discharged me on medical for ADHD. With the Marines the ADHD meant I could keep up the Blue side thought I was too hyper. Because they didn't want to work. I actually had a HMCS that put a petroleum gauze on an open wound. We butted heads because I was originally green side and he was a bubblehead.