Face of Defense: Navy Corpsman Serves on First Deployment

By Marine Corps Cpl. Mark Garcia

Regimental Combat Team 6

COMBAT OUTPOST SHIR GHAZAY, Afghanistan, Sept. 19, 2012 – As a senior in high school, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Ricky Lattimore decided to serve his country. One month after his May 2008 graduation, he was on his way to basic training.

Lattimore, a corpsman with Company B, 2nd Tank Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 6, said that after playing football and basketball in high school, he did not receive a scholarship to play sports in college. Unable to afford continuing his education, he enlisted in the Navy.

“After my senior year, I didn’t get a scholarship to play football or the chance to go to acting school,” said Lattimore, from Dublin, Ga. “My mom couldn’t afford to pay for it, so I had to figure out a plan to get out of there. At the same time, I had to get an education. One day I met a Navy recruiter who had stopped by my job. He asked me if I wanted to join the Navy, and I was all for it after that.”

Not wanting a manual labor job, Lattimore said, he decided to get a job in the Navy that would challenge him mentally.

“I didn’t want some kind of hard labor job. Instead I was looking for a job where I would need to work with my mind,” he said. “When they offered me the corpsman job, I thought it would be a challenge. I’ve always liked helping people out too, so what better way to do that than providing medical care? It seemed like the perfect job for me.”

As a corpsman, Lattimore has been able to work both as a “blue side” and “green side” corpsman. “Blue side” corpsmen primarily work with the Navy at military hospitals and clinics, while “green side” corpsmen work alongside Marines.

“I was blue side, and during that time I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, working at the naval hospital. I loved it out there -- the environment and the people were so nice,” Lattimore said. “After I was done, I had the choice to go on a ship or go green side. I didn’t want to really go on a ship, and getting the chance to work with Marines kind of intrigued me.”

Since coming over to the green side, Lattimore has been working with the Marines from 2nd Tank Battalion.

“I love tanks. I’ve gotten to learn a lot about them just from being stationed with them,” Lattimore said. “Being with tanks on this deployment has been very interesting. I mean, there might be a firefight or something going on, but once the insurgents see the tanks, they usually cease all hostile acts. I’d rather not go anywhere else. I’d like to just stay with tanks the whole time on I’m on the green side.”

To deal with being separated from his loved ones, Lattimore said, he takes time to relax while listening to music.

“The best way that I’ve found to cope with being away from my friends and family is just to find a nice little space where I can listen to some music and kind of zone out for a few minutes,” Lattimore said. “I like to just forget everything that’s happening around me, and everything is usually all right after I do that.”

Since enlisting in the Navy, Lattimore said, he has wanted to deploy. “I’ve always wanted to go to Afghanistan just so I could say I served my country and did my part,” he added.

Lattimore’s daily tasks include caring for and looking after the Marines in his platoon and going on any combat operations where he might be needed.

“Doc Lattimore is pretty laid back. He knows his job real well, and he’s a great mentor. He definitely looks after us and makes sure we’re all doing all right,” said Marine Corps Sgt. Guensly Dorisca. “In the Marine Corps community we have corpsmen, but I’ve never worked with a corpsman like him before. I mean he’s part of the platoon. Everything we do, he’s always a part of it.”

NEMTI Role-3 Kandahar Course Students Learn from Wounded, Ill and Injured

From Navy Medicine Education and Training Command Public Affairs

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (NNS) -- Active-duty and Reserve Sailors participating in a course designed to integrate all members of a medical team scheduled to staff the world's busiest trauma hospital were visited by Marines from Wounded Warrior Battalion West Aug. 7 at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

 Students in the Naval Expeditionary Medical training Institute (NEMTI)-sponsored Role-3 Kandahar Course - a training evolution that fully develops a medical team scheduled to deploy in support of contingency operations around the world - received the opportunity to ask questions, receive feedback and meet six service members, each of whom maintains a close tie with Navy Medicine professionals. NEMTI operational project manager Cmdr. Kevin Beasley, said the two-hour session served as a reminder of the important role expeditionary medical professionals play each day.

 "Having wounded warrior interaction as part of pre-deployment training seals the importance of our mission as U.S. Navy health care providers," he said. "They provide the realism, reminding us of our own humanity, their sacrifices and why we continue to go forward, providing health care as long as they fight. The message is clear with them. They embody the honor and courage that ensures our commitment."

Wounded Warrior Battalion West, part of the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment, provides and facilitates non-medical care to combat and non-combat wounded, ill and injured (WII) Marines, Sailors attached to or in direct support of Marine units, and their family members. The objective is to help them return to duty or transition to civilian life.

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (FMF/CAC) Charlie Farmer, Kandahar Role-3 Course student, said the question and answer session provided him the opportunity to visualize what they would be doing when deployed to Kandahar Role-3 - to put a face and story with the sorts of injuries they could see.

 "This focuses everyone's attention on what our purpose will be when we get over there," he said. "It lets us focus on what our job is going to be and what the end result will be."

 The nearly two-hour session focused on the path of care the six individuals received after their respective injuries, as well as issues the Wounded Warriors faced during their recovery. Each service member fielded questions from the nearly 200 Role-3 Kandahar students, offering advice and responses to the numerous scenarios the assembled health care professionals presented.

 Lt. Cmdr. Miguel Gutierrez, Kandahar Role-3 Course student, said the integration of the Wounded Warrior panel offered a unique insight into the role of expeditionary medicine, something he said could have a profound impact on all students preparing to deploy.

 "As a provider, having the Wounded Warriors incorporated into this curriculum lets all of us see the importance of what we do, and the end result, which is the Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines coming home and the impact that we all have on their journey."

The NEMTI Role-3 Kandahar Course marks only the second time the entire staff of enlisted and commissioned medical professionals and support personnel assigned to a forward-deployed medical facility began pre-deployment training together.

 The NEMTI-sponsored Kandahar Role-3 Hospital course is a two-week program designed to foster teamwork, and build and hone medical skills specific to what U.S. military medical professionals might expect while on deployment to the Role 3 Hospital at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The course was initially offered in January 2012 and met with resounding success. Service members previously deploying in support of operations in Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq were either sent individually or in small groups, replacing other personnel with similar specialties or Navy Enlisted Classifications (NECs) on a "one-for-one" basis.

 U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Medicine Education and Training Command and the operational training leadership, however, recognized the need for additional requirements in the training pipeline, suggesting a course that would allow deploying personnel the opportunity to train together from the inception, fostering a sense of teamwork and unity imperative for the continued success medical personnel have affected in some of the most dangerous areas in the world.

 The term "role" describes the tiers in which medical support is organized, with Role-3 describing the capabilities of a theater-level hospital.

 The course, designed by NEMTI, was approved by U.S. Fleet Forces Command, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and the former Navy Medicine Support Command in response to deployment requirements and feedback received from previously deployed personnel including past and current commanding officers of the North American Treaty Organization-run Role-3 Kandahar Medical Facility. The course includes a variety of medical training courses.

Service members completing the Kandahar Role-3 Hospital course will next complete CENTCOM military requirements aboard training sites such as Fort Dix, N.J., and Fort Jackson, S.C.

 NEMTI, the premier U.S. Navy training facility for expeditionary medicine, reports to the Navy Medicine Operational Training Center (NMOTC) in Pensacola, Fla., and the Medical Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Texas.

 NEMTI and NMOTC and are part of the Navy Medicine team, a global health care network of 63,000 Navy medical personnel around the world who provide high-quality health care to the operational forces and more than one million eligible beneficiaries. Navy Medicine personnel deploy with Sailors and Marines worldwide, providing critical mission support aboard ship, in the air, under the sea and on the battlefield.

Face of Defense: Sailor Serves Country, Saves Lives

By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Mark Garcia

Regimental Combat Team 6

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan, June 11, 2012 – To serve his country, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Lamar Jackson decided to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Growing up, Jackson said, he saw the camaraderie his father shared with his fellow Marines, and he wanted to be a part of that experience.

“Seeing that brotherhood that they had was something I always admired,” said Jackson, a corpsman at the battalion aid station for 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6.

Jackson said he enlisted as a Navy corpsman because of his admiration for Marines and the desire to do something with his life.

“I also wanted to start getting into the medical field,” the Atlanta native added. “It was the one job that allowed me to do both. I just didn’t want to be in the same place my whole life. I wanted to get out and see different things and experience different things in the world.”

Jackson has been a corpsman for three and a half years. Before enlisting in October 2008, he played college football and worked full-time at a retirement home kitchen.

“When I was in college and I played sports, my teammates and I had close relationships, but it was nothing like the bonds I have with people in Afghanistan,” he said. “You have to trust them with your life, so you grow close to people.”

Jackson has been stationed at Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms, both in California, and said he enjoys the high-pressure situations he often faces.

“You’re the guy once everything starts to go south,” Jackson said. “You’re the person everyone’s looking for. I like being in the situation where everyone is counting on you. There was one time some Afghan locals were injured by an improvised explosive device, so we had to provide them with aid and ensure they were stabilized before they were moved anywhere.”

Jackson is on his first deployment, and said it has been a life-changing experience. He recalled experiencing significant culture shock when he arrived in Afghanistan.

“It’s jarring just to see how a piece of candy changes kids’ whole day,” he said. “In America, that’s something we take for granted.”

Jackson said he plans to continue his education once he completes his enlistment. “I plan on going to the University of Southern California once I’m out and [taking] their physician assistant program,” he said. “After that, I’ll get a job in a hospital. Eventually though, I would like to move into the health care administration side of things. It won’t be as much hands-on work. Instead, I’ll be more focused on looking after the doctors and what they’re doing.”

While he misses his friends and family, Jackson said he misses his wife the most, and he focuses on his job to cope with being away.

His daily tasks include ensuring Marines and sailors are physically and mentally healthy, and he also helps Afghans, some of whom have been injured by IED blasts.

“He’s one of the most motivated and dedicated corpsmen,” said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Burkhart, the assistant leading petty officer at the battalion aid station. “He loves the Navy. He gets the job done. His Marines like him a lot. He’s able to figure out what needs to be done and gets it done without any supervision. I have a lot of trust in him and his abilities.”

Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi Sailor Decorated for Afghanistan Service

By Bill W. Love, Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi Public Affairs

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (NNS) -- A Sailor at Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi (NHCCC) Texas, has been awarded the Joint Service Achievement Medal June 7, for his service as an emergency room technician with Joint Theater Trauma System, U.S. Central Command, Bagram, Afghanistan.

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (FMF) LC Weathersby III received the award during a military formation in front of the clinic, from Capt. Gina M. Jaeger, NHCCC commanding officer.

"Petty Officer Weathersby performed admirably and we are very proud of him as well as our other deployed warriors currently serving in harm's way," said Jaeger.

Weathersby, a nine-year Navy veteran from Rockport, Texas, deployed to Afghanistan for six months in the fall of 2011. Characteristic of the experience of Navy individual augmentees supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, he served in a joint environment on a Marine Corps team specifically supporting an Air Force hospital.

It was for his actions by actively volunteering off-duty hours in the trauma bay providing accurate patient documentation and care to combat patients, and contributing to the emergency department's 98 percent survival rate, that he was praised.

"Working in the ER and watching our Marine warriors smile even with their severe injuries," stated Weathersby about the gratification that he experienced, "made it all worthwhile."

Wisconsin Guard medics train as they fight, and save

By 1st Sgt. Vaughn R. Larson

Wisconsin National Guard

The group of six combat medics entered the village shortly after a reconnaissance team, looking for suitable locations to establish a clinic for humanitarian operations. Their security briefing warned that, even though the village was reported to be secure, roadside bombs and snipers remained a threat.

A villager rode up to the medics on a bicycle. "Hey, Americans," he called out. "Come meet my brother!" The villager rode off, replaced by debris and gunfire.

"That's my brother!" the villager exclaimed, taunting the medics who now know they must enter a hostile urban corridor and rescue gravely wounded service members as a sniper tries to pick them off one by one.

And that was only one of the training lanes for approximately 200 Wisconsin National Guard medical professionals May 19-20 at Fort McCoy, Wis. Other tasks included administering vaccines, performing medical care in a battalion aid station, extract a casualty from a guard tower and collapsed structure, load casualties onto ground and air ambulances, and perform life-saving measures in a field environment.

According to Sgt. 1st Class Clint Vervoren, a combat medic instructor at the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 426th Regional Training Institute, the two-day event was designed to expose medics to situations they normally wouldn't deal with on a drill weekend or during annual training.

"We as a group in the AMEDD (Army Medical Department) conference committee felt that these were tasks ... could be taught to the junior medics throughout the state and give them a good hands-on experience," he said. "Different units deal with different situations, whether it be a battalion aid station or an ambulance company. [Here] they got a taste of every piece the Army has to offer."

Sgt. 1st Class Cara Butterfield, also a combat medic instructor at the 426th RTI, said the medics at the training event ranged from having more than 20 years experience to having just graduated combat medic school three months ago.

"Our medics are very well trained and they're good at what they do," Butterfield said. "We try to instill in them the 'Soldier First' concept."

That concept underscores the "combat" in combat medics. In the rescue scenario, medics had to eliminate the sniper in order to safely extract the wounded Soldiers from the battlefield. Even though it was a training scenario, Spc. Hollie Helgerson of the Waukesha-based 135th Medical Company acknowledged that it was no mere classroom exercise.

"Any time you're in a stressful situation like that I think it's hard to keep level-headed and go back to the basics," she said. "But that's what you have to do. I have not deployed before, so this is the closest thing to real life I've experienced."

Sgt. Matthew Hammer, also of the 135th Medical Company, has deployed four times since 2003 to Iraq and Afghanistan. Even though his prior deployments were as an infantryman and not a medic, his overseas experience allowed him to keep any stress under control.

"It's near impossible to replicate the real thing, but this is a good job," Hammer said. "I can see how it could get stressful. As long as you know your skills, if you can just slow yourself down and breathe, and just walk yourself through what you need to do, it [won't be] that bad."

Butterfield said she saw many examples of teamwork during the training event. Vervoren said that the new training scenarios this year provided different challenges for the medics.

"I think they enjoyed it," he said. "They seemed to get information out of it."

Helgerson agreed.

"Just being here and being able to go through scenarios, any time we get to do that is really good for us," she said. "The training is really the best part of this, actually getting to do what we are trained to do."