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Force Master Chief Laura A. Martinez, the Navy’s top corpsman, speaks to the newest Fleet Marine Force corpsmen graduating from Field Medical Training Battalion on Camp Pendleton, March 25. More than 280 corpsmen graduated as part of the largest graduating class in the school’s history.

Photo by Sgt. James M. Mercure

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Navy's top doc motivates newest FMF corpsmen

25 Mar 2010 | Sgt. James M. Mercure Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- When the Navy’s top corpsman, Force Master Chief Laura A. Martinez, Fleet Marine Force, asked the more than 280 Field Medical Training Battalion graduates of class 2010-020 if they were ready to graduate; their synchronized response of “Yes, Master Chief,” was deafening.

As Martinez spoke on March 25, to the largest class to ever graduate from the course, the sailors listened intently to her words derived from more than 30 years experience as a corpsman.

“Today you earn the title ‘corpsman’ and the term ‘doc’, which shows the mutual respect between Marines and their corpsmen,” Martinez said. “Doc; your Marines will honor that title with respect, because anywhere Marines go, corpsmen are right there with them.”

Martinez continued, saying many of the graduates may find themselves forward deployed within the coming months, and this training has prepared them for it.

To conclude the ceremony, the new corpsmen were presented their Medical Shield. The shield is a small black insignia with a caduceus, placed on the left collar that not only represents their new job as an FMF corpsman, but also their responsibility to save their Marine’s lives should there ever be a need.

“I have had countless Marines come back from war and tell me that the only reason they’re alive today is because of their doc,” Martinez said. “Hearing things like this let me know that if they look out for their Marines, their Marines will look after them.”

For the FMTB instructors that have trained several classes, like Cpl. Austin Farmer, 2nd platoon advisor, class 2010-020, says that seeing the transition of basic sailors to FMF corpsman is the best part of his job.

“The instructors job is to help the students go from a Navy to a Marine Corps mindset," Farmer said. "When the students get to their final field exercise, we are more hands off because, by that point, they know what they’re doing. It’s the hardest part of the course for them, and it fills the instructors with pride to see how well they now work together,” he said.