June 17, 2008, marks 110 years since the Hospital Corpsman rating was established. No other Corps in the Navy can say that they have served the nation with Honor and Distinguish like the Hospital Corps. With personal awards like; 28 - Medal of Honors, 174 - Navy Crosses, 31 - Distinguish Service Medals (United States Army), 946 - Silver Stars, and 1,582 - Bronze Stars.
In the beginning, we were never referred to as Hospital Corpsman, we started out as Loblolly Boy. The nickname “loblolly boy” was in common use for so many years that it became the official title in Navy Regulations of 1814.
A new, senior enlisted medical rate, Surgeon’s Steward, was introduced in the ensuing decades. The term is first seen in 1841 in Navy pay charts, but it appears that the new billet was only allowed on larger ships. By 1 April 1843, the Navy Department issued an order allowing surgeon’s steward to be assigned to brigs and schooners. The relative importance of medical Sailors was hereby increased. Surgeon’s stewards would rank second in seniority among the ship’s petty officers, next only after the master-at-arms.
Post-war reductions in the size of the Navy brought new classifications to enlisted medical personnel. The title surgeon’s steward was abolished in favor of three grades of apothecaries in 1866. Those selected as apothecaries had to be graduates of a course in pharmacy, or to possess the knowledge by practical experience. The Apothecary, First Class ranked with a warrant officer, while the second and third class were petty officer equivalents. The three rates were reduced one petty officer apothecary on 15 March 1869.
Nurse, as a title for junior enlisted medical personnel, was replace by the title “bayman,” one who manned the sick bay, in the early 1870s. U.S. Navy Regulations of 1876 used the title officially, and it remained a valid for 22 more years.
Arguments for a professional, well-trained group of individuals to provide medical care for the Navy finally paid off. Unfortunately, it took the imminent danger of combat in the Spanish-American War to spur Congress into action. Within a bill aimed at building the armed forces was a section to provide for the Navy’s long-needed Hospital Corps. It was approved by President William McKinley on 17 June 1898. From that date to the present, either generically or by rating title, medical Sailors have been called “hospital corpsmen.”
The corps would again change the rate titles. The hospital apprentice would be the equivalent of an apprentice seaman, the hospital apprentice first class was a third class petty officer, and the hospital steward was a chief petty officer. Pharmacists were warrant officers, the first of a line of commissioned hospital corpsmen that continued until the establishment of the Medical Service Corps following World War II.
The next revision in the structure of the Hospital Corps would come by act of Congress on August 29, 1916. Under this plan, the rates would be hospital apprentices, second class and first class (both of whom wore a red cross on the sleeve), pharmacist’s mates, third, second, and first, and chief pharmacist’s mate. The officer contingent of the Hospital Corps would include the two warrant officer ranks of pharmacist and chief pharmacist. The reorganization would allow for a massive increase, five-fold, in the size of the Hospital Corps.
At the start of 1917 the Hospital Corps counted 1,700 men in its ranks. A concerted effort to recruit and train new personnel enabled the corps to reach its authorized strength of 3 1/2 percent of the Navy and Marine Corps, or 6,000 men. But as these plans came to fruition, the United States entered World War I in April. By the end of 1918, the corps would peak at about 17,000.
The Hospital Corpsman have have been in every major battle that the United States have been in. Today they are fighting along side the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Army, providing medical support in the war against terrorism. From the beginning, the Hospital Corps has pledge to take care of the sick the injured both foreign and domestic without any prejudice or hatred.
To date there have been 20 United States Ships that have been named in honor of the Hospital Corpsman that have sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom and democracy. To date there have been a total of 1,990 Medical enlisted men and women killed in action.
Hospital Corpsman Pledge
"I solemnly pledge myself before God and these witnesses to practice faithfully all of my duties as a member of the Hospital Corps. I hold the care of the sick and injured to be a privilege and a sacred trust and will assist the Medical Officer with loyalty and honesty. I will not knowingly permit harm to come to any patient. I will not partake of nor administer any unauthorized medication. I will hold all personal matters pertaining to the private lives of patients in strict confidence. I dedicate my heart, mind and strength to the work before me. I shall do all within my power to show in myself an example of all that is honorable and good throughout my naval career."
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