BAY OF BENGAL – Sailors and Marines aboard the Harpers Ferry-class amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) gathered to celebrate Navy Hospital Corps 121st birthday with a ceremony June 18, 2019.
During the ceremony, the ship’s Medical Department shared the history of the Navy Hospital Corps and honored all past and present hospital corpsmen.
“For 121 years, the Navy corpsmen have been serving Sailors and Marines on land, on and under the sea, in the sky fighting alongside our devil dogs in every expeditionary platform across the world,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Charlene Green. “Hospital Corps have evolved over the years from loblolly boy, to pharmacist mate, to hospital corpsman, to medical technician and back to hospital corpsman.”
During the introduction, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Charlene Green shared what makes the medical staff aboard the Harpers Ferry unique.
“We corpsman aboard the Harpers Ferry are privileged to sail across the seas with a great crew,” said Green, the advanced laboratory technician. “All of the rates and MOS’s have a special place with medical. The HM rate has 38 Navy Enlisted Classification codes also known as NEC’s. Aboard the Harpers Ferry we are fortunate to have seven of the 38 NEC’s.”
During the ceremony, the youngest and oldest members of the Harpers Ferry medical staff cut a cake as part of the formal tradition.
At the end of the ceremony, Cmdr. Janice Pollard, commanding officer of the Harpers Ferry said some final words.
“The corpsman are always there and always ready to support,” said Pollard. “I think about every special evolution that we have on board and no matter the temperature or the weather, they’re out there alongside Sailors and Marines while we do the dangerous jobs. On the fo’cle, the flight deck and the boat deck no matter what happens, they’re ready to respond and take care of us.”
The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group/11th MEU is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to support regional stability, reassure partners and allies, and maintain a presence postured to respond to any crisis ranging from humanitarian assistance to contingency operations