I joined the Navy to get a different view of the world
than what the Mendocino Coast had to offer. After Boot Camp, Hospital Corps
School, and 18 months stationed at the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan,
with the rank of HM3 (E-4), I (along with 40 other corpsmen from Yokosuka)
was reassigned to the Fleet Marine Force, Viet Nam and in September 1966
was sent back to Camp Pendleton, in Southern California for training in
the art of being a Marine.
Field Medical Service School consisted of 1 month intense
training at Camp Del Mar (area 21) of Camp Pendleton.
We went through a course of combined Marine Corps Boot Camp and Field Medicine.
Everything from basic marksmanship and advanced first aide, to camp sanitation.
We were immunized for all types of tropical diseases and then it was off
to that mysterious place somewhere in Southeast Asia called Viet Nam.
 Out
on maneuvers at Camp Pendleton. Field Med School against Marine I.T.R.
using blanks in our M-14s. We slaughtered them in an ambush. Later that
evening, while digging in around the perimeter of a hilltop, one of the
corpsmen dug into a rabbit hole and flushed out a scared bunny. He
immediately killed the beast and held it's carcass up on his e-tool as
a gesture of triumph. Another "Doc" unearthed a rattle snake and did the
same. The entire group of corpsmen started chanting "Kill! - Kill! - Kill!"
It was a primal bonding of the warrior spirit. In a mere 4 weeks, thanks
to our training, we had mentally prepared to kill the enemy as well as
provide life saving medical aide to our comrades. We were good at what
did and proud of it. Photo by Frank Zebley from Rus Jewett Collection
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