BOND OF BLOOD AND HONOR

To honor both the 240th birthday of the United States Marine Corps and Veterans Day, I'm reposting an entry from 3 years ago. The bond between Marines and their docs is unique in this world. "Docs" in this context can mean physicians or corpsmen; but the shared honor, courage and commitment between hospital corpsman and Marine epitomizes this bond. Just read Flags of Our Fathers and you will get an inkling of what I mean. Or consider this true story:

Two Latino-Americans grew up in the Texas Hill Country, not far from each other. Both entered military service soon after high school. Staff Sergeant Ramirez, USMC, and Hospitalman (HN) Alvarez, USN (not their real names) became  friends when both were assigned to a Marine Corps Logistics unit just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Staff Sergeant Ramirez was a regular Marine. HN Alvarez was a Navy hospital corpsman assigned as medical support to that Marine unit.

Navy Medicine provides health care to the Marine Corps, which owns no intrinsic medical assets. Navy doctors, dentists, nurses, medical service corps officers, and hospital corpsmen assigned to the Marines wear Marine Corps uniforms, drill and exercise with their Marines, adhere to the same physical standards -- fully integrating into the units they support. The most revered relationship is that of a hospital corpsman to his Marines. Every Marine depends on his doc to save his life or limb.

Which one is the Doc?

In the early days of OIF the two friends traversed southern Iraq, miles behind the initial assault. The unit had stopped for rest and chow. Diving into his MRE, Staff Sergeant Ramirez strolled around the vehicle. A sudden, deafening explosion rocked the area, followed by a primal scream. The young Marine had stepped on a concealed Iraqi land mine. He lay in agony on the sand, blood gushing from the remnant stump of a leg blown away.

"CORPSMAN UP!" Hospitalman Alvarez, as any corpsman would do, rushed to the aid of his fallen comrade, disregarding his own personal safety. As he knelt beside the victim, another explosion scrambled the scene, this time the primal scream coming from HN Alvarez. His knee had detonated another concealed mine, whereupon he became not the rescuer, but the second casualty to lose a leg.

Thanks to the most sophisticated and capable field trauma care in military history, The two friends were medevaced to a nearby emergency resuscitative surgery site. They underwent immediate life-saving operations to control bleeding from their traumatic amputations. Then they were air-lifted out of Iraq to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where they received secondary definitive surgery. Within three days of the initial explosions, the two comrades in arms arrived at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD. They were two of the first four OIF casualties received there.

Even though ensconced in a hospital room thousands of miles from the war, both were still in combat -- emotional and physiological. The support they gave to each other in those first few days aided them in that battle -- Marine and doc bonded in blood and honor. Both survived their initial wounds, and ultimately wore state-of-the art-prostheses. If you passed either of them on the street six months after their injuries, you would not recognize him as an amputee.

Once he recovered from his injuries, newly promoted Hospital Corpsman Third Class (HM3) Alvarez elected to stay in the Navy and requested orders to NNMC Bethesda. He wanted to continue caring for wounded Marines.

The year after his knee hit that land mine, he and his spouse (also a corpsman) were honorees at the annual Hospital Corpsmen Ball, ill at ease sitting at a head table with a Navy Medical Corps Captain and his equally uncomfortable spouse.

The HM3 didn't feel particularly worthy of all the honor and attention. He never considered himself a hero. He was just the doc taking care of a wounded Marine.

Similar scenes occurred thousands of times since OIF began in early 2003, and will recur as long as any conflict involves Marines going into harm's way. Their doc will always be with them, ready to do whatever it takes to care for that Marine.

Without doubt, one of life's higher callings.

Semper Fi, Marines

Coming Soon

What if a reclusive, vengeful despot launched a silent yet deadly attack on the world's most powerful navy?

VECTORS is a full-length novel that I will release serially in three novella-length installments. "Phase One -- Index Case" is the first installment. 

Below is the second chapter of the prologue, "Phase Zero - Incubation." (See Chapter One on previous post.) Look for the first e-book novella by Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!

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Phase Zero

  

Exposure

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Chapter 2

Lee Myung Suk gasped when Colonel Hong Dong Jon told her the news. Her cousin dead? Betrayed the state?

“How can this be?” she asked.

Across the table, Colonel Hong’s pockmarked face repulsed Myung Suk. The linear scar running from his left ear to left cheek radiated a vicious red. Myung remained outwardly calm, constraining herself from a violent urge to strangle the bearer of such unexpected, terrible news. But she knew better than to rile the infamous deputy head of the Korean People’s Army’s Special Purpose Operations Reconnaissance Bureau. This man killed at will with impunity, and pleasure.

Hong Dong Jon sneered. His stern voice sounded like gravel pouring through a spout. “Lee Yeong Nae turned against the true Korean people and sabotaged her mission. Your weak cousin lacked the heart or strength to resist capitalist evils. She debauched herself with that American witch and then betrayed the Supreme Leader’s trust by becoming a counter-spy. She killed a loyal KPA comrade and enabled the whore’s escape.”

Lee Myung Suk buried her face in her hands. She and her cousin had grown up together like sisters after the state’s internal security forces hauled off Yeong Nae’s parents and brother to a prison camp. At age ten, Lee Yeong Nae had reported her own parents for Western-leaning tendencies. In reward for her loyalty, she was allowed to live with Lee Myung Suk’s family.

“My cousin proved her loyalty to the state twenty years ago. She could not do what you say. If I may talk to her—”

Colonel Hong frowned. “No one can talk to your treacherous cousin. The American slut pushed her off the rescue helicopter. KPA loyal forces took care of the rest.”

Myung Suk raised up from the chair. “You lie!”

Dong Jon stood over her, and for a second Myung Suk thought he would strike her. He pulled a photo from a file folder on the table and pushed it in front of Myung. “Proof,” he said.

In the photo, a woman in a KPA uniform lay dead in a green field, a bloody body riddled with gunshot wounds. Vacant eyes stared toward the sky. Lee Myung Suk sobbed as she recognized her cousin. The sobs soon turned to rage. She glared at the emotionless colonel. “Tell me more. Tell me everything”

Dong Jon pulled another photo from the folder. It showed the Supreme Leader orating before a crowd assembled in the great square in front of the palace in Pyongyang. Foreign television cameras at one side of the stage meant an international audience. Behind the Supreme Leader stood a woman with cropped blond hair and fair skin, wearing a U.S. Navy olive green flight suit. Hands bound behind her back, her eyes stared straight at the crowd as if to defy the Supreme Leader. Colonel Hong pointed at the photo. “KPA Special Forces captured this pilot after she crashed a U.S. Navy spy plane into the West Sea. She is Lieutenant Commander Janet Squire, but her American co-conspirators call her ‘Cricket.’ I am told that your cousin called her ‘Faith.’ They were lovers.” Dong Jon spat out the last word as if it were bile.

Dong Jon pointed to another figure in the photo, a KPA colonel standing on the other side of the Supreme Leader. “Colonel Chul Boo Ju delivered the American prisoner to the Dear Leader. After denouncing the spy in front of the entire world, the Dear Leader gifted the woman to Comrade Boo as his personal concubine.”

Myung Suk pointed to another figure in the photo. “That’s my cousin.” In the picture, Lee Yeong Nae wore a KPA uniform and stood among a group of officers behind the Supreme Leader and the American prisoner.

“Yes,” Colonel Hong said. “None of us knew the treachery in her heart.” His gaze penetrated to Lee Myung’s soul. “After the speech, Colonel Boo took the American to his private quarters near Prison Camp Eight, where he kept her locked in a bedroom. On the same day that the American Navy bombers destroyed our biological weapons laboratory, Lee Yeong Nae gained entrance to that private room while Colonel Boo was taking pleasure on the whore. Yeong Nae shot Colonel Boo and then escaped with the American to a clearing where a U.S. Navy helicopter picked her up under heavy fire from our soldiers in pursuit. An American F/A-18 Hornet came out of nowhere to fire a missile at our forces, driving them back and allowing the helicopter to take off. As the aircraft lifted, Yeong Nae tried to climb aboard, but the bitch whom she had just rescued kicked her. When she fell to the ground, well you see in the photo what KPA soldiers did to her.”

Lee Myung Suk stared at Colonel Hong. “You say that this American pilot killed my cousin?”

“In essence.” Dong Jon crossed his arms.

Mixed tears of sadness and rage streamed down Myung Suk’s face. Colonel Hong looked at her, dispassionate. There must be more to the conversation. She wiped her eyes and looked at the colonel with a hardened face. “What do you want from me?”

“I have a message for you from Vice Marshal Sung Chunghee. The Supreme Leader bestows on you, Comrade Major Lee Myung Suk of KPA Special Forces, the honor of atoning for Lee Yeong Nae’s treachery. You will be the Supreme Leader’s personal instrument of death to Lieutenant Commander Squire, the despicable U.S. Navy forces and their ROK puppets.”

Suicide mission. Lee Myung Suk did not hesitate to respond. “I express utmost gratitude to the Supreme Leader, and I accept this honor with deep humility. I vow to execute this mission to best of my ability.” She paused and then added, “Even if it means my own glorious death in the service of the true Korean people.”

A trace of a smile crossed Colonel Hong’s face. “Very well. We begin at once to plan.” He pushed the file folder across the table to her. “First you must learn everything about this ‘Cricket’ insect.”

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