Training and Education Command

 

Training and Education Command

United States Marine Corps

Quantico, VA
Navy personnel aboard Depot support Marines every day

By Lance Cpl. Jon Holmes | | October 9, 2007

MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C --

Sailors can be found aboard every Marine base, tending to the physical and spiritual needs of Marines.

No matter the situation, sailors are always ensuring that Marines are mission ready.

"It's interesting, working with Marines,"said Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Oscar Mendoza, a corpsmen at the Naval Dental Center. "We are one of the few classes in the Navy that works with the Marines. Marines and corpsmen are a team. We work as a team."

Mendoza has been a corpsmen for two years and said he has truly benefited from working with the Marines

"I gained a lot of experience from the Marines,"Mendoza said. "You can learn a lot from them."

Mendoza isn't the only one who has enjoyed working with the Marines.

"It's a different experience,"said Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Sharon Baker, the recruit treatment manager for the NDC. "The Marines have a lot of respect for what we do as dental technicians and corpsmen."

However, even Baker has had difficulties with America's greatest fighting force.

"Marines are some of the hardest patients to deal with,"Baker said with a chuckle. "I don't know why. They don't have a problem fighting for their country, but they won't come to dental."

But Baker got past this.

Baker said her key to getting them in the office was making them laugh. Once she could get them comfortable, the procedures went on without a hitch.

Not every sailor can become a corpsmen. They must ask for it and earn it through special training.

"My godfather was a retired corpsmen,"said Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Axel Narvaez, the leading petty officer for Medical Branch Clinic's Recruit Sick Call. "He told me about his time with Marines, and that's what I wanted to do."

Narvaez spent two years on Parris Island before being stationed with a deployable unit.

"After September 11, I wanted to deploy,"Narvaez explained. "I went to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines in Camp Lejeune."

Narvaez got his wish. He was sent to Iraq with the 2/8 Scout Sniper Platoon.

"It was great,"Narvaez said with a smile. "It was like being in a big family."

Narvaez accompanied his Marines on more than 80 missions. They quickly noticed his skill.

"The Marines said I was a corpsmen who knew his medical knowledge, his weapon and was in good shape,"Narvaez explained. "It was an honor for me to serve with them."

Even the officers in the medical field have taken notice of the Marines they serve with.

"They're very focused,"said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Frank Axelson, a physician with Sports Medicine at the BMC. "They do what's needed to get back to the fleet."

Not all welfare has to do with physical needs. Sailors also provide for Marine's spiritual health.

"We provide and facilitate care for Marines,"said Navy Cmdr. Charles Kessler, the deputy director of religious ministries, Religious Ministries Center. "Our responsibility is to make sure everyone can practice their faith."

Those services don't end after leaving American shores either. The chaplains also accompany Marines on their numerous deployments.

"My first tour was with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines at Camp Lejeune,"said Navy Capt. Robert Beltram, the assistant chief-of-staff, RMC. "Typically, any chaplain serves with Marines and continues to serve with them because there is a special bond with Marines."

The chaplains are never alone, though. Just as a corpsmen has his Marines, chaplains have their own guardians.

"In combat, we protect the chaplains,"said Navy Chief Petty Officer Geremy Bru, a religious program specialist and the leading chief petty officer for the RMC. "In garrison, we do setup for religious functions."

However, setup isn't the bread and butter for a RPs. It is deployment.

"Being deployed with the Marines is better than with the Navy,"Bru said. "The camaraderie is there and if you take care of your troops, they take care of you. They will start to call you 'Devil Squid.'"

The most important thing about being with a Marine or sailor is being part a team, Bru said.

"There is a very important bond between Marines, RPs, corpsmen and chaplains,"Kessler said. "We're a team."