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Their work earned the recognition of twenty ships named for them and more than 600 medals for valor, including twenty-two Medals of Honor. 2,012 corpsmen were killed in action in the history of the U.S., with 42 of those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. A corpsman’s importance in combat is unrivaled and requires the skill and courage of any grunt. The corpsman is part medic, part nurse, part pharmacist, who serves in the Navy and on its ships, but also deploys with Marines. Petty Officer 3rd Class Heston Johnson, corpsman, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, provides security during a mission in Helmand province, Afghanistan, July 4, 2014. Update: This story was corrected to reflect that Byers was a Special Operations Combat Medic. The loblolly boy became the nurse, who became the bayman, who became the surgeon’s steward, then the apothecary, hospital apprentice, hospital steward, pharmacist’s mate, until after World War II, when the modern corpsman (as we know it) was born. The role has evolved over the decades, and the name of the corpsman’s rating evolved along with it. In the age of sail, corpsmen (then called loblolly boys) helped the ship’s surgeon stay on his feet with sand and kept the cauterizing irons hot.
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Navy Hospital corpsmen are part of a tradition that predates the American Navy itself.