Alan Basham enlisted in the Navy in 1967 and trained as a hospital corpsman with a special emphasis in air-sea rescue and medical evacuation. In Vietnam, Basham was among an elite team of Fleet Marine Force medevac corpsmen (MAG-16 Flying Docs) who flew medevac missions with USMC helicopter crews. After returning to the United States, he left the military and embarked on a career in psychology, training students in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Eastern Washington University for twenty-two years.
Chapters:
0:00 - Training with the Marines
2:33 - Hand to Hand Combat
3:12 - Aviation Medical Training
6:38 - Surprise Orders to Vietnam
8:30 - “Welcome to the Nam, Doc”
10:42 - Volunteering to Fly
12:04 - “The Wild Bunch”
13:10 - Marble Mountain Medevac
17:35 - Scariest Guys in the War
18:27 - Fighting with the Marines
18:43 - My Worst Mission
24:44 - Saving 7 Marines
33:54 - An Unbelievable Scene
36:28 - “I had Become the War”
42:00 - Marine Brotherhood
42:52 - Call Signs, Friendship, & War
46:18 - Types of Wounds
47:08 - Booby traps
48:05 - Street Fight in the Jungle
48:20 - A Grotesque Day
53:02 - Homecoming & PTSD
56:47 - Reflections
I am a US Marine Vietnam veteran. Every time I see an FMF Corpsman (that's a Fleet Marine Force medic), I ask him if I can give him a hug. God bless our Marine Corpsmen!!!
ReplyDeleteJohn, same same. A Corpsman attends the gym I go to. I call him Doc. One day I asked, does it bother you I call you Doc. He responded, Hell No! Special people.
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