@ rgreen4; Sailor, thank you for your military service! Go Navy!

@ Kate, Mike, Sofia; appreciate your support & son n law's military service.

1980-1988; total 7 yrs active duty service in the USMC, avionics tech, i.e. F-4 Phantom electrician & com/nav tech. Never deployed overseas. Duty Assignments; MCRD San Diego, CA, NAS Memphis/Millington, TN, MCAS BFT, SC, MCAS Yuma, AZ, and MCAS EL Toro, CA. Once a Marine, Always a Marine, however...

LOL, now [since 2003] I'm a Soldier, i.e. critical care nurse. Presently, assigned to the Dept of Combat Medic Training, at FT Sam Houston [FSH], San Antonio, TX. As the QA officer I monitor the instructors [civilian & military], and overall program of training Soldiers into becoming Medics. My two year assignment ends soon. Luckily, I'm able to do an Intrapost Reassignment to Brooke Army Medical Center, FSH, TX. Report 1 SEP and will be assigned to one of the ICUs. My wife & I are both from TX [well, she was born in Hong Kong] and I was raised in Austin. Susan is a civilian nurse, as was I for 5 years prior to military re-entry.

Prior to present assignment, I was assigned to one of the ICUs at Madigan Army Medical Center [MAMC], FT Lewis, WA [2006-2008]. Yet, 15 months of that I was deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq with the 31st CSH. Our mission was providing health care to over 22,000 detainees. Our third month, Compound 8 was hit with rocket mortars, which resulted in 7 dead & over 70 wounded... only one Iraqi Guard, the rest Iraqi detainees. Ironic, but the hits were less than 200 meters from Compound 11, the location of our hospital. Rather not go into any further details of that day or time at Bucca. LOL, it took me awhile after returning stateside to not be so jumpy whenever I heard any kind of loud BOOM noises.

2003-2006; Reserve Component Army Nurse Corps, 5501st USAH, FSH, TX with primary mission to backfill BAMC, i.e. fill slots vacant by deployed active duty ANC Soldiers. Nothing exciting to mention. 

Sorry if that was TMI... too much info.     

Thank you for your service, Marine. I have a good friend here that was a Navy Corpsman until he was assigned to a DE in the early '60's doing iceberg patrol in the North Atlantic. The combination of the small ship and rough water brought on chronic sea sickness, so a Medical Discharge and out. He was an E-5 at the time. After being out, he enlisted in the Air Force, they let him come in as an E-3 and was classified as a Med Tech. He retired from Moody AFB in S. Georgia as an E-8 after 28 years of service which included 2 tours in country in Vietnam. He has service related disablities.

What does the FSH after Brooke Army Medical Center mean? I am familiar with Ft. Sam and Brooke as I grew up in Houston. Had a Brother-In-Law who was in the Army from 1953 to 1957 and finished his enlistment there after returning from Germany.

Having grown up in Austin, I am sure you have heard of my Alma Mater, that little school up on the Brazos River in College Station. I enjoyed the first 4 years so much that after I got out of the Navy, I went back for my Masters. (Courtesy of the GI Bill).

BTW - you may be in the Army now, but you and I know that down deep you are still a Marine.

rgreen4; Hook'em Horns! I'm a UTMB alum.

FSH = Ft Sam Houston

Yes, once a Marine = always a Marine

Semper Fi!