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Recording History Part VII – Corpsmen!
By Richard S. Lowry
Welcome back!
Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Hospital Corpsman 2 Juan Rubio. His story is truly amazing.
Juan Rubio on the Euphrates River, near Fallujah in 2004.
Richard S. Lowry is the author of The Gulf War Chronicles and Marines in the Garden of Eden.
Juan was already a Navy Corpsman on 9/11. On that historic day, he was stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Early that morning, he was called into a meeting where he was told that a plane had struck the Pentagon and that he would be part of a medical team being dispatched to the site. Members of the emergency response team gathered their equipment and were hustled onto a waiting Coast Guard helicopter to be flown to the Pentagon.
Rubio arrived within two hours of the attack. When he stepped off the helicopter he found an unimaginable scene. Smoke was rolling out of the huge building and the parking lot was swarming with emergency workers and dazed victims. To Rubio it looked like the ultimate emergency assistance drill. The medical teams were working like a well oiled machine. Rubio, and his team immediately joined in to help. After the casualties were transported, Rubio returned to Bethesda. Then he was sent to the Hospital Ship, USNS Comfort. Comfort was sent to New York City to assist in the largest man-made disaster in the history of our country. Rubio quickly realized that there would be no injured to care for. He went ashore and found himself standing in front of a seemingly endless wall of photographs.
That wall changed his life. Rubio stood transfixed, gazing at photographs of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. He gazed at a block-long collage of fearful messages left by loved-ones in hope that their family member would be found. A chill touched his soul. He knew that these people would not be found alive. He also knew that the world would never be the same and that he would be needed to care for our servicemen who would be wounded in the coming fight. He vowed, then and there, to become a Marine Corps Corpsman.
By March of 2003, Rubio was humping it with his Marines through the muddy streets of Eastern Nasiriyah. He fought with Task Force Tarawa’s 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines in Bravo Company, and then volunteered to join the Small Craft Company for his second tour in Iraq. As the only Corpsman for Captain Dan Wittnam’s boat company, he made nearly every patrol along the Euphrates River before, during and after the fight for Fallujah. Operation Phantom Fury was much more than a house-to-house fight through the city streets. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines fought the battle throughout Anbar and North Babil. Wittnam and his Marines ranged the Euphrates River and were engaged in several heavy firefights.
Wittnam’s soldiers and Marines suffered several casualties and Rubio saved lives. Regardless of their wounds, Rubio never gave up on a patient, even when wounded himself. Hospital Corpsman Juan Rubio was awarded the Silver Star for his Herculean efforts to care for his men. Rubio has been in this fight from the beginning and will carry a heavy weight for the rest of his life. He will never forget the men he lost.
Rubio’s story is just one of many that I am uncovering. Thousands of American young men and women laid their lives on the line during the fight for Fallujah, hundreds saved lives of their comrades and scores made the ultimate sacrifice. I will work to tell as many of these stories as is possible, for men like Juan Rubio need to be recognized for what they are – American Heroes.
This is a continuing series, Catch up on previous posts here.
Richard S. Lowry is the author of The Gulf War Chronicles and Marines in the Garden of Eden.
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Comments
AWESOME POST Richard
Great going-gotta love corpsmen:)
A great story.
The pic reminded me of an amazing encounter I had this summer in Norwalk (Conn.) harbor. While at a fuel dock I looked into the channel and down came a full armed PBR. Right out of Apocalypse Now. It had the .50s up front and the M-60 on those spindle mounts on each side of the bridge. Very impressive.
There were about 8 guys on board wearing a mix of civvie and old army fatigues. The only thing that gave the look away was the bright stainless steel BBQ on the stern railing.
It seems a local group renovates old military equipment. Supposedly they have an operational Sherman tank.
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Nice story.
Great work Corpsman Rubio.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA