November 25, 2025 • 32 mins
Combat Vet Vision serves as a vital platform for combat veterans, supporters, and volunteers to share their narratives, fostering a sense of community and facilitating navigation through the complexities of post-service life. In this episode, we engage in a profound dialogue with Randy Bahork, a retired chief and Navy corpsman, who recounts his transformative experiences with Lima Company. He elucidates his military journey, revealing how his initial motivations evolved into a profound commitment to serving his fellow Marines. As Randy shares his compelling stories from multiple deployments, including the intricacies of trauma care in combat scenarios, he underscores the importance of mentorship and the development of resilience among service members. This discussion not only highlights the challenges faced by veterans but also emphasizes the enduring bonds forged through shared experiences in the military.
Takeaways:
- Combat Vet Vision serves as a platform for veterans to share their experiences and stories.
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of navigating life as a combat veteran and providing support for each other.
- The discussion highlights the significance of brotherhood and camaraderie among veterans during and after service.
- Listeners are encouraged to understand the complexities of veterans' experiences in combat scenarios and their aftermath.
- The podcast features personal anecdotes that illustrate the challenges faced by veterans during deployments.
- Veterans are provided with insights on how to articulate their needs effectively to navigate bureaucratic systems for support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Combat Vet Vision.
Hey, welcome to Combat Vet Vision.
This is a place where combatveterans, myself, other sponsors,
supporters, volunteers get totell their stories, come in here.
And actually this is to helpveterans either navigate their life
(00:21):
or whatever it might be.
Our sponsor, supporters andvolunteers be able to come in and
tell their stories and helpnavigate some systems, but really
just to get a really goodstory across and do some stuff.
I am here today with my goodbuddy and longtime friend Randy Bahork,
is fellow chief, retired,doing some really incredible stuff
(00:41):
in his life and another LimaCompany Corman that we've been following
with Lima Company and we'regoing to get all four of those guys
together in the near future.
Randy, thanks a lot for beinghere, brother.
Great to have, you know.
Absolutely.
This is your second time onmy, on my podcast.
Thanks for being herephysically and in the, in the, in
the flesh, so.
Absolutely, man.
(01:02):
It's a, it's a good feelinglike always, man.
Like I always tell you, youknow, it's always good to catch up
with brothers.
You know, we, we have distancefrom a lot of us, different states,
but, you know, I'm in the samestate, man.
I'm gonna make the effort todefinitely run into you and butt
heads a little bit and, youknow, the brotherly.
Love, man, you know, why not exactly.
Hey, and the last time we, wespoke, you know, we had, we had a
(01:26):
lot of really good, gooddiscussion too.
But I'd love for you to tellyour story again a little bit, talk
about, you know, your, yourtime with Lima Company and then get
into, you know, go back, goback in, in time and why did you
join the military?
And we go way back too, andtalk about our experience when we,
when we met and what, whatthat, what that meant and how that
went.
All right, so for me, I haveto say my time started back in 99.
(01:51):
Kind of crossroads, trying tofigure out what to do next with life.
I was an overachiever,graduated high school early, started
college early, tried to pursuea degree and just wasn't working
out.
So I figured join themilitary, grab some money for school
and pay that out.
But when I joined, this waspre 9 11, so, you know, TSA didn't
(02:14):
exist.
You could still carry a 2liter coat through the airport security.
Nobody would question it.
You know, carry your wholesuitcase practically through the
checkpoints and nobody wouldbat an eye to it.
So, you know, I decided tojoin the Navy.
And honestly, you know,joining a gunnery sergeant is who
told me about being a Navy corpsman.
So, you know, went to therecruiting office and, you know,
(02:38):
popped in back then was a vhs, right?
Marine comes out of the waterall cammied up, flies off in the
helicopter, and I'm like, hellyeah, man, sign me up.
And I was like, you know,where's the medical portion of it?
He's like, oh, man, we ain'tgot no medical.
I'm like, shoot, man.
Well, I guess I'm gonna go tothe Army.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
He goes, you know, back in myday in the infantry, there was this
guy, we called him Doc, and hewas a Navy.
(02:58):
Navy corpsman.
And he did everything we did.
Practically slept with us inthe field, ran the ranges, shot.
You name it, he did it.
And then we got hurt.
He took care of us.
I'm like, cool, man, Sign meup, right?
So, walked into the recruiteroffice, said, I want to be a named
corpsman.
Started my pipeline.
(03:20):
And the first time I ran intoyou was back in July of 2000.
So I just completed boot campin core school, checked in a naval
hospital.
Camp Pendleton, the oldhospital way back out there by where
mountain lions would behanging out sometimes.
Only beyond those rides.
That's right.
You'd see some paw prints oreven a quick little flash of the
(03:43):
lion, right?
And yeah, check.
Then at the time, he was HM2, Siebert.
And that was just a little ha.
A little E1 or.
Yeah, or E2 checking in.
And he would run us.
Siebert would run us.
Him And Andino, remember HM2and Dino, man, both these guys would
just run us into the dirtthrough the hills.
(04:03):
But, you know, that was likethe start of.
Of somebody taking charge ofus and, like, prepping us, right?
Because I was going to fieldmedical at the time was field medical
service school.
Right now it's called FieldMedical Training Battalion.
And I didn't know what I wasgetting into, man.
I was just going to hang out abunch of Marines.
I was like, cool.
And yeah, like, you know, fromwhen I left home to that point in
(04:26):
my life, like, you know, I hadalready gone through some stuff.
I hadn't tore my ACL playingsoccer or partially torn it, you
know, went through a specialist.
And they're like, hey, man, aslong as you run straight, you're
good.
I'm like, all right, cool.
I want to go to field medicine.
They're like, nah, you ain'tgot to run straight there.
I'm like, yeah, but I stillwant to go hang out with Marines.
And so I. I chose that pathand, you know, made it through filmed
(04:49):
and checked into Lima Company 35.
They're Battalion 5th Marinesout in 5th Marine Regiment.
And you know, that's probablywhere I, I can say I, I started my
journey as a young sailor, right?
So checked in, know, met someof the guys over at Lima.
I think the first guy I evermet was Otis Miller, that was first
(05:09):
Platoon.
And I met him when I was stillat, at Phil Med.
Like he would come out andlike check out this, the prospects
that were coming in, right?
And so he's like, yeah bro,you want to go to 3 5?
I'm like, bet.
And him.
And I became like, that's likemy brother from another mother.
And couple of months later,Hector Reyes checked in and Derek
(05:32):
Hudnall checked in.
It's like we're like the fourcorners, right?
So we're like at opposite endand slowly but surely we became the
Lima docs, man.
Like we're pretty known acrossthe battalion, right?
You know, Reyes and I, andeven, even Hudnall, we're all Marine
ranked sailors.
And so those are things thatare not very common in the corpsman
(05:54):
world, right?
Like it's only a few.
Back then we had things calledlike super squad and whatnot.
And there was always one of usattached to those super squads where
you'd run like a gauntlet oflike exercises all over 5th Marines,
up the heel pad, down the Widowmaker.
And then there was anothersailor back then, HMT Spencer at
(06:16):
the time, this.
Guy Gummy Bear Oak.
Yeah, because he worked at agummy bear factory.
This guy has a old.
One of the oldest corpsmen I knew.
Yeah, this guy just was likeone of the longest running.
He didn't even look like a runner.
But man, this guy would runus, the Widowmaker, up the helo pad,
(06:36):
back up first Orange Hill.
And then guess what, get backto the BS in New York, man.
And yeah, it was like, youknow, we're like, back then we were
a bunch of youngsters, youknow, we were just trying to figure
out life.
And so I think for a lot of usthen we all kind of clicked very
well and we started ourfoundation of that brotherhood, right?
(06:57):
And so we did a deployment to Okinawa.
We were part of the 31st Mewand we went out, saw the world on
a different aspect of beinglike a combat deployment.
We actually got partied overseas.
We were in Hong Kong with thePhilippines, Korea, you know, and
(07:17):
these were like life lessonsfor us because now I've never traveled,
I never traveled with itbefore I even joined the Navy.
And here I am like seeing theworld, right?
And so we get back from thisdeployment, you know, we kind of.
Do you remember that deployment?
We almost got steered offbecause there was something that
kicked off in, let's say itwas Pakistan and something else.
(07:40):
Afghanistan we were going to support.
You know, we're like, hey,there might be something.
We have to.
If we leave out of this portand we steer left, we're going to
go this way, right?
We're going to.
We're going back home.
We could have gotten steeredright off into a combat scenario
or a neo.
Op at the time, the 31st Mew.
(08:00):
Usually when they're out andoperating, they're the most furthest
out.
That can pretty much be thatreact force the QRF for whatever
op is going on.
And so, yeah, they had told us that.
So we're on a.
On a constant Sparrowhawkmission, right?
Like, you just kind of standby to.
Stand by to wait and find outwhat's going to happen.
So a lot of, like the time Iwas a Hilo company, and yeah, we.
(08:23):
We slept on the flight deckplenty of nights just waiting to
leave or on the.
On the.
Down in the well deck or inthe chute, just waiting to go.
But, yeah, we were on standby that.
That year on that deployment.
Then we got back, and then,you know, things were kind of quieted
down.
And then next thing you know,like, oh, we're going to war.
And we're like, where are we going?
And sure enough, it's like, Iremember I was on leave and I got
(08:45):
recalled back.
I was like, I got to spendChristmas at home.
And then literally, like dayafter Christmas, I flew back to Camp
Pendleton, and I remember itwas like a anthrax and smallpox stand
down.
Like, everybody's getting shot up.
And then we pretty much.
The parties in January, we allgot to Kuwait.
(09:05):
We hung out in Kuwait tillabout maybe mid March.
And I want to say that'sprobably where a lot of us were tested,
tried and true, right?
That's right.
We got out there and, man, Ilaugh at some of the stuff that we
went through because thesewere things that we would read in
(09:26):
a.
In a book or see it.
A movie on a movie.
Like legit.
Literally right by thatsandstorm that happened March 25th
or the 26th.
Like, how about.
How about just like, we were.
We were like, going to haveour last meal, and it was going to
be like, the steak.
Steak dinner.
Yeah, they were, like, cookingall these steaks, and we left, like,
literally, like five hoursbefore that.
(09:48):
And they told us about thesesteaks they were going to serve us,
where.
We got steak, got a debrief.
And it was straight up asafari across the.
The desert.
Like everybody's just movingacross the desert to the line of
departure at an.
Immediate rate, which wasunique because like, you know, a.
A force online sweepingthrough a country is how I can best
(10:09):
describe what 2003 was like.
Literally, you had 1stMarines, 5th Marines, 7th Marines.
And that's just the marineunits then you have like all these
army units.
But his little fuel trucks andrandom vehicles that you've never
seen.
Every vehicle that was outthere was a military vehicle.
It looked like a freeway thatyou would see in America, but every
(10:31):
vehicle on that freeway wasnothing but military.
So very strange view for sure.
And a lightning storm in the distance.
When we took out the ant hill,that looked like a lightning storm,
but was actually.
Was actually the Tomahawk.
Tomahawks hitting that hilland just taking out their.
(10:53):
Their ability to communicate.
Communicate, yeah.
So it was a.
It was an eye opener.
Like I, I'd have to say thatlike, growing up, I foresaw myself
a certain way.
And in Iraq, I discovered whoI'm truly was meant to be.
And so after that deploymentcame back and I signed up for it
(11:15):
again.
I'm like, yo, I love this.
It's great.
Like, this is where I strive at.
And so trauma was my thing forthe longest.
Like gunshots, amputation,sucking chest wounds.
Like, easy day, man.
Like I rolled with the best of them.
And so I went back out in 04.
I was out there for Fallujah.
I went out with 1st Marines.
I was a replacement.
(11:37):
I attached to 3, 5 for liketwo days while they were out pushing
around through the Joel ondistrict, ran into Chris Johnson
who lived out at the trainstation, a couple other guys at the
apartment complex.
And then I came back in 05.
And you know, by this point Iwas, I was a third class, I was a
(11:59):
petty officer, third class,E4, you know, making rank.
And then I was very touristicpromoted to E5 when I came back from
that deployment.
And you know, I, I would bitchand complain about sailors coming
out of field med.
I'm like, man, these guysain't tough.
Like, who the hell's teachingthese dudes, right?
And my old.
(12:19):
One of my old mentor, TerryGreen, was like, bo, if you want
to make a difference, then whydon't you go be a field med instructor?
I'm like, you know what?
Fuck it.
I'll go be a fieldman instructor.
And Yeah, I did three years atFilm Med and you know, there's a
lot of guys out there thatremember me.
I mean, I can't remember everybody.
I mean, shoot, I was pushing300 students per class and.
(12:40):
But they all, to this day,there is still somebody out there,
they'll say like, oh yeah, Hm, Tube.
Yeah.
Don't cross that dude thewrong way, man, because he's going
to check you.
And you know, honestly, like,I was a dude that grew up around
the infantry and the standardexpectations that I was taught in
that mindset are things that,those are life lessons, right?
(13:03):
And so they help you definehow you function and how you do your
work.
And so along the way, again,starting from when I met Siebert,
he gave me a foundation ofstandards and expectations.
And then I went somewhere elseand I met another mentor.
Now he senior guy, right?
(13:23):
He gave me standards.
And so here I am, like just collecting.
So I think as I went alonglife, right.
As a young sailor, when I wasin core school, we had this, this
saying, we're like jack of alltrades, master at none.
Right?
And trauma gods and, and that,you know, with a lot of humbleness
in, in between.
Yeah.
Because I mean, I tell peopleit's like, yeah, but I was a, I was
(13:47):
a doctor out the battlefield.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, like working the hospital.
Like, no, man, we're workingin the field.
Like you have a backpack.
And back then like this islike, like OIF time era, like 2003,
like our equipment was so oldbecause really the Marine Corps hadn't
been tested like this in 30 years.
So a lot of us ran with, withstuff that was still used in the
(14:09):
Vietnam era.
Right.
And you know, we had to do alot of hard lessons learned and use
that to rebuild our medicine.
Right?
So when I got to Phil Med, werevamped it, right?
I mean there's no way we couldbe teaching kids to go to war and
do medicine, practice medicinethat's 30 years old, you know.
(14:30):
So when we went, we wereconsidered non combatant.
Like you got doc out thererunning around with a 9 mil rocks
at these dudes, you know.
So we made it to wherecorpsman would train within fours,
corpsman would go on the rangeand shoot.
Corpsman would qualify because.
And the essence of it, like,yeah, our job is designed to take
care of the wounded.
(14:51):
But you know, one of the bestthings that we always practice out
there and preached was bulletsdown range is the best medicine on
the battlefield.
Yeah, best medicine on thebattlefield is fire Superiority.
There's another thing.
You just kind of reminded meof a saying that I used that I haven't
used in a long time.
I have everything you need,Nothing you want.
(15:12):
As a corpsman.
I used to say that to theMarines all the time.
Hey, man, I got everything you need.
Nothing you want.
Don't want to see me most ofthe time, but you do want to say
hi to me from.
From afar and standing up.
That's it.
I know.
But after, you know, afterPhil Med, man, I. I made an impact
there.
And, you know, it taught me alot, you know, really.
(15:33):
Like, I always tell peopleeven now, like, you know, public
speaking is not a hard thingfor us, right?
Because from a.
From a young age, especiallyas a corpsman, I mean, shoot, add
up to 240 dudes, I had to knowtheir last four, their health records,
like, and I had to talk tothem as a group, you know, so these
were things that as a.
As young men, we develop skillsets that now, like, for me, like,
(15:56):
in the civilian world, like, Ihave no problem addressing 200 dudes
like, yo, check it out.
This is the safety beef youguys are getting today, right?
And so after film ed, I leftand went to First Anglico, which
is Air Naval Gunfire Liaisons Company.
And I got to work with a lotof pretty unique dudes there, and
I got to deploy with mybrother Junior, right?
(16:19):
So, yeah, interest.
Interesting story about this kid.
So I met him in 05.
I was out in Iraq on a foot patrol.
He was a turret gunner on aseparate unit on a convoy, and they
got hit with an ied and lo andbehold, our paths crossed.
Like, he was laying on the ground.
The corpsman was kind of,like, new on it, wasn't too sure
(16:42):
what to do.
And I'm like, let me checkthis dude out, man.
And, yep, end up benefactingthe guy.
And Fast forward to 2009.
We ended up at Anglicotogether, and we deployed to Afghanistan.
We're out there for the Marjaoperation in the Helmand province.
And then we went back in 11when we were in support of Sangin.
(17:04):
Like, we were kind of ablocking position.
Musa Kayla, while 35 washooking and jabbing on in Sangin.
And, you know, a lot of peoplealways ask me, what was worse?
Was Iraq worse or wasAfghanistan worse?
And honestly, like, eachtheater has its own worst, right?
Like, I think for me in Iraqwas worse because I dealt with a
(17:25):
lot of Marines.
Like, that was my primarycasualty was Marines.
Fallujah was probably one ofthe worst ones.
Like, there was wounded everyday, KIA every other day.
I mean, I remember mortar menwere going out as riflemen because
they were short on the lines.
I remember Coreymen were goingdown, coming in as I came in as a
replacement for a couple ofguys, you know, so that was a tough
(17:47):
spot for that aspect of it.
Fast forward into Afghanistan.
What was rough for me was Idealt with a lot of kids, right?
And so I'm not a parent.
I got no kids.
Like, why should I even care, right?
But I got nephews and nieces,you know, brothers that got kids.
So, yeah, like, that's alwaysa hard one, right?
And it's a.
(18:07):
It's a tough pill to swallowwhen you have one.
And like, you got a mothercomes up, hands you a kid that's
like, lifeless, right?
Like, I want you to fix it.
It's like, man, I can't donothing about it, you know?
So that one for me was a hard one.
When I came, when I left,actually, I was still in Afghanistan.
I was meritoriously promotedto first class.
(18:28):
So now I'm an HM1, I'm an LPO.
I got guys out there andstill, you know, I'm taking care
of them, running FMF tests,teaching them knowledge.
I had a couple of reserviststhat, you know, the reservists that
get activated to come out, youknow, as corpsmen aren't really taken
care of when they're reservists.
Like, there's really notsomebody that, that keeps up with
their knowledge, especiallytheir fmf.
(18:50):
And so I took the opportunityto develop a program while we're
still out there.
And because I ran the FMFprogram when I was still at Division
as a, as a young second class,it gave me that, that leeway.
And so I had made myreputation, you know, to, to always
push for sailors that doesn'tmatter where they come from.
But if they're attached to,you know, the FMF primarily in the
(19:12):
division, into the grunts,then they're going to know everything
that grunts know, right?
So for those of you that don'tknow, like, know the, the Fleet Marine
Force Program when it wasestablished, even to Marines this
day, like, dude, why do youcorn have to know this stuff?
Like, we don't know thisstuff, right?
And so, I mean, shoot, I gotmine when I was in Okinawa.
I mean, I remember Sebragiving me classes like, bo, you gotta
(19:33):
know this.
And I'm like, I got it.
Taking notes, man.
So I developed that.
And, you know, that was thething that I got from when I was
being.
When I was an instructor, youknow, like, and even when I was at
Division, I was an instructorfor Combat Trauma management, which
was a course that wasdeveloped by corpsman to teach back
to the corpsman that werechecking in to division.
(19:55):
And so after I came back fromAfghanistan, I got a free ticket
for chief selection, and loand behold, I got selected.
So a lot of people out thereknow that the only time I ever got
promoted off a test was dirt clients.
I was meritoriously thesecond, meritoriously the first,
(20:16):
and I was literallymeritoriously to achieve.
And, yeah, like, when peopleask me like, yo, how many times you
take the test?
I'm like, I never took it, man.
So, you know, when people ask,I'm like, look, man, merit does speak
volumes.
You know, if you go out thereand you.
You hustle and you, you know,take care of your Marines, you do
(20:37):
what you're supposed to.
It speaks volumes, you know?
And every Marine that's stillout there to this day will still.
Doc, like, they'll hit me uplike, doc, I got a question about
my kid.
I'm like, bro, I'm not apediatric man.
They're like, oh, bring him adoc, man.
He took care of me.
And I'm like, all right, man.
What's up, man?
I'm firing away.
So I think, you know, thatthose are things that.
That for us, like, again,growing up, a standard expectation.
(20:59):
You take the knowledge thatyou're always learning and you develop
yourself, you know?
So after making chief, youknow, I was out at a unit called
assault cracks, unit 5 out ofcamp Pendleton.
I got to work on the blue sideof the Navy.
Like, not the blue side of ahospital, but I got to meet all sorts
of rates in the Navy.
Machinist mates, bosun mates,gas turbine system engineers, you
(21:22):
know, sonar tech.
So I learned a differentculture, so to say.
Even though I'm part of theNavy, I wasn't part of that Navy
because I was always assignedto Marines.
So it really opened up my eyesand gave me a difference in understanding
different mindsets of people, right?
So I know the warriormentality, right?
Because grunts, division.
(21:43):
That's all you know.
And now I go into sailors thatpush buttons all day and never see
combat, right?
So, like, I met a sailor once there.
He's like, man, chief, becauseI've never met anybody with an award
that has a valor on it.
I'm like, bro, there's a.
There's a ton of dudes overHere at Pendleton, bro.
Like, come over here, let meshow you, you know, so, you know,
at that point, making chief isone of those, those pinnacle moments
(22:05):
for us, especially as, ascorpsman, because, I mean, we're
out there, there's a lot ofus, and they don't make many of us,
you know, but when they domake us, you know, we have the due
diligence and theresponsibility of ensuring that we
carry the tradition ofteaching sailors to include our junior
officers.
And we do a lot of mentoring, right?
(22:26):
So after I left ACU 5, I wentback to Division, you know, and the
goal for any, any sailor thatgrows up in division is like, yeah,
man, I want to come back hereand be a chief.
I mean, at what my goal was, right?
That I wanted to go back andhave my old battalion.
And yeah, lo me, who I did, Iended up at, at 1st Battalion, 4th
Marines out in 1st MarineDivision or 1st Marine Regiment.
(22:49):
And you know, my sailors thatI had, like, a lot of them now are
either master chiefs, they'rechiefs, IDCs, you know, and to this
day, I like, no, chief, I needsomebody buy.
So like, yo, man, I'm out, bro.
Like, you got the helm now.
Like, nah.
But this is like, yeah, butyou still give it.
I still give it, bro.
I'm not gonna die, man.
(23:09):
Because they're like, nah,man, this is, this means like a chief
boat tweak on it, right?
Like, oh, I got you, man.
So, you know, there's thingsout there that, like, I always tell
sailors, and it's like, look,man, like, if you got dreams and
drive to, to do what you want,then do it.
You know, don't.
The only obstacle that'salways in your way is you, you know,
and if, if you don't get outthere to do it, then you'll never
(23:30):
know.
And so after having won fourand we took them on the 11th Marine
Expeditionary Unit, you know,I had a lot of guys out there that,
you know, stayed in realistit, you know, they wanted to continue
their careers and lo andbehold, their chief's now out there.
So after I left 1 4, I endedup being the senior enlisted leader
(23:51):
at 5th Marine Regiment, whichwas really cool because that was
probably the most sailors Ihad in impact that had 215 sailors,
and we were responsible forthe healthcare of 5,000 marines.
And I remember when I gotthere, like, I had about 21 legal
case sailors, right?
And so I was like, well,what's wrong with these guys?
(24:11):
They're like, oh, they're onLegal hold.
I'm like, well, what does that mean?
They're like, oh, but theycan't go to the field.
I'm like, bullshit.
If they're sitting around herefucking taking all this ac, Hell,
they got time to go to the field.
So people started realizingthat, you know, if you went on legal
hold, you can get out of fieldops and crap, right?
Well, Chief Bo steps in, islike, hell, no.
Chief Paul's gonna put you to work.
(24:32):
You know, what's your legal case?
Oh, in two weeks.
Cool, bro.
You got two weeks of field time.
Let's go.
And so, you know, it became tothe point where like, hey, man, like,
you better do your job, bro,or Chiefo's gonna hold you accountable.
Because why?
Because I was held accountablewhen I was an ha.
An hn.
A third class.
I mean, even when.
When Hector Reyes checked in,he was a third class.
I was mad because I was like,damn, this took my job.
(24:55):
Right?
Now he's.
He's a senior line corpsman.
I'm like, crap.
You know, but he held meaccountable too, you know, and so,
you know, those were.
I'm paying it forward nowbecause now I'm in that leadership
position and teaching it tothe junior guys, right?
And so I probably ended uphaving one of the best regiments
in division.
A lot of sailors were alwaysgetting very, totally promoted there,
(25:17):
you know, and that was one ofmy biggest things.
It's like, some of us ain'tbook smart, man.
I mean, I was esl, you know,and I had to learn hard, but I learned
that, you know, putting in theeffort and having resilience goes
the distance at the same time,having the standard expectations
(25:39):
and accountability of yourself.
And so a lot of my.
My guys are just performing, right?
Outperforming other guys, right?
And so I had a kid one timeand he was like, chief, I'm never
gonna get promoted.
I'm like, well, who knows you?
He goes, well, everybody knows me.
I'm like, I mean, call theother side of base.
I'm like, hey, man, you guysknow this?
Hm.
Two something.
(25:59):
I'm like, man, how many, youknow, po Indocs have you attended
and have taught?
And he's like, what?
I'm like, yeah, man, you're asecond class.
Why aren't you teaching theseyoung guys how to get promoted?
He's like, oh, light bulb, right?
So now he's like, part ofassociations, helping coordinate
test exams and whatnot.
Lo and behold, he just made achief last year and hits me up.
(26:21):
And he goes, hey, you Rememberthat one time?
I'm like, oh, you didn't want to.
You want to try to tell meeverybody knows you, but nobody knows
you?
He's like, yeah.
He goes, everybody knows me now.
I'm like, well, that's good, man.
I'm happy for you, right?
But, you know, these arethings that.
That.
And I feel like I look back towhen I was a yellow sailor, right?
If I never had the rightmentors, even.
(26:41):
Even bad leaders.
Like, everybody's had a badleader before.
Like, I.
We had a bunch of bad leadersback in the day, you know, but even.
But even they taught mesomething, or they taught me how
not to be.
And so I. I took those lifelessons and I paid it forward.
So when I was the chief and Itook care of my dudes, they all saw
me, I went to the field.
When they were out in thefield and it was raining, I'd bring
(27:03):
them out hot wets, becausethat's always a nice thing, right?
A little hot wet out there.
That's good, you know.
So a lot of my.
Even the Marines were like,damn, Chief, like, you're different.
I'm like, I just grew up indivision, man, taking care of sailors
and Marines.
So when I left Camp Pendleton,I finished my career out in Hawaii.
And, you know, that was like,the start of my decompress, right?
(27:25):
Because now I'm in Hawaii,but, you know, I was hanging out
at Camp Smith.
So I got a general up there.
He got my, you know, dot myI's and cross my T's.
But when I retired, I have myceremony at 5th Marines, right?
And I thought, for me, it wasa pretty, like, nostalgic, right?
I. I checked in as an HA AndI, you know, hung up my cover as
(27:48):
a chief at fifth Rings.
And so when I got out, youknow, just kind of trying to find
a new routine, man.
And it was like one of thosewhere I was like, man, kind of just
shuffling through life, right?
Ended up in California for abit, Arizona, here in Nevada.
I lived out of Utah for a while.
And then finally, you knowwhat I said?
I'm gonna go back home.
(28:09):
So my goal was always to goback home.
I just.
I had to prove to myself thatI could make it back home.
Because when I left, you know,I was in a crossroad where, know,
trying to go to school, tryingto be a thug out in the streets and,
you know, just wasn't matching.
It wasn't vibing for me, you know.
And so I figured, I'm gonna goback home.
And I'm like, yeah, but I'mnot gonna go back into when I left,
(28:30):
I'm gonna go back and besomething different, you know, so.
Bought a house by the lake.
I found my piece, found my new routine.
And then for a while, I. I did contracts.
And.
Yeah.
You know, along the way, I'vemet a lot of cool people.
And what I noticed, though, isthat there's a lot of vets out there,
right?
So one of the things I do nowis I help veterans with their.
With their disability claims.
(28:52):
A lot of don't know how toprocess where to start or started
it, just can't finish it.
Because I feel that the waythe system's designed is, you know,
you go on there and you put aclaim like, hey, my foot hurts, right?
So somebody reads it as like,oh, man, this guy just has just foot
pain, like, no big deal.
But I think that when youwrite and articulate your pain in
(29:14):
a manner how we as Cormanwould write notes, now you're presenting
it to a doctor who's actuallyreading this stuff, right?
So I try to take guys claimsand just kind of rewrite their stuff
for them, right.
Instead of just saying, hey, Igot footprint because I fell on the
infiltration course, I writeit out for them where it's like,
look, man, you need todescribe that pain.
(29:34):
Like it's shoeing pain or it'snumbing pain, and it's numb because
you rolled your ankles, you'rerunning the obstacle course or the
infiltration course, and thenyou were doing a workup for your
deployment, and guess what?
You just sucked it up becausethat's what we did back in the day,
right?
So now you're a little.
You're.
You're.
It's like saying you do the.
The S of the soap note, right?
And so the S of the soap notefor us as corpsman was the subjective
(29:57):
part.
You give as much detail aspossible to describe that pain or
that chief complaint, right?
So for us, when we're doingsick call, your patient showed up,
and that subjective part iswhat the doc would look at, right?
Get as much information possible.
So when he does his objectiveportion of it and would do the.
The assessment of it, he hasthe backing of what to prescribe
(30:20):
for the plan of how to treat this.
This chief complaint, youknow, so for a lot of vets that I
come across is what I.
What I tend to try to helpthem with, right?
You know, a lot of these guysthat I meet, I mean, it's not at
no building Where I'm sittingbehind a desk and I'm in a shirt
and tie with my lovely wall inthe back.
You know, it's just meet theseguys at, you know, Lowe's at the
(30:40):
bar, sometimes out in thegrocery store just chopping it up
or, you know, just run intosomebody's like, hey, man, I hear
you help people, man.
Absolutely.
No, that's right.
That's right.
And I'm gonna.
I'm gonna end up talking to Boa lot more because we're gonna talk
to him and Junior.
He brought up Junior.
Uh, Junior started thisnonprofit called American Bloodline.
We're going to end up goinginto that a lot and a whole bunch
(31:02):
of other things with Bo.
Hope to get you on with that.
We're going to get you on with.
With the Lima Company guys.
You know, Bo brought up allthose guys, you know, Hudnall Reyes
and Otis Miller, all those guys.
So, you know, we're going toget all those guys in.
But, hey, there's a huge thingthat Bo brought up.
You know, he brought up how,in fact, the standard of trust that
(31:23):
has to happen within theMarine Corps for us as corpsmen to
be meeting that standard.
We're one of the mostdecorated elements within the military,
as the hospital corps.
And so we have to meet thisstandard, and we have to meet this
trust with our Marines inorder for them to be able to say,
hey, Doc, you're going to comewith us, and we're going to trust
you 100% on the line to fightthe fight, and we're going to get
(31:44):
through this together.
And so, hey, you know, Bo wentover a lot.
He kind of skipped over a lotof cool shit and hard stuff.
There's a lot of hard stuff in between.
So, you know, if you.
If you want to get some ofthat knowledge, if you want to talk
to.
Feel free.
Both.
They want to get a hold of you.
Talk about that real quick.
How can they get a hold of you?
They can do it through me.
But if you want to give outany information, feel free to do
(32:05):
that right now.
Any last words for you, brother?
So, I'm not a. I'm not asocial media person.
I don't like people trolling me.
However you control himthrough me, you can, but can.
But if you do want to get ahold of me, get a hold of Siebert.
He has my number.
But, hey, until next time,strength and honor out the only way
(32:26):
and we need nothing more theonly way.
Together forever.
That's for sure.
Combat Vet Vision.
Hey, welcome to Combat Vet Vision.
This is a place where combatveterans, myself, other sponsors,
supporters, volunteers get totell their stories, come in here.
And actually this is to helpveterans either navigate their life
(00:21):
or whatever it might be.
Our sponsor, supporters andvolunteers be able to come in and
tell their stories and helpnavigate some systems, but really
just to get a really goodstory across and do some stuff.
I am here today with my goodbuddy and longtime friend Randy Bahork,
is fellow chief, retired,doing some really incredible stuff
(00:41):
in his life and another LimaCompany Corman that we've been following
with Lima Company and we'regoing to get all four of those guys
together in the near future.
Randy, thanks a lot for beinghere, brother.
Great to have, you know.
Absolutely.
This is your second time onmy, on my podcast.
Thanks for being herephysically and in the, in the, in
the flesh, so.
Absolutely, man.
(01:02):
It's a, it's a good feelinglike always, man.
Like I always tell you, youknow, it's always good to catch up
with brothers.
You know, we, we have distancefrom a lot of us, different states,
but, you know, I'm in the samestate, man.
I'm gonna make the effort todefinitely run into you and butt
heads a little bit and, youknow, the brotherly.
Love, man, you know, why not exactly.
Hey, and the last time we, wespoke, you know, we had, we had a
(01:26):
lot of really good, gooddiscussion too.
But I'd love for you to tellyour story again a little bit, talk
about, you know, your, yourtime with Lima Company and then get
into, you know, go back, goback in, in time and why did you
join the military?
And we go way back too, andtalk about our experience when we,
when we met and what, whatthat, what that meant and how that
went.
All right, so for me, I haveto say my time started back in 99.
(01:51):
Kind of crossroads, trying tofigure out what to do next with life.
I was an overachiever,graduated high school early, started
college early, tried to pursuea degree and just wasn't working
out.
So I figured join themilitary, grab some money for school
and pay that out.
But when I joined, this waspre 9 11, so, you know, TSA didn't
(02:14):
exist.
You could still carry a 2liter coat through the airport security.
Nobody would question it.
You know, carry your wholesuitcase practically through the
checkpoints and nobody wouldbat an eye to it.
So, you know, I decided tojoin the Navy.
And honestly, you know,joining a gunnery sergeant is who
told me about being a Navy corpsman.
So, you know, went to therecruiting office and, you know,
(02:38):
popped in back then was a vhs, right?
Marine comes out of the waterall cammied up, flies off in the
helicopter, and I'm like, hellyeah, man, sign me up.
And I was like, you know,where's the medical portion of it?
He's like, oh, man, we ain'tgot no medical.
I'm like, shoot, man.
Well, I guess I'm gonna go tothe Army.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
He goes, you know, back in myday in the infantry, there was this
guy, we called him Doc, and hewas a Navy.
(02:58):
Navy corpsman.
And he did everything we did.
Practically slept with us inthe field, ran the ranges, shot.
You name it, he did it.
And then we got hurt.
He took care of us.
I'm like, cool, man, Sign meup, right?
So, walked into the recruiteroffice, said, I want to be a named
corpsman.
Started my pipeline.
(03:20):
And the first time I ran intoyou was back in July of 2000.
So I just completed boot campin core school, checked in a naval
hospital.
Camp Pendleton, the oldhospital way back out there by where
mountain lions would behanging out sometimes.
Only beyond those rides.
That's right.
You'd see some paw prints oreven a quick little flash of the
(03:43):
lion, right?
And yeah, check.
Then at the time, he was HM2, Siebert.
And that was just a little ha.
A little E1 or.
Yeah, or E2 checking in.
And he would run us.
Siebert would run us.
Him And Andino, remember HM2and Dino, man, both these guys would
just run us into the dirtthrough the hills.
(04:03):
But, you know, that was likethe start of.
Of somebody taking charge ofus and, like, prepping us, right?
Because I was going to fieldmedical at the time was field medical
service school.
Right now it's called FieldMedical Training Battalion.
And I didn't know what I wasgetting into, man.
I was just going to hang out abunch of Marines.
I was like, cool.
And yeah, like, you know, fromwhen I left home to that point in
(04:26):
my life, like, you know, I hadalready gone through some stuff.
I hadn't tore my ACL playingsoccer or partially torn it, you
know, went through a specialist.
And they're like, hey, man, aslong as you run straight, you're
good.
I'm like, all right, cool.
I want to go to field medicine.
They're like, nah, you ain'tgot to run straight there.
I'm like, yeah, but I stillwant to go hang out with Marines.
And so I. I chose that pathand, you know, made it through filmed
(04:49):
and checked into Lima Company 35.
They're Battalion 5th Marinesout in 5th Marine Regiment.
And you know, that's probablywhere I, I can say I, I started my
journey as a young sailor, right?
So checked in, know, met someof the guys over at Lima.
I think the first guy I evermet was Otis Miller, that was first
(05:09):
Platoon.
And I met him when I was stillat, at Phil Med.
Like he would come out andlike check out this, the prospects
that were coming in, right?
And so he's like, yeah bro,you want to go to 3 5?
I'm like, bet.
And him.
And I became like, that's likemy brother from another mother.
And couple of months later,Hector Reyes checked in and Derek
(05:32):
Hudnall checked in.
It's like we're like the fourcorners, right?
So we're like at opposite endand slowly but surely we became the
Lima docs, man.
Like we're pretty known acrossthe battalion, right?
You know, Reyes and I, andeven, even Hudnall, we're all Marine
ranked sailors.
And so those are things thatare not very common in the corpsman
(05:54):
world, right?
Like it's only a few.
Back then we had things calledlike super squad and whatnot.
And there was always one of usattached to those super squads where
you'd run like a gauntlet oflike exercises all over 5th Marines,
up the heel pad, down the Widowmaker.
And then there was anothersailor back then, HMT Spencer at
(06:16):
the time, this.
Guy Gummy Bear Oak.
Yeah, because he worked at agummy bear factory.
This guy has a old.
One of the oldest corpsmen I knew.
Yeah, this guy just was likeone of the longest running.
He didn't even look like a runner.
But man, this guy would runus, the Widowmaker, up the helo pad,
(06:36):
back up first Orange Hill.
And then guess what, get backto the BS in New York, man.
And yeah, it was like, youknow, we're like, back then we were
a bunch of youngsters, youknow, we were just trying to figure
out life.
And so I think for a lot of usthen we all kind of clicked very
well and we started ourfoundation of that brotherhood, right?
(06:57):
And so we did a deployment to Okinawa.
We were part of the 31st Mewand we went out, saw the world on
a different aspect of beinglike a combat deployment.
We actually got partied overseas.
We were in Hong Kong with thePhilippines, Korea, you know, and
(07:17):
these were like life lessonsfor us because now I've never traveled,
I never traveled with itbefore I even joined the Navy.
And here I am like seeing theworld, right?
And so we get back from thisdeployment, you know, we kind of.
Do you remember that deployment?
We almost got steered offbecause there was something that
kicked off in, let's say itwas Pakistan and something else.
(07:40):
Afghanistan we were going to support.
You know, we're like, hey,there might be something.
We have to.
If we leave out of this portand we steer left, we're going to
go this way, right?
We're going to.
We're going back home.
We could have gotten steeredright off into a combat scenario
or a neo.
Op at the time, the 31st Mew.
(08:00):
Usually when they're out andoperating, they're the most furthest
out.
That can pretty much be thatreact force the QRF for whatever
op is going on.
And so, yeah, they had told us that.
So we're on a.
On a constant Sparrowhawkmission, right?
Like, you just kind of standby to.
Stand by to wait and find outwhat's going to happen.
So a lot of, like the time Iwas a Hilo company, and yeah, we.
(08:23):
We slept on the flight deckplenty of nights just waiting to
leave or on the.
On the.
Down in the well deck or inthe chute, just waiting to go.
But, yeah, we were on standby that.
That year on that deployment.
Then we got back, and then,you know, things were kind of quieted
down.
And then next thing you know,like, oh, we're going to war.
And we're like, where are we going?
And sure enough, it's like, Iremember I was on leave and I got
(08:45):
recalled back.
I was like, I got to spendChristmas at home.
And then literally, like dayafter Christmas, I flew back to Camp
Pendleton, and I remember itwas like a anthrax and smallpox stand
down.
Like, everybody's getting shot up.
And then we pretty much.
The parties in January, we allgot to Kuwait.
(09:05):
We hung out in Kuwait tillabout maybe mid March.
And I want to say that'sprobably where a lot of us were tested,
tried and true, right?
That's right.
We got out there and, man, Ilaugh at some of the stuff that we
went through because thesewere things that we would read in
(09:26):
a.
In a book or see it.
A movie on a movie.
Like legit.
Literally right by thatsandstorm that happened March 25th
or the 26th.
Like, how about.
How about just like, we were.
We were like, going to haveour last meal, and it was going to
be like, the steak.
Steak dinner.
Yeah, they were, like, cookingall these steaks, and we left, like,
literally, like five hoursbefore that.
(09:48):
And they told us about thesesteaks they were going to serve us,
where.
We got steak, got a debrief.
And it was straight up asafari across the.
The desert.
Like everybody's just movingacross the desert to the line of
departure at an.
Immediate rate, which wasunique because like, you know, a.
A force online sweepingthrough a country is how I can best
(10:09):
describe what 2003 was like.
Literally, you had 1stMarines, 5th Marines, 7th Marines.
And that's just the marineunits then you have like all these
army units.
But his little fuel trucks andrandom vehicles that you've never
seen.
Every vehicle that was outthere was a military vehicle.
It looked like a freeway thatyou would see in America, but every
(10:31):
vehicle on that freeway wasnothing but military.
So very strange view for sure.
And a lightning storm in the distance.
When we took out the ant hill,that looked like a lightning storm,
but was actually.
Was actually the Tomahawk.
Tomahawks hitting that hilland just taking out their.
(10:53):
Their ability to communicate.
Communicate, yeah.
So it was a.
It was an eye opener.
Like I, I'd have to say thatlike, growing up, I foresaw myself
a certain way.
And in Iraq, I discovered whoI'm truly was meant to be.
And so after that deploymentcame back and I signed up for it
(11:15):
again.
I'm like, yo, I love this.
It's great.
Like, this is where I strive at.
And so trauma was my thing forthe longest.
Like gunshots, amputation,sucking chest wounds.
Like, easy day, man.
Like I rolled with the best of them.
And so I went back out in 04.
I was out there for Fallujah.
I went out with 1st Marines.
I was a replacement.
(11:37):
I attached to 3, 5 for liketwo days while they were out pushing
around through the Joel ondistrict, ran into Chris Johnson
who lived out at the trainstation, a couple other guys at the
apartment complex.
And then I came back in 05.
And you know, by this point Iwas, I was a third class, I was a
(11:59):
petty officer, third class,E4, you know, making rank.
And then I was very touristicpromoted to E5 when I came back from
that deployment.
And you know, I, I would bitchand complain about sailors coming
out of field med.
I'm like, man, these guysain't tough.
Like, who the hell's teachingthese dudes, right?
And my old.
(12:19):
One of my old mentor, TerryGreen, was like, bo, if you want
to make a difference, then whydon't you go be a field med instructor?
I'm like, you know what?
Fuck it.
I'll go be a fieldman instructor.
And Yeah, I did three years atFilm Med and you know, there's a
lot of guys out there thatremember me.
I mean, I can't remember everybody.
I mean, shoot, I was pushing300 students per class and.
(12:40):
But they all, to this day,there is still somebody out there,
they'll say like, oh yeah, Hm, Tube.
Yeah.
Don't cross that dude thewrong way, man, because he's going
to check you.
And you know, honestly, like,I was a dude that grew up around
the infantry and the standardexpectations that I was taught in
that mindset are things that,those are life lessons, right?
(13:03):
And so they help you definehow you function and how you do your
work.
And so along the way, again,starting from when I met Siebert,
he gave me a foundation ofstandards and expectations.
And then I went somewhere elseand I met another mentor.
Now he senior guy, right?
(13:23):
He gave me standards.
And so here I am, like just collecting.
So I think as I went alonglife, right.
As a young sailor, when I wasin core school, we had this, this
saying, we're like jack of alltrades, master at none.
Right?
And trauma gods and, and that,you know, with a lot of humbleness
in, in between.
Yeah.
Because I mean, I tell peopleit's like, yeah, but I was a, I was
(13:47):
a doctor out the battlefield.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, like working the hospital.
Like, no, man, we're workingin the field.
Like you have a backpack.
And back then like this islike, like OIF time era, like 2003,
like our equipment was so oldbecause really the Marine Corps hadn't
been tested like this in 30 years.
So a lot of us ran with, withstuff that was still used in the
(14:09):
Vietnam era.
Right.
And you know, we had to do alot of hard lessons learned and use
that to rebuild our medicine.
Right?
So when I got to Phil Med, werevamped it, right?
I mean there's no way we couldbe teaching kids to go to war and
do medicine, practice medicinethat's 30 years old, you know.
(14:30):
So when we went, we wereconsidered non combatant.
Like you got doc out thererunning around with a 9 mil rocks
at these dudes, you know.
So we made it to wherecorpsman would train within fours,
corpsman would go on the rangeand shoot.
Corpsman would qualify because.
And the essence of it, like,yeah, our job is designed to take
care of the wounded.
(14:51):
But you know, one of the bestthings that we always practice out
there and preached was bulletsdown range is the best medicine on
the battlefield.
Yeah, best medicine on thebattlefield is fire Superiority.
There's another thing.
You just kind of reminded meof a saying that I used that I haven't
used in a long time.
I have everything you need,Nothing you want.
(15:12):
As a corpsman.
I used to say that to theMarines all the time.
Hey, man, I got everything you need.
Nothing you want.
Don't want to see me most ofthe time, but you do want to say
hi to me from.
From afar and standing up.
That's it.
I know.
But after, you know, afterPhil Med, man, I. I made an impact
there.
And, you know, it taught me alot, you know, really.
(15:33):
Like, I always tell peopleeven now, like, you know, public
speaking is not a hard thingfor us, right?
Because from a.
From a young age, especiallyas a corpsman, I mean, shoot, add
up to 240 dudes, I had to knowtheir last four, their health records,
like, and I had to talk tothem as a group, you know, so these
were things that as a.
As young men, we develop skillsets that now, like, for me, like,
(15:56):
in the civilian world, like, Ihave no problem addressing 200 dudes
like, yo, check it out.
This is the safety beef youguys are getting today, right?
And so after film ed, I leftand went to First Anglico, which
is Air Naval Gunfire Liaisons Company.
And I got to work with a lotof pretty unique dudes there, and
I got to deploy with mybrother Junior, right?
(16:19):
So, yeah, interest.
Interesting story about this kid.
So I met him in 05.
I was out in Iraq on a foot patrol.
He was a turret gunner on aseparate unit on a convoy, and they
got hit with an ied and lo andbehold, our paths crossed.
Like, he was laying on the ground.
The corpsman was kind of,like, new on it, wasn't too sure
(16:42):
what to do.
And I'm like, let me checkthis dude out, man.
And, yep, end up benefactingthe guy.
And Fast forward to 2009.
We ended up at Anglicotogether, and we deployed to Afghanistan.
We're out there for the Marjaoperation in the Helmand province.
And then we went back in 11when we were in support of Sangin.
(17:04):
Like, we were kind of ablocking position.
Musa Kayla, while 35 washooking and jabbing on in Sangin.
And, you know, a lot of peoplealways ask me, what was worse?
Was Iraq worse or wasAfghanistan worse?
And honestly, like, eachtheater has its own worst, right?
Like, I think for me in Iraqwas worse because I dealt with a
(17:25):
lot of Marines.
Like, that was my primarycasualty was Marines.
Fallujah was probably one ofthe worst ones.
Like, there was wounded everyday, KIA every other day.
I mean, I remember mortar menwere going out as riflemen because
they were short on the lines.
I remember Coreymen were goingdown, coming in as I came in as a
replacement for a couple ofguys, you know, so that was a tough
(17:47):
spot for that aspect of it.
Fast forward into Afghanistan.
What was rough for me was Idealt with a lot of kids, right?
And so I'm not a parent.
I got no kids.
Like, why should I even care, right?
But I got nephews and nieces,you know, brothers that got kids.
So, yeah, like, that's alwaysa hard one, right?
And it's a.
(18:07):
It's a tough pill to swallowwhen you have one.
And like, you got a mothercomes up, hands you a kid that's
like, lifeless, right?
Like, I want you to fix it.
It's like, man, I can't donothing about it, you know?
So that one for me was a hard one.
When I came, when I left,actually, I was still in Afghanistan.
I was meritoriously promotedto first class.
(18:28):
So now I'm an HM1, I'm an LPO.
I got guys out there andstill, you know, I'm taking care
of them, running FMF tests,teaching them knowledge.
I had a couple of reserviststhat, you know, the reservists that
get activated to come out, youknow, as corpsmen aren't really taken
care of when they're reservists.
Like, there's really notsomebody that, that keeps up with
their knowledge, especiallytheir fmf.
(18:50):
And so I took the opportunityto develop a program while we're
still out there.
And because I ran the FMFprogram when I was still at Division
as a, as a young second class,it gave me that, that leeway.
And so I had made myreputation, you know, to, to always
push for sailors that doesn'tmatter where they come from.
But if they're attached to,you know, the FMF primarily in the
(19:12):
division, into the grunts,then they're going to know everything
that grunts know, right?
So for those of you that don'tknow, like, know the, the Fleet Marine
Force Program when it wasestablished, even to Marines this
day, like, dude, why do youcorn have to know this stuff?
Like, we don't know thisstuff, right?
And so, I mean, shoot, I gotmine when I was in Okinawa.
I mean, I remember Sebragiving me classes like, bo, you gotta
(19:33):
know this.
And I'm like, I got it.
Taking notes, man.
So I developed that.
And, you know, that was thething that I got from when I was
being.
When I was an instructor, youknow, like, and even when I was at
Division, I was an instructorfor Combat Trauma management, which
was a course that wasdeveloped by corpsman to teach back
to the corpsman that werechecking in to division.
(19:55):
And so after I came back fromAfghanistan, I got a free ticket
for chief selection, and loand behold, I got selected.
So a lot of people out thereknow that the only time I ever got
promoted off a test was dirt clients.
I was meritoriously thesecond, meritoriously the first,
(20:16):
and I was literallymeritoriously to achieve.
And, yeah, like, when peopleask me like, yo, how many times you
take the test?
I'm like, I never took it, man.
So, you know, when people ask,I'm like, look, man, merit does speak
volumes.
You know, if you go out thereand you.
You hustle and you, you know,take care of your Marines, you do
(20:37):
what you're supposed to.
It speaks volumes, you know?
And every Marine that's stillout there to this day will still.
Doc, like, they'll hit me uplike, doc, I got a question about
my kid.
I'm like, bro, I'm not apediatric man.
They're like, oh, bring him adoc, man.
He took care of me.
And I'm like, all right, man.
What's up, man?
I'm firing away.
So I think, you know, thatthose are things that.
That for us, like, again,growing up, a standard expectation.
(20:59):
You take the knowledge thatyou're always learning and you develop
yourself, you know?
So after making chief, youknow, I was out at a unit called
assault cracks, unit 5 out ofcamp Pendleton.
I got to work on the blue sideof the Navy.
Like, not the blue side of ahospital, but I got to meet all sorts
of rates in the Navy.
Machinist mates, bosun mates,gas turbine system engineers, you
(21:22):
know, sonar tech.
So I learned a differentculture, so to say.
Even though I'm part of theNavy, I wasn't part of that Navy
because I was always assignedto Marines.
So it really opened up my eyesand gave me a difference in understanding
different mindsets of people, right?
So I know the warriormentality, right?
Because grunts, division.
(21:43):
That's all you know.
And now I go into sailors thatpush buttons all day and never see
combat, right?
So, like, I met a sailor once there.
He's like, man, chief, becauseI've never met anybody with an award
that has a valor on it.
I'm like, bro, there's a.
There's a ton of dudes overHere at Pendleton, bro.
Like, come over here, let meshow you, you know, so, you know,
at that point, making chief isone of those, those pinnacle moments
(22:05):
for us, especially as, ascorpsman, because, I mean, we're
out there, there's a lot ofus, and they don't make many of us,
you know, but when they domake us, you know, we have the due
diligence and theresponsibility of ensuring that we
carry the tradition ofteaching sailors to include our junior
officers.
And we do a lot of mentoring, right?
(22:26):
So after I left ACU 5, I wentback to Division, you know, and the
goal for any, any sailor thatgrows up in division is like, yeah,
man, I want to come back hereand be a chief.
I mean, at what my goal was, right?
That I wanted to go back andhave my old battalion.
And yeah, lo me, who I did, Iended up at, at 1st Battalion, 4th
Marines out in 1st MarineDivision or 1st Marine Regiment.
(22:49):
And you know, my sailors thatI had, like, a lot of them now are
either master chiefs, they'rechiefs, IDCs, you know, and to this
day, I like, no, chief, I needsomebody buy.
So like, yo, man, I'm out, bro.
Like, you got the helm now.
Like, nah.
But this is like, yeah, butyou still give it.
I still give it, bro.
I'm not gonna die, man.
(23:09):
Because they're like, nah,man, this is, this means like a chief
boat tweak on it, right?
Like, oh, I got you, man.
So, you know, there's thingsout there that, like, I always tell
sailors, and it's like, look,man, like, if you got dreams and
drive to, to do what you want,then do it.
You know, don't.
The only obstacle that'salways in your way is you, you know,
and if, if you don't get outthere to do it, then you'll never
(23:30):
know.
And so after having won fourand we took them on the 11th Marine
Expeditionary Unit, you know,I had a lot of guys out there that,
you know, stayed in realistit, you know, they wanted to continue
their careers and lo andbehold, their chief's now out there.
So after I left 1 4, I endedup being the senior enlisted leader
(23:51):
at 5th Marine Regiment, whichwas really cool because that was
probably the most sailors Ihad in impact that had 215 sailors,
and we were responsible forthe healthcare of 5,000 marines.
And I remember when I gotthere, like, I had about 21 legal
case sailors, right?
And so I was like, well,what's wrong with these guys?
(24:11):
They're like, oh, they're onLegal hold.
I'm like, well, what does that mean?
They're like, oh, but theycan't go to the field.
I'm like, bullshit.
If they're sitting around herefucking taking all this ac, Hell,
they got time to go to the field.
So people started realizingthat, you know, if you went on legal
hold, you can get out of fieldops and crap, right?
Well, Chief Bo steps in, islike, hell, no.
Chief Paul's gonna put you to work.
(24:32):
You know, what's your legal case?
Oh, in two weeks.
Cool, bro.
You got two weeks of field time.
Let's go.
And so, you know, it became tothe point where like, hey, man, like,
you better do your job, bro,or Chiefo's gonna hold you accountable.
Because why?
Because I was held accountablewhen I was an ha.
An hn.
A third class.
I mean, even when.
When Hector Reyes checked in,he was a third class.
I was mad because I was like,damn, this took my job.
(24:55):
Right?
Now he's.
He's a senior line corpsman.
I'm like, crap.
You know, but he held meaccountable too, you know, and so,
you know, those were.
I'm paying it forward nowbecause now I'm in that leadership
position and teaching it tothe junior guys, right?
And so I probably ended uphaving one of the best regiments
in division.
A lot of sailors were alwaysgetting very, totally promoted there,
(25:17):
you know, and that was one ofmy biggest things.
It's like, some of us ain'tbook smart, man.
I mean, I was esl, you know,and I had to learn hard, but I learned
that, you know, putting in theeffort and having resilience goes
the distance at the same time,having the standard expectations
(25:39):
and accountability of yourself.
And so a lot of my.
My guys are just performing, right?
Outperforming other guys, right?
And so I had a kid one timeand he was like, chief, I'm never
gonna get promoted.
I'm like, well, who knows you?
He goes, well, everybody knows me.
I'm like, I mean, call theother side of base.
I'm like, hey, man, you guysknow this?
Hm.
Two something.
(25:59):
I'm like, man, how many, youknow, po Indocs have you attended
and have taught?
And he's like, what?
I'm like, yeah, man, you're asecond class.
Why aren't you teaching theseyoung guys how to get promoted?
He's like, oh, light bulb, right?
So now he's like, part ofassociations, helping coordinate
test exams and whatnot.
Lo and behold, he just made achief last year and hits me up.
(26:21):
And he goes, hey, you Rememberthat one time?
I'm like, oh, you didn't want to.
You want to try to tell meeverybody knows you, but nobody knows
you?
He's like, yeah.
He goes, everybody knows me now.
I'm like, well, that's good, man.
I'm happy for you, right?
But, you know, these arethings that.
That.
And I feel like I look back towhen I was a yellow sailor, right?
If I never had the rightmentors, even.
(26:41):
Even bad leaders.
Like, everybody's had a badleader before.
Like, I.
We had a bunch of bad leadersback in the day, you know, but even.
But even they taught mesomething, or they taught me how
not to be.
And so I. I took those lifelessons and I paid it forward.
So when I was the chief and Itook care of my dudes, they all saw
me, I went to the field.
When they were out in thefield and it was raining, I'd bring
(27:03):
them out hot wets, becausethat's always a nice thing, right?
A little hot wet out there.
That's good, you know.
So a lot of my.
Even the Marines were like,damn, Chief, like, you're different.
I'm like, I just grew up indivision, man, taking care of sailors
and Marines.
So when I left Camp Pendleton,I finished my career out in Hawaii.
And, you know, that was like,the start of my decompress, right?
(27:25):
Because now I'm in Hawaii,but, you know, I was hanging out
at Camp Smith.
So I got a general up there.
He got my, you know, dot myI's and cross my T's.
But when I retired, I have myceremony at 5th Marines, right?
And I thought, for me, it wasa pretty, like, nostalgic, right?
I. I checked in as an HA AndI, you know, hung up my cover as
(27:48):
a chief at fifth Rings.
And so when I got out, youknow, just kind of trying to find
a new routine, man.
And it was like one of thosewhere I was like, man, kind of just
shuffling through life, right?
Ended up in California for abit, Arizona, here in Nevada.
I lived out of Utah for a while.
And then finally, you knowwhat I said?
I'm gonna go back home.
(28:09):
So my goal was always to goback home.
I just.
I had to prove to myself thatI could make it back home.
Because when I left, you know,I was in a crossroad where, know,
trying to go to school, tryingto be a thug out in the streets and,
you know, just wasn't matching.
It wasn't vibing for me, you know.
And so I figured, I'm gonna goback home.
And I'm like, yeah, but I'mnot gonna go back into when I left,
(28:30):
I'm gonna go back and besomething different, you know, so.
Bought a house by the lake.
I found my piece, found my new routine.
And then for a while, I. I did contracts.
And.
Yeah.
You know, along the way, I'vemet a lot of cool people.
And what I noticed, though, isthat there's a lot of vets out there,
right?
So one of the things I do nowis I help veterans with their.
With their disability claims.
(28:52):
A lot of don't know how toprocess where to start or started
it, just can't finish it.
Because I feel that the waythe system's designed is, you know,
you go on there and you put aclaim like, hey, my foot hurts, right?
So somebody reads it as like,oh, man, this guy just has just foot
pain, like, no big deal.
But I think that when youwrite and articulate your pain in
(29:14):
a manner how we as Cormanwould write notes, now you're presenting
it to a doctor who's actuallyreading this stuff, right?
So I try to take guys claimsand just kind of rewrite their stuff
for them, right.
Instead of just saying, hey, Igot footprint because I fell on the
infiltration course, I writeit out for them where it's like,
look, man, you need todescribe that pain.
(29:34):
Like it's shoeing pain or it'snumbing pain, and it's numb because
you rolled your ankles, you'rerunning the obstacle course or the
infiltration course, and thenyou were doing a workup for your
deployment, and guess what?
You just sucked it up becausethat's what we did back in the day,
right?
So now you're a little.
You're.
You're.
It's like saying you do the.
The S of the soap note, right?
And so the S of the soap notefor us as corpsman was the subjective
(29:57):
part.
You give as much detail aspossible to describe that pain or
that chief complaint, right?
So for us, when we're doingsick call, your patient showed up,
and that subjective part iswhat the doc would look at, right?
Get as much information possible.
So when he does his objectiveportion of it and would do the.
The assessment of it, he hasthe backing of what to prescribe
(30:20):
for the plan of how to treat this.
This chief complaint, youknow, so for a lot of vets that I
come across is what I.
What I tend to try to helpthem with, right?
You know, a lot of these guysthat I meet, I mean, it's not at
no building Where I'm sittingbehind a desk and I'm in a shirt
and tie with my lovely wall inthe back.
You know, it's just meet theseguys at, you know, Lowe's at the
(30:40):
bar, sometimes out in thegrocery store just chopping it up
or, you know, just run intosomebody's like, hey, man, I hear
you help people, man.
Absolutely.
No, that's right.
That's right.
And I'm gonna.
I'm gonna end up talking to Boa lot more because we're gonna talk
to him and Junior.
He brought up Junior.
Uh, Junior started thisnonprofit called American Bloodline.
We're going to end up goinginto that a lot and a whole bunch
(31:02):
of other things with Bo.
Hope to get you on with that.
We're going to get you on with.
With the Lima Company guys.
You know, Bo brought up allthose guys, you know, Hudnall Reyes
and Otis Miller, all those guys.
So, you know, we're going toget all those guys in.
But, hey, there's a huge thingthat Bo brought up.
You know, he brought up how,in fact, the standard of trust that
(31:23):
has to happen within theMarine Corps for us as corpsmen to
be meeting that standard.
We're one of the mostdecorated elements within the military,
as the hospital corps.
And so we have to meet thisstandard, and we have to meet this
trust with our Marines inorder for them to be able to say,
hey, Doc, you're going to comewith us, and we're going to trust
you 100% on the line to fightthe fight, and we're going to get
(31:44):
through this together.
And so, hey, you know, Bo wentover a lot.
He kind of skipped over a lotof cool shit and hard stuff.
There's a lot of hard stuff in between.
So, you know, if you.
If you want to get some ofthat knowledge, if you want to talk
to.
Feel free.
Both.
They want to get a hold of you.
Talk about that real quick.
How can they get a hold of you?
They can do it through me.
But if you want to give outany information, feel free to do
(32:05):
that right now.
Any last words for you, brother?
So, I'm not a. I'm not asocial media person.
I don't like people trolling me.
However you control himthrough me, you can, but can.
But if you do want to get ahold of me, get a hold of Siebert.
He has my number.
But, hey, until next time,strength and honor out the only way
(32:26):
and we need nothing more theonly way.
Together forever.
That's for sure.
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