8469?

[Zealot]

Heard some rumors going round about a potentially new rate designator being added to the corpsman line up, 8469? The information that I was given is that it will basically be permemant green side FMF. Has anyone heard any information about this at all?

[kamon8404]

I have not heard about this. I don't see how that would be beneficial if a corpsman is expected to have diversity.

[Psyphr]

I've heard a little about this when the Force and SG were at Camp Pendleton. Discussions centered around SRB vs SDAP for 8404s, loss of proficiency in 8404s away from greenside commands for long times, and being mapped to a greenside command immediately upon checking into a "shore" duty command after doing multiple pumps with the greenside. The proposed NEC addresses the fact that 8404s possess a different skill set than other general duty Corpsmen, and while we're sitting at a Naval Hospital for three years, that skill set becomes rusty since you can't do much more than take vital signs at a Naval Hospital if you're a 0000/8404. Also, as I understand it, having a separate NEC for FMF Corpsmen will make it easier in the future to authorize SRBs and other special pays. Also, and this did my heart good, within two months of telling the SG that there really is no shore duty for 8404s (since hospitals tag us with the greenside platforms as soon as we check in), a new instruction hit the streets that gives us a break before having to deploy again.

[MAWDoc]

HM 8469, if it will be called that, does not indicate "CAREER GREEN" - sorry. What the idea's intent is to ensure Senior Enlisted (HM1-HMCM) are prepared to perform in this capacity, wherein more administrative functions and USMC operations/Navy policies and procedures can be closer aligned by a Subject Matter Expert, ie, the LPO or LCPO. In a nutshell, we'll make sure that a HM3 getting out of 2dMARDIV now doesn't come back to the FMF after 3 more Navy tours in a 12 year period as an HMC, and is unfamiliar with the USMC from a leadership and operational planning perspective. Also, to identify the required knowledge and abilities that he/she will require in a SNCO-equivalent billet on the Navy side of the FMF, versus Field Medicine and combat care, which, while necessary to know, is not all you need to know as you progress upward in the chain of command, and Naval Hospitals and shipboard commands do not prepare a HMC to act as say, the Division medical planner or MEU command element LPO.

That said, its intent is not toward a 20 ++ year career in cammies...that is a myth.
S/F-
HMC(FMF) Dean