Actually that little story happened time and time again. Doc was "Doc" to every Marine he came in contact with. The first time that I remember it happening was when I was a platoon Corpsman with I 3/5, just before being assigned to Kilo Company as your Sr. Corpsman.

Our platoon took a hit on it's Amtrak by a command detonated 200 lb bomb booby trap. The handful of us that were still left on the hill ran thru the mined area to get to our Marines and render aid. The fireball went up about 20 stories high and was hot enough to melt some weapons into the steel superstructure of what was left of the Amtrac. No one was killed outright, but all were burned and torn up. Even as bad of shape that they were in,they immediately set up a perimeter. Most of the M-14's barrels were melted and bent, but they were determined to do as they had been trained to do.

After looking after the most life threatening wounds I started working on this one black Marine that I suspected had a possibly broken back,and was bound and determined to get up and join the other Marines in protecting the perimeter. This particular Marine and I had had several cross words in the past,as he let his distain for "white folks" be known at every opportunity.My philosophy has always been that there isn't any white,black,brown or red in the Marine Corps,My Marines were just different shades of green!

To make a long story short,he started to ignore my orders to lie still and wait to be evac'd, my biggest fear was that any movement would possibly paralyze him for life. So I used my best medical technique and grabbed him by the ears and threatened to kill him myself if he screwed up my work. That seemed to get his attention and his cooperation. Later on as I was loading him into the chopper he grabbed my arm and was yelling at me that I saved his life,and would never forget me! He was going to write to me and stay in touch"...as the chopper started to lift off, just as he was letting go of my arm, I yelled at him, "What's my name?..." He looked at me kind of funny and replied..."Doc!"...That was it!. My response was "I just wanted to know if you had the name right so the mail would get to the right place!"

All those months, all those Operations, right up until now, it's still "Doc" and some how the mail still finds me. Those nicknames tend to stick to you forever...ask "meatball" or "Squaw" and the dozens of others that we're still trying to sort out their full names after all these years.
Before I forget it.....Turner Publishing put out a History book on Navy Corpsmen, from the very beginning up through the Persian Gulf War....Yours truly is in there 2 or 3 different times, pictures and all, including a long story about Yvonne "Little tit" (as the Marines named her) and the village of Lon phu #1 that I was the village Dr. for in between combat Operations. Got a lot of good plugs in there for K 3/5.
More stories later, most better than the first one...Got to be careful not to hurt anyones feelings tho...specially the Officers!..remind me to tell you the one about when we chopped up and torched the Officer's "Shitter." Great moral booster!!!

Semper Fi,

"Doc."

During the late spring, early summer of '67, I believe it was on Hill 69 when we had a bad breakout of dysentery throughout the company. My job as the Corpsman was to chase down the source and eliminate it. Part of the problem was those damn white plastic c-rat spoons that everyone thought was so "Salty to wear on the helmet bands. The ever-present flies would land on them after wading around in our shitters, and wipe their little feet off. That part of the problem I could solve, but I know I had to go one step further and see if I could keep them out of the 4-holers we affectionately called our shitters.

After a brief inspection, it was obvious that all the enlisted 4-holers were badly in need of repair. All the wire screening to keep the flies out was torn up and needed to be replaced. No problem! I wold go to the old man. Lt. Tilley at the time, and ask for some assistance in getting new wire to solve our problem.
Unfortunately, this was one of those times when we were in stand down, and by a small miracle, there was beer to be had. Lt. Tilley, Gunny Dias and a few other officers already had a snootfull and weren't interested in hearing my problem. I stress that this was a serious problem and had to be taken care of. The old man asked me if I'd inspected the "Officer's shitter." I admitted that I had not, only the enlisted ones.
"Well, " says he, "Sounds like an enlisted man's problem to me!"
They all thought that that was pretty funny, and I could still hear them laughing as I walked away. When I got back to my area, I walked into the first tent that I came to and yelled, "I need two volunteers for shitter duty!" Well, Marines being Marines, you can imagine the groans and comments. "Damn, Doc, we just burned your shitters yesterday! Pick on someone else!"
"Doesn't count!" said I, "This is a different detail, and I think it's one that you'll enjoy! You and you, Let's go!"
Off we went to Officer country to locate the "Royal Throne". I gave the structure a quick once over. The damn thing looked brand new, everything as it should be. But wait!! Maybe if I looked REAL CLOSE, I could find what I was looking for. Sure enough, my skilled eye and extensive medical training came to my rescue.
"Come her, Marine, I need an unbiased opinion!" I pulled one of my volunteers up to the portion of the screen that had caught my attention. "Does that or does that not look like a hole in the wire that a fly could get through?" (Of course, you have to realize that young enlisted Marines are not in the habit of making critical remarks regarding the "Royal Throne", so a little coaching was in order.)
"Uh, I don't think so Doc."
"How about a small fly?"
"It would have to be an awfully small fly, Doc."
"How about a really, really small, skinny fly?"
"Yeah…. I guess so. If you say so."
"AHA!" says I, "Then I officially condemn this building as a health hazard. Go get a couple of axes and some fuel. We're going to tear this hazard down and burn it!"
All good Marines know that Doc would never lie to them, so off they scrambled and in no time we had a great bonfire going.
It didn't take long; before the fire got the attention of all our Officers and gentlemen, and leading the pack was the "Old man" and the rest of the group demanding to know what the hell was I doing? They didn't think it was funny and weren't laughing anymore.
"I took your advice sir, and inspected the Officer's head! As far as I could tell, it wasn't in any better condition that the enlisted ones, so I condemned it. It's the first to burn! Looks like an Officer problem now, sir!"
Needless to say, we got our new mesh wire and other building materials listed as a "high priority item", and enlisted moral was at an all time high.

Moral of the story: "Don't piss off the Doc!" Not only does he run out in front of bullets for you, but he really knows how to hurt a guy!