corpsman

A Navy corpsman rushed to his aid and applied dressings.

He was then sent to Europe, where he volunteered for kitchen duty but ended up as a corpsman and a mess sergeant in Gen. George S. Patton’s army; he would forage for food once the troops had outpaced their supplies.

During his campaign, Mr. Peña highlighted his time as a Navy hospital corpsman assigned to a Marine division in Okinawa, Japan.

In the foreground of the photo was the body of a prostrate young private with a corpsman tending to his chest wound.

Strachan started his career in the Navy as a hospital corpsman but left on a medical discharge after a surgery gone awry.