User:RekonDog/United States Navy Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman


Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman
The Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman, or SARC
Active19 June 1957 - present
CountryUnited States
AllegianceDepartment of Defense, Department of the Navy
BranchUnited States Navy
TypeSpecial Operations (Capable) Force
Part ofFleet Marine Force
Nickname(s)"Doc"
Motto(s)"The difficult Anytime, the 'Impossible' by appointment only!"

The Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman are United States Navy hospital corpsmen that provide the reconnaissance teams advanced trauma management associated with combatant diving and parachute entry. The Fleet Marine Force have also Independent Duty Corpsmen (IDC), the Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsmen, or SARCs, attached to the FMF Recon Companies to help support the deep recon assets of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

The SARCs are made up of a team of twenty-two senior corpsmen and seventy-two junior corpsmen; trained and specialized in the same aspects of their recon Marine counterparts, in amphibious reconnaissance and direct action. There had been moments when recon Corpmen were the point man or acted as the radio operator; even senior enlisted recon corpsmen had been the team leader. They are also capable in conducting detailed underwater ship-bottom searches.

Mission edit

The environments that the recon Marines are faced when during a mission are usually hazardous. The Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsmen use their paramedical skills to provide basic life support and other routine emergency medical health care procedures in hazards associated with swimming, open and closed circuit SCUBA diving, military freefall during amphibious reconnaissance operations. They also instruct and advises the recon Marines in prevention and treatment of illnesses, whether in combat or training.

Every duty of a SARC is to act as a hyperbaric chamber operator, skilled in the operation of recompression chambers for hyperbaric treatment. Plus, they are required to knows the laws and physics of diving, fundamentals of proper gas mixtures, and understands the theory and practice of decompression and the use of decompression tables.

  • Performs routine sick call, diagnostic patient care as well as associated operational, administrative, and logistical duties.
  • Performs basic anesthesia, minor surgical, basic clinical laboratory, basic radiology, and other routine and emergency health care procedures as required.
  • Instructs and advises junior medical and operational personnel in prevention and treatment of illness and injuries.
  • Recognizes all types of illnesses associated with diving to include oxygen toxicity and hypercapnia, nitrogen narcosis, type I and II decompression sickness and air/gas embolism.