With the Spanish–American War looming, Congress established the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps in 1898.
In World War II, Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize winning photo depicts a Navy Corpsman working with his Marines to raise our flag over Iwo Jima.
Following WWII, the Hospital Corps changed its rating title to the generic term it had used all along—Hospital Corpsman.
Fifteen Hospital Corpsmen were killed in the 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks bombing.
To date, the rating of hospital corpsman is the most decorated in the United States Navy with 22 Medals of Honor and 174 Navy Crosses for heroism.
Navy Corpsmen (both male and female) are beloved and respected by our Marines. The title is cherished by current and past Corpsmen, shouted by Marines in combat, and should not be changed.