Tag Archives: Nurse

Earning Title of Doc

Title: Earning Title of Doc

General Information about Item:

Customary Folklore: Rituals, Rights of Passage

Language – English

Country of origin – America

Informant Data:

Cory Green is a 26 year-old male from St. Albans, Vermont. He is now located in Boston and is attending Northeastern University. He joined the Navy in July of 2008 out of high school to be a hospital Corpsman. He did boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois. From 2009-2011, he was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan where he worked in the ER and ICU doing basic hospital medicine. In 2011, he transferred to first Marine division to be an infantry corpsman where he specialized in combat medicine and combat trauma. Finally, in 2013 he transferred to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where he worked in family practice and eventually, got out of the military.

He joined the Navy because he was 3-sport athlete in high school, and his grades weren’t the best. He also didn’t feel mature enough for college. His dad suggested the Navy as the best option for him. Cory is 6th generation Navy. He felt that corpsman had the best opportunities for real-life experience and jobs outside of the Navy.

Contextual Data:

Cory first learned about the honor of being a doc in bootcamp in Great Lakes, Illinois.  The honor of being called doc was only going to be bestowed upon someone that had earned the trust of their superiors.  Obviously, the military focuses a lot on hierarchies, and within the hierarchies there needs to be trust.  This is an example of an unofficial hierarchy within the military.

Item:

Earning Title of Doc: Initially as a corpsman, you are referred to as a nurse.  After gaining the trust and respect of your superiors, you earn the title of doc.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Cory: When it comes to the title of doc, I think, was the biggest tradition for me that I wanted to get because I remember when I first got to the Marine Corps unit I was actually called nurse because I didn’t rate, which means you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, you have to earn our respect to be called doc. You don’t just get the name, we don’t give the name out. That actually like drove me to be the corpsmen that I became. When you’re with your marines, and like they treat you like a marine but they also have a little bit of respect even if you are a boot and haven’t done nothing, but they also know that you still have to earn their respect for them to earn your title. It took me over a year and a half; it actually took me until my 7th casualty to even be called doc just by accident, and even when they called [me] it for the first time, they still like you know, just messing with me were like “ah, you’re still nurse to us, but you know…” So I think that’s like the biggest tradition for me that I liked to hear was earning the title doc. You know, you always heard it in school, in Great Lakes, you know, earning that name, and like how it’s just not given out, and then it’s just that pride that we have of becoming one, that was the best part about it I think.

Informant’s Comments:

Earning the title of doc was a big focus of Cory’s, and he feels it drove him to be the best corpsman he could be.

Collector’s Comments:

This item is essentially an unofficial hierarchy that focuses on respect, and it takes a lot of work to earn this title.

Collector’s Name: 

Matt Girouard

Tags/Keywords:

Rite of Passage, Doc, Nurse, Navy, Military, Corpsman