Senior Chiefs and corpsmen with IDC qual to boot - some of the very best humans on the planet. All the magical can-do of a Senior Chief plus the medical savvy of a highly trained corpsman. The only people higher are the mythical beings known as Master Chiefs.
One of my best Senior Chief HM stories occurred in the days immediately after 9/11 at the Pentagon, when the Navy Staff was holed up and camping at what used to be called the Navy Annex up the hill. I hadn’t been home in about 3-4 days, too much to do, and like everyone else, was underslept, smelly and driven in those days of accounting for personnel, assessing damage, re-building the staff, restoring communications, gearing up CACO, trying to function, etc. I was walking down the hall coughing with a definite wheeze. The HMCS passed me going the other way, wheeled around and asked me what was wrong. I had just that year been diagnosed with adult-onset asthma, and my inhaler was in my stuff in the Pentagon ruins. My other meds were at home, and I hadn’t taken them since the AM of 9/11, plus I had breathed in some serious stuff that day. The area around the Annex and access were under tight control, I was flying from one meeting to the next, so I hadn’t figured out when I was going home or how I could rendezvous with DH bringing Rx. Senior Chief took me in tow down to his office in the CMC Marine Corps part of the Annex, did a quick check-up, pulled a new inhaler out of his magic cabinet, called the Navy Captain pulmonologist I saw over at NNMC Bethesda (now WRNMMC) at the time, got the Rx called into the pharmacy at Ft. Myer, sent a corpsman over for it, and walked me back to my office, and then brought me the Rx later. I think he ordered my 3-star to not allow me to go back into the Pentagon for any reason until we were cleared to move back down there. I had been back over several times as classified material was pulled out and inventoried, to check on what Navy spaces might be salvageable in company with the Pentagon facilities staff, morale and welfare visits to the many people working the site, etc. He ordered me to go see my pulmonologist for a full check-up and to be sure I got a detailed record of this in my medical record (for later VA purposes). I think after he found me, he made it his mission to go find others on the camping Navy staff who were still coughing, and get them seen. A brilliant combination of practicality and compassion.
I recognize we have strayed a bit from midshipman severe acne, but it was an opportunity to highlight the quality of military enlisted medical personnel.
The midshipman in this case mentioned the issue as a “hand on door knob” item, which lessened its impact. The goal is an appointment with a derm, an opportunity to discuss history and treatment so far, and develop a treatment plan for her specific case, as many have mentioned. That is in the mid’s hands right now, to act with confidence in her pursuit of treatment and believe she has the right to advocate for herself.
