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We talk with Mike Rakebrandt about what it takes to prepare Navy Corpsmen when everything is fast, messy, and unforgiving. You can train for trauma medicine, but you can’t rehearse the moment you’re staring at a catastrophic wound and the only objective is “get him to the bird alive.” We also dig into the hidden work: medevac planning, moral injury, and the quiet counseling Corpsmen do so Marines can stay focused and make it home. 

• rebuilding a battalion Corpsman team after turnover
• gearing training and medical loadouts for IEDs, blast trauma, and head injuries 
• scrounging supplies from hospitals
• carrying every loss personally and the leadership mindset behind it 
• the cluster minefield incident and how discipline beats panic 
• Kuwait transit problems, illness management, and early deployment friction 
• planning medevac sites and integrating corpsmen input into raids 
• psychological first aid, grief control, and being the “rock” for Marines 
• moral ambiguity in an insurgency and a role for faith 

If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story. 

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If you are a member of Weapons Company or someone with a story about Weapons Company 2/4 in 2004, please come tell some stories with us - 20 mins or 20 hours! Help paint the canvas of an archival story for others to know what it was like. Contact us @ [email protected], or via the podcast website above. 

All music used with permission by soundbay: https://www.youtube.com/@soundbay_RFM