- by André B. Sobocinski, Deputy Historian, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, DC.

Historians do not know exactly when or where the first call of “Corpsman Up!” was heard. It is a phrase that has echoed through battlefields and bunkers of several lifetimes. Recent memory tells us the call was shouted on a weary road in the city of Fallujah, Iraq, on 17 September 2004. On this particular day, a corpsman ran toward the fiery wreckage of an exploded humvee in search of survivors when a rocket propelled grenade entered the fray, severing the corpsman’s left leg. Fighting unimaginable pain and the shock of his lost limb, and despite being shot an additional six times, the corpsman summoned the force of will to apply a tourniquet to his stump and inject himself with morphine. He then answered the pleas for “Corpsman Up!” in this golden hour by crying out calls of his own: “Stay down! Stay down!” and “Put down the field of fire and evacuate!” This was the harrowing tale of HM3 Joe “Doc” Worley and a selfless moment that inspired a musical anthem of the ages called Corpsman Up!

CWO4 Brian Dix is a composer and a director of the Commandant’s Own,” the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps (D&B). The fact that this group of musicians has not only survived time’s many tests, but has excelled into its 75th year is a fact that Brian Dix takes great pride in. Dix is a man dedicated to his craft, but also to military service. When not directing and touring with the D&B he manages a successful quarterly blood drive at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I, in Washington, DC. (Dix estimates that over 1,000 pints of blood have been given over the last 5 years. He has also established an impressive tenure as volunteer at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, reaching back to 2003.

“When the Gulf War first broke out I was asked by our operations officer if we could do a performance over at Bethesda,” says Dix. “At that time the support staff was one Marine liaison and one staff non-commissioned officer. They said come on over and we will bring you around. He brought us through and I was thinking that this was going to be tough to do and if the Marines are in the wings they won’t be able to get down and the ensemble won’t be able to do this. It was disheartening at first. Then they brought me into the rooms to meet the Marines.”

Admittedly, the experience of visiting the wounded Marines was rewarding. Dix brought patients Marine Corps calendars, D&B CDs, and “any other goodies” he could find at the Marine Barracks. If he discovered that the patient knew someone stationed at the barracks, he set out to reunite the comrades. If the patient could not celebrate a particular cake cutting ceremony due to their limited mobility Dix recreated the ceremony in their rooms. If the patient needed something as simple as a haircut Dix would arrange for a Marine barber to pay them a visit; and if the patient had trouble getting a social worker Dix and his Marine colleagues stepped in and found the means to assist.

On one afternoon in 2004, while making his rounds, Dix walked into the room of Joe “Doc” Worley. He saw a young man surrounded by caring family members and friends. As Dix remembers, “Worley was gray as a ghost and yet he had so much vim and vigor. He looked at me and said, ‘Sir’ and sat up and I said ‘don’t get up.’”

After what Dix describes as a “friendly chat,” Worley shared stories of his Iraq experience—the fateful day in Fallujah that proved so costly to him and his platoon.* The music director sat there in awe, captive to the story he was hearing. As he recalls, “Doc” told this story and his wife stood nearby welling up at the story she no doubt had heard before. I watched and listened. I was actually stunned by his heroism. When I left the room I just knew I had to do something for corpsmen.”

Like all good Marines and hospital corpsmen, Dix is a man of his word. Inspired by the actions of all corpsman, as exemplified by HM3 Worley, Dix set out to write a commemorative march.

When talking about the Navy’s medical sailors Dix is heartfelt as one usually is when discussing the proud achievement of a son or daughter. “I didn’t want this march to be just for IDCs [Independent Duty Corpsmen], but for all corpsmen. ‘Doc’ Worley was the impetus, definitely, but it had to represent all of them. The corpsman has a gift for intuition that cannot be matched anywhere in the civilian sector. They can look into the Marine’s eye and know what’s wrong. There is a word that describes the way they carry themselves, ‘dignified.’ They know that there is no one else like them and the corpsman is the true bridge between the Marine Corps and Navy.”

Dix expressed to his leadership his intention to write a long overdue march for these “dignified” sailors. He admits that there was some concern in the Marine Corps that others in the Navy medical department would feel overlooked. But as Dix explains, “I addressed these concerns by stating that other medical personnel would not feel slighted because they know that corpsmen are isolated from the rest of the medical field and they deserve some recognition.”

THE CREATIVE JOURNEY

For Dix the route to symbolic expression is a familiar journey, but not always a direct one. A composer of close to 100 works, Dix drafted several musical ideas for Corpsman Up! but nothing seemed to work. Then one day while prepping for a performance in Canada, the serendipitous moment unexpectedly struck. “Then and there the musical part of what would be Corpsman Up! was laid out before me.”

This vision took him, as he puts it “beyond the stretches of the imagination and beyond the standard military march.” Built firmly upon a programmatic structure rarely heard with marches, Corpsman Up! ultimately owes a bit to Berlioz and Sousa, as well as to the Navy corpsman. For one who listens to the final composition they will hear a stirring musical score expressed by nine types of instrumentation. It is a certifiable force of sound that can be broken down into three identifiable elements: a steady drum-line, a colorful melody, and a thematic bugle, each interspersing into a heroic picture of a corpsman being called into action. For Dix, this audio image is every bit intentional. “Throughout the composition you hear a consistent beating of a drum symbolizing the human heart. This is played throughout the introduction and through the melodic line,” explains Dix. “In introductory passages you hear the pulse quite frequently then you hear the melody elongated, then you hear the percussion actually go into a different rhythm. It’s not complementing it at all but it is complementary because you are going from one meter to the next.” The melody is symbolic of Marines on duty while the singular drum like pulse is the corpsman—it is the march, yet it is the very lifeline of the entire platoon.”

The interwoven melody and drum line is complemented by an almost valiant bugle call. Dix, a contrabase bugler, composed this short tune specifically for Corpsman Up! More then anything else it is the very call for the corpsman to action. As Dix asks rhetorically, “If Marines are in the field and someone had to shout ‘corpsman up’ and you can’t hear it then what would the bugle call be? The bugle is the official form of communication. If you have a call to attention, a call to orders, or if there is an emergency for Corpsman Up! what would it be?

“When the ‘Corpsman up!’ call goes one can hear everyone come in,” Dix explains. “The force of the Marine Corps is behind that message—it is a total force. And then the melodic line moves on through. You will notice what is called a bridge session where everything tapers down and it goes nice. That’s because the immediate action has been taken and everything settles back to its normal pace even though corpsmen are working for Marines and then it picks up excitement again and it’s just pursuing on. It’s never ending but a continuous flow of work.”

Dix unveiled this masterful work in 2006 at the D&B’s training ground in Yuma, AZ. The Corps later played it at the opening for the Intrepid Armed Forces Rehabilitation Center at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, TX. And in 2005, just months after being scored, the Marine Corps D&B played Corpsman Up! at the Hospital Corps Anniversary Ball in Washington, DC. As Dix remembers, “As soon as we played it every corpsman in the room stood. It was quite amazing and very emotional for the Drum and Bugle Corps to see. It’s one thing when you receive standing ovations and accolades but it’s something really special when you see people stand up on the down beat for a piece of music. It was extremely memorable and one I will never forget.”

Brian Dix and the Drum and Bugle Corps continue to play the march on their tours around the globe. They have made every attempt to make it accessible by posting it on their website (http://drumcorps.mbw.usmc.mil ). The march has been recorded and appears as first track of the D & B’s most recent CD, “With Pride.”

Although it has not yet been adopted by the Navy Medical Department or the Department of Defense, we must realize that even “The Star Spangled Banner” took 117 years before being recognized as the U.S. national anthem. Still, playing the march has been acknowledged by some in the Navy Medical Department as a “new” institutional tradition. Some corpsmen even refer to Corpsman Up! as simply “The Hospital Corps Song.”

“I wrote it for Navy medicine and they can do with it what they wish,” Dix admits. “And anytime Navy medicine— and BUMED—calls I will do my best to ensure that we are there.” With these words we see that the corpsman’s special bond to the Marine Corps is reciprocated in one very precious way best summarized by the phrase “Corpsman Up!”

* "Doc" Worley's Marine Platoon, dubbed "Pale Rider 3," suffered severe losses and was disbanded soon after the incident on 17 September 2004.

Web Links

Corpsman Up! (Full Corps): http://drumcorps.mbw.usmc.mil/ringtones/CorpsmanUp.mp3

Corpsman Up! (Bugle): http://drumcorps.mbw.usmc.mil/ringtones/CorpsmanUpCall.mp3

"The Commandant's Own", The United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps website: http://drumcorps.mbw.usmc.mil/index.html