He’s known simply as the ‘Marine Doctor’ throughout the valley where Patrol Base Gulistan provides safety and security against the ever-present Taliban threat. To his Sailors and Marines, he is Chief Hospital Corpsman Anthony Geron, currently forward deployed from Naval Hospital Bremerton as an individual augmentee to the mountainous region of Farah province, Afghanistan.

Geron is assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines as the senior medical department representative and independent duty corpsman. He provides medical care for over 160 Marines and Sailors, including around-the-clock, on-the-job mentoring and leadership for approximately 10 young hospital corpsmen.

As the Marine doctor, Geron is active in handling medical concerns, health care issues and providing treatment to local Afghans, especially for common illnesses and ailments such as malnutrition, joint pain, cavities, and poor hygiene. There’s also a lengthy list of more serious injuries he deals with on an almost consistent, continuous basis.

“I have seen everything from post Improvised Explosive Device (IED) injuries, gunshot wounds, major lacerations, fractures to any other injury anyone can imagine for a combat operation,” said Geron, a Glasgow, Ky. native who has been in the Navy for 15 years. “I operate in a variety of situations. I provide humanitarian assistance, go on patrol and assist in executing counterinsurgency operations.”

Geron’s humanitarian assistance centers with the medical facility and assisting the local villages with hygiene gear, medical supplies, as well as providing food to remote villages.

He also engages in mentoring the local clinic staff, primarily teaching western medical techniques and introducing hygiene practices and nutrition management.

“By western techniques I refer to common treatments we’re taught such as wound care and the use of antibiotics,” explained Geron. “They are just not familiar with these.The local medicine man that runs the clinic is not trained or equipped to handle any traumatic injury.

According to Geron, hygiene is a big issue with skin conditions, dirty wounds and very poor oral health. Dental care is lacking. “There are a lot of cavities, abscesses and tooth pain,” Geron noted.

Although there isn’t anything like a normal day working for Geron as a Senior Medical Department Representative (SMDR) Independent Duty Corpsman (The SMDR is an IDC who is in an operational unit at sea or in a deployed remote or isolated environment operating without direct physician supervision), there are simply some days that stand out. The 24 hours before Christmas was one such day.

“On Christmas Eve morning we received word of a dispute between locals and the local Afghan National Police (ANP),” related Geron.  “We grabbed our trauma gear and headed up there.

Geron and his team rendered care to stabilize the wounded locals and then prepared their transportation via air MEDEVAC to the closest Fleet Surgical Team (FST). That event wasn’t the end of their emergency trauma care on Christmas Eve. It was just the beginning, for shortly afterwards information came in that there were assailants at large in a nearby village and that there were more casualties. 

“We mobilized a military police squad and an infantry squad including myself and we patrolled to the next village,” Geron said. “Once we arrived we learned that there were two elderly men in need of immediate care. One had been beaten with a shovel and had received closed head trauma and needed immediate air evac.  We quickly loaded him into one of the pickups and egressed to the patrol base for air MEDEVAC.  The other male had received blunt trauma as well with less severity and was able to be treated at the local clinic once we transported him back. We were able to apprehend the assailants, treat all casualties involved and confiscate several weapons in the process.  Not an ideal way to spend a Christmas Eve, but there is no better way to serve than at the tip of the spear.”

Calm under the Afghan sky is fleeting, especially at a patrol base. Patrols and operations are daily occurrences.

“Words cannot describe being on a patrol. I believe that it is different for everybody and each person would give a different story,” Geron said. “The hardest thing for me is waiting for my guys to come back from patrols. The patients are easy, the terrain is manageable, the job is rewarding but bringing home all my young men to their wives and families in one piece and no disability is a personal challenge.  Not to mention the other Marines.”

“You do the best you can with what you have and you hold your head high knowing that you did your absolute best,” Geron stated.