August 31tst, 2015
Fort Drum, NY

For the most part we have civilian Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) at our clinic who room patients, do vitals, and get the history of why they want to be seen.  We also have a handful of medics who do the same.  The two best medics are known as “M&M” since their last names both begin with M.  They were both working with me on Saturday for a special clinic to knock out school physicals, as it is that time of year.

M1 is soft-spoken, exceptionally polite, reserved, and very, very sharp.  He intends to get out when his enlistment is over, finish college, and go to medical school.  A delight to work with.  M2 is also very sharp and thorough, but, when not around patients, somewhat irreverent and sarcastic.  He is your more typical Army medic, with a rather warped sense of humor.  Equally good to work with.

I saw 23 kiddos on Saturday for school physicals.  It was a very brisk pace.  Still, at a slightly slow point in the day, M2 somewhat randomly observed that he really had no shame whatsoever.  He knew he should, but didn’t.  I commented that this was terrible and he should be ashamed, but he replied that he couldn’t be ashamed as he had no sense of shame!  Not his fault, just the way things were.

At that point CPT L, another PA, said that this was doubly worrisome as, in addition to having no shame, M2 appeared to also have no morals.  M2 admitted this was true and said “I suppose I should be ashamed of that but, as CPT McCurdy has yet to understand, I’m incapable of feeling ashamed.”  Totally shameful!

I should also note that M2 received an unsolicited compliment from one of the parents on his professionalism, so his lack of morals and incapacity to feel shame don’t seem to interfere greatly with his ability to do his job. His self-proclaimed character flaws notwithstanding, he’s a very good medic.