American Military News It was an ordinary, if long, flight from Naples, but some 45 minutes out from Hampton Roads, it turned into something else for Petty Officer 1st Class Gerardo Alvarez, on his way to join the crew of USS John C. Stennis at Newport News Shipbuilding.
A flight attendant had stumbled, struck her head and was lying unconscious on the floor of the Navy transport plane. Alvarez, a physical therapy tech whose normal duties involve muscle strains and skeletal issues, scrambled.
But every Navy hospital corpsman has to know, train and be regularly tested on basic life-saving skills. Alvarez, a Los Angeles native who joined the Navy specifically to become a corpsman, says anyone on his Stennis team could do the same…
