Corpsman with Marine Forces Reserve stand at attention during the playing of the Navy hymn, at their 118th Hospital Corpsman birthday celebration at Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans, June 28, 2016. Today’s Hospital Corpsman are the most highly-trained and qualified force of medical professionals in Navy Medicine’s history. Since the establishment of the Hospital Corps in 1898, the corpsman field has grown from its first 25 apothecaries to the more than 30,000 corpsmen across the globe.