You Have Not Seen The Last Of These Marines

By Johnnie L. Gilpen Jr., MS, MHS, PA-C CAQ (EM) NRP

https://thewarhorse.org/you-have-not-seen-the-last-of-these-marines/

Please click on the link above to read the story.

You Have Not Seen the Last of These Marines was the first of three reflections I wrote for The War Horse Journal (WHJ) (https://thewarhorse.org/).

In 2019, I was selected as a War Horse Combat Medic and Corpsman Writing Fellow. The War Horse Journal’s Seminar for Veterans and Military Families is more than a writing workshop—it’s a mission. They bring veterans and military family members together with world-class journalists, agents, and publishers for an all-expenses-paid, weeklong intensive focused on nonfiction and personal storytelling. Their goal is simple but profound: help us find our voices, shape our stories, and bridge the military–civilian divide through truth and craft. The seminars don’t just develop writers—they foster healing, connection, and understanding.

My first article in the WHJ was a reflection on my time in PA school. Halfway through the didactic phase, I underwent emergency back surgery. The piece traces the battles I fought afterward—the physical pain, the mental strain, and the demons that came clawing at me when I was at my weakest. The turning point came in the form of a single letter.

In 1996, when I was serving with Golf Company, Battalion Landing Team 2/8, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEUSOC), we lost 12 Marines, a fellow Corpsman, and a USA Soldier in a helicopter crash. At the memorial, our commanding general told us they were not gone from us—that when we most needed strength, they would be there. At the time, it sounded like something you say to fill a silence too heavy to carry. But years later, that promise returned to me in a single phrase written in that letter. It was the reminder I didn’t know I’d been waiting for.

Their strength showed up when mine was gone. I got back to studying. I finished what I started. And I passed my emergency medicine exam with the highest score I earned throughout PA school.