PO1 Aaron Baltosser

Navy | Hospital Corpsman

Dates of Service: Oct 1991 - Oct 2011

RETIRED

70% Complete

10 Endorsements

43 Contacts

Influence Score: 50,426
1,375 out of 865,861 Veterans

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Bio

My current goals consist of enjoying retirement in my early 40's thanks to being smart at 19. I've been working outdoors trimming trees and clearing brush to make extra money so I can go to Sturigis Motorcycle Rally comfortably. My clients laugh when I explain what the name Sturgis Tree and Brush clearing means. I enjoy boating so my Captain's license may be in my future as well.

Military Experiences

Jun 2003 - Dec 2005

Leading Petty Officer (LPO)

Patient Administration | Naval Hospital Great Lakes, IL

I had to develop a HIPAA compliant form for Naval Hospital Corps School, as well all of the school commands on the base. My records room held records for 70,000 patients over 5 states. I had to lead a group of Sailors fired by other areas in a critical function part of the hospital. I had to train myself, then teach the hospital how to retire health records electronically to National Personnel Records Center in St Louis. The transition for paper retirement to electronic was not easy. The error rate allowed was 1% or less. We successfully retired 6,000 records. That means every label on every record was entered exactly the same way it was in our computer tracking system, or i was counted as an error. I earned most of my grey beard doing that job.

Deployments

(2 years, 8 months)

Dec 2006 - Dec 2007

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Spent a year tooling around Iraq, from places like Taji, Fallujah, and based out of East Habbaniyah. We lived within a grenade throw of Iraqi officers on the Iraqi side of the base. It was a great independent journey, with strong people. The food wasn't too shabby either

Jan 2003 - May 2003

Kuwait/ Iraq

Had to beg to deploy with my unit for the last few months before I was due to transfer to another unit.

Jun 1996 - Dec 1996

Mediterranean

I had to re-enlist, and sign an extension to be able to make a ship board deployment, but it was all worth it. The USS Saipan, LHA-2 is gone now, but I still think fondly of my time spent on board. The water in the middle of the ocean when the wave is the right height, and thickness can take on a blue color I've never seen anywhere else.

Jun 1994 - Dec 1994

Japan

For my first deployment I was excited finally looking forward to getting on a ship. Only to find out we were flying instead of floating there. To be smashed into a plane in 20" wide seats with 330 other people when the plane is designed for 250 comfortably was an awful way to get there. Pohang, Korea and snorkeling off of Okinawa made it worth it.