Are Army Healthcare Recruiters Use-car Sales People?

[TKC891]

My spouse is a mid age doctor with easy life and fairly good income. After talking with an army healthcare recruiter, my spouse has jointed Army as a direct commissioned doctor. When talking with the recruiter, he told us everything beautiful about army doctor’s life, including attractive sign-in bonus, easy professional environment, good pension, comfortable retirement and possible placement in countries like Italy and Germany. He has tried to make deployment sound safe and easy. The worst is he has never introduced any detail about the officer training program which is actually the first and extremely difficult for someone in mid-age to go through, this is especially hard to a mid age who has no preparation at all for something like walking four miles, jumping out of truck or lunge forward with 40-50 lb. weight. After 8-10 hr physical training, you will have to sleep in a tent for several weeks without running water, clean toilet and taking a shower. The situation may be a lot worse when it is in summer. This type of physical training may cause a young man tired which will be over after a good sleep, but it may cause serious and permanent physical problem to a mid age. Army may have never thought about that direct commissioned doctors are usually about their mid-age and have lived easy life for long time. Not too many of them are used to hard physical experiences like these before they join army. They are happy to work for army, but army should treat them fairly. Mid aged people should not be trained in the same group as 20 year old. It is very unwise to expect a mid age medical professional who has never done any physical exercise in his or her life to behave the same as a 20 yr old. If this is not acceptable to army, then army should not take anyone in that age group. If this type of training is a must for everyone in army, then, army recruiters should tell all applicants in front and let them prepare for this. Army recruiters should not act like a used car salesman to hide everything negative. Now you have ruined our life and killed the reputation of army.

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[IgD]

Now you have ruined our life and killed the reputation of army...

That is a pretty strong statement. How has the Army ruined your lives???

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

...walking four miles, jumping out of truck or lunge forward with 40-50 lb. weight. After 8-10 hr physical training, you will have to sleep in a tent for several weeks without running water, clean toilet and taking a shower.

I think your spouse got aboard the wrong bus there, the one that said "Parris Island" instead of "San Antonio" maybe? This is not a description of commissioned officer training I've ever heard of, in any branch of service. Certainly not what I experienced 4 years ago.

 

[TheGoose]

After 8-10 hr physical training, you will have to sleep in a tent for several weeks without running water, clean toilet and taking a shower.

err are you sure your husband signed up for the US Army? do you consider 8-10 hours of powerpoint presentations as physical training? OBLC only lasts several weeks in the first place...and air conditioned tents for a couple of field weekends isn't quite what you are describing. troll?

if you're jumping out of moving trucks...just remember to tuck and roll!

 

[jabreal00]

The awful grammar and syntax either signifies a troll or someone who is hopelessly confused. OBC was death by powerpoint.

 

[TKC891]

The army didn't ruin our lives, but the recruiter did.

 

[TopSecret]

The army didn't ruin our lives, but the recruiter did.

Is he in Iraq or Afghanistan?

 

[TKC891]

Goose, if you are one of the recruiters, stop misleading. Just tell the truth and make things easier.

 

[psychbender]

Yeah...going to have to throw the shenanigans flag on this one. OBLC is nothing at all like the training that your husband supposedly had to undergo to be a part of the Army Medical Corps. Try again.

 

[bustbones26]

On a serious note here. If for some reason you did not go to the medical corps OBLC between your first and second year of medical school, you DO have to go to the "regular" 11 weeks of all corps OBC.

That particular version of OBC DOES NOT have the students staying in hotels stocked with beer. So, there may be some validity to this "troll's" claims.

 

[mfrizzo3]

Goose, if you are one of the recruiters, stop misleading. Just tell the truth and make things easier.

It is military policy to maintain 3 points of contact when exiting a military vehicle. You should not be jumping out superman style. And, why is it the recruiters fault your wife doesn't work out?

 

[TKC891]

I think your spouse got aboard the wrong bus there, the one that said "Parris Island" instead of "San Antonio" maybe? This is not a description of commissioned officer training I've ever heard of, in any branch of service. Certainly not what I experienced 4 years ago.

Tic, you are very lucky.

 

[TKC891]

That is a pretty strong statement. How has the Army ruined your lives???

All I have tried to do is to tell your guys how army recruiters sell army. There is nothing wrong about the army. If they make the training program difficult, that's understandable. But the recruiters should tell everyone about it in front.

 

[AF M4]

My spouse is a mid age doctor with easy life and fairly good income. After talking with an army healthcare recruiter, my spouse has jointed Army as a direct commissioned doctor. When talking with the recruiter, he told us everything beautiful about army doctor’s life, including attractive sign-in bonus, easy professional environment, good pension, comfortable retirement and possible placement in countries like Italy and Germany. He has tried to make deployment sound safe and easy. The worst is he has never introduced any detail about the officer training program which is actually the first and extremely difficult for someone in mid-age to go through, this is especially hard to a mid age who has no preparation at all for something like walking four miles, jumping out of truck or lunge forward with 40-50 lb. weight. After 8-10 hr physical training, you will have to sleep in a tent for several weeks without running water, clean toilet and taking a shower. The situation may be a lot worse when it is in summer. This type of physical training may cause a young man tired which will be over after a good sleep, but it may cause serious and permanent physical problem to a mid age. Army may have never thought about that direct commissioned doctors are usually about their mid-age and have lived easy life for long time. Not too many of them are used to hard physical experiences like these before they join army. They are happy to work for army, but army should treat them fairly. Mid aged people should not be trained in the same group as 20 year old. It is very unwise to expect a mid age medical professional who has never done any physical exercise in his or her life to behave the same as a 20 yr old. If this is not acceptable to army, then army should not take anyone in that age group. If this type of training is a must for everyone in army, then, army recruiters should tell all applicants in front and let them prepare for this. Army recruiters should not act like a used car salesman to hide everything negative. Now you have ruined our life and killed the reputation of army.

Err...caveat emptor? It is, you know, the Army. What, did your spouse hear of this super-great deal where they give you a bucketload of cash for sitting around drinking mai tais and watching "Stripes" all day and think, wow, there can't possibly be a catch to all this, I wonder why everyone doesn't do it? Seriously? Didn't Google what the training course involved beforehand? Didn't ask around before signing the dotted line? Didn't think about maybe getting some jogging in before going off to basic training? Really? Well if all this is true and you've decided that it's all some tech sergeant recruiter's fault that you're in such a bind...sorry. And um, may not seem the appropriate time, but I do have this beautiful bridge in Brooklyn that you might be interested in...

 

[psychbender]

On a serious note here. If for some reason you did not go to the medical corps OBLC between your first and second year of medical school, you DO have to go to the "regular" 11 weeks of all corps OBC.

That particular version of OBC DOES NOT have the students staying in hotels stocked with beer. So, there may be some validity to this "troll's" claims.

Last year, we certainly had people at OBLC that were either direct commissions or straight out of residency (hadn't done OBLC as a student). Since they got to do the standard 6-week course with us, who from Med Corps actually has to do the full 11-week all corps version?

 

[dentalOH]

On a serious note here. If for some reason you did not go to the medical corps OBLC between your first and second year of medical school, you DO have to go to the "regular" 11 weeks of all corps OBC.

That particular version of OBC DOES NOT have the students staying in hotels stocked with beer. So, there may be some validity to this "troll's" claims.

This is not correct. There is a six week AMEDD Officer Basic Leadership Course (OBLC) for HPSP (Medical Corps and Dental Corps) and USUHS. It can be taken before school begins or between years of school. Veterinary Corps HPSP has a separate two phase course.

OBLC HPSP

If you do not make the HPSP course, there is an eight week (it was 9 weeks until 2007) AMEDD Officer Basic Leadership Course (OBLC). There are 4 or 5 scheduled classes a year. This course is also conducted with Dental Corps, Medical Service Corps, Veterinary Corps, Specialist Corps, and Nurse Corps officers (the course listings are broken down in the ATRRS Catalog by corps and specialty). FY09 had four scheduled classes:

OBLC Non-HPSP Medical Corps

Other branches (except Chaplain Corps) attend the six week Basic Officer Leader Course Phase II (BOLC II) at Ft. Benning, Georgia (Phase I is ROTC, OCS, West Point, or DCOC ). They then attend branch specific phase III training.

Basic Officer Leader Course Phase II

Last year, we certainly had people at OBLC that were either direct commissions or straight out of residency (hadn't done OBLC as a student). Since they got to do the standard 6-week course with us, who from Med Corps actually has to do the full 11-week all corps version?

Each summer, the HPSP/USUHS OBLC has the same scheduled start date as a Non-HPSP OBLC course. They have different scheduled end dates. If the HPSP course is not full and the Non-HPSP enrollment is small enough, the Army would move the officers scheduled for the Non-HPSP course into the HPSP course. Direct commisions who do not begin in the summer would take one of the other courses.

 

[TKC891]

Err...caveat emptor? It is, you know, the Army. What, did your spouse hear of this super-great deal where they give you a bucketload of cash for sitting around drinking mai tais and watching "Stripes" all day and think, wow, there can't possibly be a catch to all this, I wonder why everyone doesn't do it? Seriously? Didn't Google what the training course involved beforehand? Didn't ask around before signing the dotted line? Didn't think about maybe getting some jogging in before going off to basic training? Really? Well if all this is true and you've decided that it's all some tech sergeant recruiter's fault that you're in such a bind...sorry. And um, may not seem the appropriate time, but I do have this beautiful bridge in Brooklyn that you might be interested in...

You sound like someone from the battle field and don't really understand too much about science and human's condition is very much different from each other. More education in a good school is highly recommended. Professionally, slogans don't help with anything.

 

[Galo]

My spouse is a mid age doctor with easy life and fairly good income. After talking with an army healthcare recruiter, my spouse has jointed Army as a direct commissioned doctor. When talking with the recruiter, he told us everything beautiful about army doctor’s life, including attractive sign-in bonus, easy professional environment, good pension, comfortable retirement and possible placement in countries like Italy and Germany. He has tried to make deployment sound safe and easy. The worst is he has never introduced any detail about the officer training program which is actually the first and extremely difficult for someone in mid-age to go through, this is especially hard to a mid age who has no preparation at all for something like walking four miles, jumping out of truck or lunge forward with 40-50 lb. weight. After 8-10 hr physical training, you will have to sleep in a tent for several weeks without running water, clean toilet and taking a shower. The situation may be a lot worse when it is in summer. This type of physical training may cause a young man tired which will be over after a good sleep, but it may cause serious and permanent physical problem to a mid age. Army may have never thought about that direct commissioned doctors are usually about their mid-age and have lived easy life for long time. Not too many of them are used to hard physical experiences like these before they join army. They are happy to work for army, but army should treat them fairly. Mid aged people should not be trained in the same group as 20 year old. It is very unwise to expect a mid age medical professional who has never done any physical exercise in his or her life to behave the same as a 20 yr old. If this is not acceptable to army, then army should not take anyone in that age group. If this type of training is a must for everyone in army, then, army recruiters should tell all applicants in front and let them prepare for this. Army recruiters should not act like a used car salesman to hide everything negative. Now you have ruined our life and killed the reputation of army.

Unfortunately they are selling a very inferior product, and in order to do so, they either outright lie, or omit critical information. Your spouse really should have done her homework.

Its unfortunate that they have earned the label of used car salesman, but without a radical shift in military medicine, one that I do not see coming, the same story is going to be repeating itself. Your spouse is an outlier, most of the lies are told to young people with massive enthusiasm, patriotism, and the belief that there is no way military medicine could be as bad as it is, or that it won't happen to them.

Now you have to make the best of it. Good luck.

 

[AF M4]

You sound like someone from the battle field and don't really understand too much about science and human's condition is very much different from each other. More education in a good school is highly recommended. Professionally, slogans don't help with anything.

I'm not sure what I'm missing about humanity's condition in this situation. I am sure that when you put on a military uniform, there are certain situations - particularly in the Army - where you are going to want to be able to run, and they often deploy to very warm places. All of the letters that I've seen, even those preparing one to go to much more relaxed officers' training, recommend that you arrive in good physical condition.

 

[Sarg's kid]

You sound like someone from the battle field and don't really understand too much about science and human's condition is very much different from each other. More education in a good school is highly recommended. Professionally, slogans don't help with anything.

Hey IDIOT, you're on the military forum of the student DOCTOR network. The majority of us are medical professionals or medical students. We all have much more of an educational background than you do (by the grammar in your posts). And FYI, the 20 year old kids that you're talking about are getting their limbs blown off on the other side of the world, and your husband signed up to treat them. WHERE DO YOU THINK THAT HE WILL BE TO DO THAT?

He signed up to treat soldiers. Soldiers are involved in combat. Your husband will deploy to a combat area at some point. This is reality. Maybe you should step back and think about what others are going through and quit your bellyaching. You'll get no sympathy from me.

By the by, you're not warning anyone here with your exaggerated post about your husband crawling through pig intestine, with live rounds going over his head, while R. Lee Ermey calls him a maggot. It is a BS claim that just didn't happen the way that you describe. Most of my family are enlisted, and I have heard about their Basic/AIT in detail, and it is definitely NOT what doctors go to. Hell, enlisted guys don't really get the whole "Full Metal Jacket" treatment anymore.

Go troll somewhere else.

 

[notdeadyet]

You sound like someone from the battle field and don't really understand too much about science and human's condition is very much different from each other. More education in a good school is highly recommended. Professionally, slogans don't help with anything.

Hey IDIOT, you're on the military forum of the student DOCTOR network. The majority of us are medical professionals or medical students. We all have much more of an educational background than you do (by the grammar in your posts).

Both of you- enough with the insults and name calling. Not productive and a violation of TOS.

And Sarg's kid, just because someone is a non-native speaker doesn't make them uneducated. Tip: native speakers with 2nd grade educations don't drop articles, but non-native speakers often do.

 

[notdeadyet]

Actually, the OP has made cross-posted this on three threads now.

TKC891- It's violation of TOS of SDN to cross-post. If you have something you want to say, pick the appropriate forum and say it, don't spam it across multiple forums. You've made your point clear and your post is as a warning. Many folks have disagreed and made their counterpoint clear.

Closing thread.