Army Reserve APMC

[emdocaz23]

Currently assigned to a medical unit in the Army Reserves, and starting to learn about APMC.

My recruiter did not tell me anything about APMC during the process. I currently drive >3 hrs to drill and have an often conflicting civilian clinical schedule - so having the option to get drill credit for things I am doing on my own sound intriguing.

What is the process of joining APMC? Can any docs get into it? Any guidance or POCs would be greatly appreciated.

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[TheEarDoc]

https://www.usar.army.mil/Commands/Functional/ARMEDCOM/About-Us/

You must live a certain distance from your assigned unit (150 miles I believe)
You must be in an AOC that is eligible for APMC. Not all AOC's in AMEDD are eligible
You must apply to join APMC. Once you join you still have to work with your assigned unit as your commander can still require you to be at BA monthly or at certain BA weekends

I have been in APMC for several years. It has its pluses and minuses. Biggest plus is the ability to drill with any unit. I've got to drill with Air Force NG, Army NG, Navy Reserves, multiple different Army Reserve units. I have multiple units I can complete a BA weekend with if my home unit has a BA weekend that doesn't match up with my schedule. I've been able to check out other Reserve units before deciding to transfer to them.

The minuses:
- APMC staff is not the best to work with. They take forever to respond to emails. They often only answer 1 of multiple questions in email.
- You must be proactive. You are kind of on your own a lot in APMC. You need to know what your yearly requirements are for drill points, trainings, etc.
- You must work with your commander of your unit. Just because you are APMC does not mean you come and go as you please. Want to make
sure you stay on their good side? Keep your metrics green. Always pass height/weight and ACFT. Don't cause your commander problems and they usually won't give you any grief for being on their books, but not always at BA
- You will need to still have good evals. It's hard to get good OER's if you aren't drilling with the same unit all the time. You will need to be
pro-active and work with your rater and senior rater to show what your key achievements are each rating period since they won't see you often

 

[CCM-MD]

I can't imagine being in USAR without APMC.

 

[emdocaz23]

https://www.usar.army.mil/Commands/Functional/ARMEDCOM/About-Us/

You must live a certain distance from your assigned unit (150 miles I believe)
You must be in an AOC that is eligible for APMC. Not all AOC's in AMEDD are eligible
You must apply to join APMC. Once you join you still have to work with your assigned unit as your commander can still require you to be at BA monthly or at certain BA weekends

I have been in APMC for several years. It has its pluses and minuses. Biggest plus is the ability to drill with any unit. I've got to drill with Air Force NG, Army NG, Navy Reserves, multiple different Army Reserve units. I have multiple units I can complete a BA weekend with if my home unit has a BA weekend that doesn't match up with my schedule. I've been able to check out other Reserve units before deciding to transfer to them.

The minuses:
- APMC staff is not the best to work with. They take forever to respond to emails. They often only answer 1 of multiple questions in email.
- You must be proactive. You are kind of on your own a lot in APMC. You need to know what your yearly requirements are for drill points, trainings, etc.
- You must work with your commander of your unit. Just because you are APMC does not mean you come and go as you please. Want to make
sure you stay on their good side? Keep your metrics green. Always pass height/weight and ACFT. Don't cause your commander problems and they usually won't give you any grief for being on their books, but not always at BA
- You will need to still have good evals. It's hard to get good OER's if you aren't drilling with the same unit all the time. You will need to be
pro-active and work with your rater and senior rater to show what your key achievements are each rating period since they won't see you often

Thank you for all of the information, it is very insightful. I do live >150 miles, currently 200 from my unit. I do like my unit and would like to continue to drill with them, but it can be hard to align my clinical schedule at times.
Could you explain more about drilling with other units?
Is it only units for your AOC, does APMC set that up?

 

[emdocaz23]

I can't imagine being in USAR without APMC.

I take it you have had a good experience so far. Could you elaborate on your experiences with them?

 

[CCM-MD]

I take it you have had a good experience so far. Could you elaborate on your experiences with them?

• Not required to be at every drill with assigned unit
• Can submit 1380s for CME activities
• Points for PHA/DHA
• Ability to drill with any unit, including other branches

 

[TheEarDoc]

Thank you for all of the information, it is very insightful. I do live >150 miles, currently 200 from my unit. I do like my unit and would like to continue to drill with them, but it can be hard to align my clinical schedule at times.
Could you explain more about drilling with other units?
Is it only units for your AOC, does APMC set that up?

As a member of APMC you can drill with any unit regardless of branch or type. I have attended drills with Air National Guard units, Army National Guard units, multiple types of reserve units (field hospitals, prev med units, forward surgical teams, etc.), and I've also been able to set up my own trainings with active duty units for hands on training if they allow me to do so.

APMC is great because you can really get more real Army experiences outside of your AOC. The downside is you need to stay in contact with your unit and keep them up to date with what you are doing so you continue to get good OERs (APMC OERs are usually awful) and you also need to be pro-active with your career in keeping up with annual online training requirements, height/weight, and PT tests.

 

[usma05]

As a member of APMC you can drill with any unit regardless of branch or type. I have attended drills with Air National Guard units, Army National Guard units, multiple types of reserve units (field hospitals, prev med units, forward surgical teams, etc.), and I've also been able to set up my own trainings with active duty units for hands on training if they allow me to do so.

APMC is great because you can really get more real Army experiences outside of your AOC. The downside is you need to stay in contact with your unit and keep them up to date with what you are doing so you continue to get good OERs (APMC OERs are usually awful) and you also need to be pro-active with your career in keeping up with annual online training requirements, height/weight, and PT tests.

this is kind of cool to hear from my POV as it's a different want to do APMC from what I've been doing. The only other unit I interacted with APMC wise beside my own was a unit that offered me to go to the range (because my unit has a weird plan to go out to the desert for 4 days to do it that has already been cancelled once and is hard to plan around work. How did you find these opportunities...just word of mouth?

My experience has been going to my unit a few times a year to meet basic obligations plus doing a CTA at the nearby MEDDAC to help with occasional OR workload and make use of CME time for RST. Worked so far, but it'd be cool to do an occasional hooah-ish thing too.

 

[emdocaz23]

As a member of APMC you can drill with any unit regardless of branch or type. I have attended drills with Air National Guard units, Army National Guard units, multiple types of reserve units (field hospitals, prev med units, forward surgical teams, etc.), and I've also been able to set up my own trainings with active duty units for hands on training if they allow me to do so.

APMC is great because you can really get more real Army experiences outside of your AOC. The downside is you need to stay in contact with your unit and keep them up to date with what you are doing so you continue to get good OERs (APMC OERs are usually awful) and you also need to be pro-active with your career in keeping up with annual online training requirements, height/weight, and PT tests.

Thanks for your insight. What's the best way of getting into APMC?