Combat training

[IcemanDDS]

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Wow what a cool forum. I was thinking about doing military dentistry (if I ever get in dental school that is, hehe) and looks like a lot of information here. So I was watching some vids on the army HPSP site, and a dentist was doing high altitude training. On the air force website there was a guy who was training to be part of an airborne unit or something. So are there possibilities to get special combat training as a military dentist? Sounds crazy, but I thought it would be cool to do, instead of dentistry day in, day out.

 

[BQuad]

There are training opportunities for things like Airborne, and Air Assault and I'm sure a few others. They aren't always as fun as they look on a short video clip, they are pretty intense courses. They are a break from dentistry though.

Whether you will be able to attend them depends on what the needs of your local clinic are. If you are really busy they may not be able to spare you. You have a better chance when you are serving for a field unit (assigned to a unit you would deploy with) instead of just working in the clinic.

 

[Deep Impact]

Closest thing I can think of is going "green" side with the Marine corps if you join the Navy. You can also attend C4, where you can spend 10 days pretending to be in a war environment. You get to carry a rubber m-16, sleep in a cot, have fake bombs go off around your tent, etc. There may also be opportunities to go get your pistol and rifle marksmanship ribbons. If you get stationed on a ship, you can earn your surface warfare pin. That doesn't mean you can engage your battleship if your ship was firing at terrorists. I wish they offered something similar to the flight surgery program they have for medical officers, like flight dentist. Maybe they can have a dental operatory inside one of those cargo planes. lol.
You figure though as a staff corps officer, you cannot take charge of any combat unit as long as there is another breathing line guy around. We do our battle with the dental drill 😀.

 

[FAD]

Wow what a cool forum. I was thinking about doing military dentistry (if I ever get in dental school that is, hehe) and looks like a lot of information here. So I was watching some vids on the army HPSP site, and a dentist was doing high altitude training. On the air force website there was a guy who was training to be part of an airborne unit or something. So are there possibilities to get special combat training as a military dentist? Sounds crazy, but I thought it would be cool to do, instead of dentistry day in, day out.

As far as Navy goes, I am not aware of the opportunity to go through the entire SEAL, or Special Boat Unit, or Rescue Swimmer, or RECON (USMC) courses. If someone else knows different, please engage.

Past what Deep Impact says about the C-4 (Combat Casualty Care Course), the best way to enjoy the adventures of the operational military in the Navy is to be stationed with them. When you are with the SEALS, SEABEES, or Marines, or on a ship, you train and deploy with them and as a result get to do alot of the things they do. Will you get to do a covert dive OP from a submerged SSN, probably not, but I did have an officer that worked for me (dental officer) that got to spend three months in the southern Phillipines chasing after the Abu Sayaf terrorists with the Marines and Phillipine Armed Forces that he supported----at least he thought that was exciting! And at least with the Navy, this stuff is all command dependent; i.e. you can do as much as commander of the unit feels comfortable letting his high value dental treatment asset doing---and this varies widely.

Army has more of the direct training opportunities as BQuad mentioned as they are largely assinged by operational unit. I have seen Army Dental Officers with Ranger devices so I can only assume that Army allows(allowed) them to go through Ranger training, similar to what was said about Airborne and Air Assault.

 

[BQuad]

I have seen Army Dental Officers with Ranger devices so I can only assume that Army allows(allowed) them to go through Ranger training, similar to what was said about Airborne and Air Assault.

The only one I know of with a ranger tab, got it before he went to dental school. I don't think there are spots for ranger school for dentists, could wrong though. The C4 course is probably the easiest one to do in the Army since you can just request to go, you can also try for the Expert Field Medical Badge.

 

[SNOZBERRIES]

You can also attend C4, where you can spend 10 days pretending to be in a war environment. You get to carry a rubber m-16, sleep in a cot, have fake bombs go off around your tent, etc.

Yea, C4 is not what it used to be. No more bombs, raids, only two nights in the field, no repeling. It was fun but not as intense as it used to be.

Dentists don't do ATLS anymore unless you are going to be an OMS. I did have a couple of AEGD Army residents in my ATLS course, but I guess the Army made an exception for them. They didn't get "certified" in ATLS, but they were able to take the course. Dentists now take PHTLS (pre-hospital truama life support).

 

[BQuad]

At least when I did it in '03, the Army required C4 for all AEGD-1 residents. We did PHTLS, instead of ATLS.

Disappointing to hear they changed it though, we had the rappelling and war environment sections when I went through.

 

[jmick101]

The video you watched was about that guy who joined the special forces and then went to dental school. After he graduated he went back to the SF group in a support role. In SF support (correct me if I am wrong) you would be on jump status which means you would need to be airborne (and get paid an extra 150 bucks a month). I did a little research and it turns out that in order to get the SF slot you have to be a captain and not a comprehensive dentist.

I am prior service infantry and plan on doing this so that hopefully I wont have to deal with some of the headaches of regular army units. My only advice to anyone joining the army would be to get to an airborne unit as fast as possible.