Medic in Iraq?

[RedSHIFT]

Thinking about heading over to Iraq as a medic, anyone else considering this?

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[geneticclone]

Thinking about heading over to Iraq as a medic, anyone else considering this?

Woot one less competetition

 

[RedSHIFT]

How does that work? Head the airport, and tell the girl at the United counter, "One ticket to Baghdad please!"

lol, just head up to the local army recruiting center. The only thing stopping me from joining is that I just want a year commitment and then apply to medical school.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Letting premeds go to iraq for a year for resume padding may actually be a successfull recruiting strategy. I'll let the army know asap.

 

[gobears2007]

i had a friend consider doing this actually. he applied late in the game last year and wasn't getting anywhere, so he decided that he might sign up to become a medic in iraq. he's totally into that brotherhood camaraderie stuff, so it might have worked out well for him. then he got a spring interview to ucla and was accepted in may. so...i don't think you are alone. good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[bishr]

Going to Iraq - risking your life - just to fluff up your application!!!!!

May Allah have mercy on your souls...

 

[hermit]

Link?

 

[Old Grunt]

Thinking about heading over to Iraq as a medic, anyone else considering this?

You should really consider this before doing it.

Have you ever heard of the IRR? If not, you should do some research. Many of my friends completed their active duty obligation only to get out and be recalled into service. The Army most likely will not care if you want to go to medical school, or are in medical school.

Furthermore, your training alone will a year to complete. Combat tours are now 15 months and the shortest enlistment contract I've ever heard of is three years.

No offense, but it doesn't sound like you've researched this very thoroughly.

As a vet, I'd tell you to make sure you've done all of your homework before you sign anything.

 

[Perrotfish]

lol, just head up to the local army recruiting center. The only thing stopping me from joining is that I just want a year commitment and then apply to medical school.

First the commitment is always 8 years. This is usually partitioned into 4 years active duty and 4 years inactive reserves, which whatever your recruiter tells you you probably cannot get out of for medical school. The other options are the national call to service program (2 years active duty, 2 years actives reserves, and 4 years inactive reserves), and joining directly as a reservist (4 years active reserves, 4 years innactive reserves). In any event, these days whichever option you choose means about 4 years of active duty service, since most active reservists have been called up (along with some inactive reservists, which used to be unheard of).

If you really want military service I would recommend going to medical school on a medical scholarship. There will be many, many other wars, and the military is in much more desperate need of doctors than medics

 

[RedSHIFT]

First the commitment is always 8 years. This is usually partitioned into 4 years active duty and 4 years inactive reserves, which whatever your recruiter tells you you probably cannot get out of for medical school. The other options are the national call to service program (2 years active duty, 2 years actives reserves, and 4 years inactive reserves), and joining directly as a reservist (4 years active reserves, 4 years innactive reserves). In any event, these days whichever option you choose means about 4 years of active duty service, since most active reservists have been called up (along with some inactive reservists, which used to be unheard of).

If you really want military service I would recommend going to medical school on a medical scholarship. There will be many, many other wars, and the military is in much more desperate need of doctors than medics

thanks for advice, I didn't realize it was an 8 year commitment, I thought it was only 3!

 

[Perrotfish]

The inactive reserves don't have to drill, and up until Iraq they'd almost never been called up, so most people are used to thinking of that time as not part of the commitment. It definitely is, though, and some soldiers are finding out the hard way. My favorite example is the poor guys who joined the national guard under their "try one" program, where you only join for one year of active reserve service followed by IRR duty. Some of them ended up getting stop lossed.

 

[GoldShadow]

Hey guys I'm thinking of joining the army as a summer job... would this look good to adcoms?

 

[sindee1984]

lol, just head up to the local army recruiting center. The only thing stopping me from joining is that I just want a year commitment and then apply to medical school.

Let's hope you really are committing one year and then coming back...otherwise, if something happens and you don't come back... Just be careful b/c well obviously it's dangerous there...

 

[luv2sd]

Hey guys I'm thinking of joining the army as a summer job... would this look good to adcoms?

lol I laughed out loud

 

[UCDavisISokay]

 

[artaxerxes]

with great risks come great rewards. Back in the olden days, the officer who lead an attack on an enemy break was very likely to be killed during the assault, but if he survived, he can expect a hefty promotion.

 

[MarathonMan]

Hey, currently in Iraq myself working as a contract linguist. You should be very careful about committing to the Army. It may stipulate more time and work than you want to give. Listen to the other posters on this one. I've talked to many soldiers here who regret signing on since it's more than they expected. I've also talked to medics who love it here, so depends on you. See if you can come as a contract worker. there's no time commitment (I can leave whenever I want) and the money is excellent. Don't let others without experience try to scare you with their ignorant hyperbole they got from CNN. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. However it still comes with some risk. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Good Luck on your decision. I know I made the right one for me.
MM
Baghdad

 

[Old Grunt]

Also it's not like you're guaranteed to get Medic training (despite what they'll tell you in the recruiting office). You're also not guaranteed to get a deployable billet (or whatever the Army equivalent is) right away.

If you are in the Army and below the grade of E-4, Pretty much every billet is a deployable billet these days. The only question is, what unit are you going to and when are they going?

There are still plenty of people in the Army that have hidden out for the past six years, but they generally have enough rank to figure out how to crook the system.

Pretty disgraceful that they will do their twenty and get a pension after actively avoiding a tour of duty, but nobody ever said the Army was fair.

 

[TerraMedicX]

Hey, currently in Iraq myself working as a contract linguist. You should be very careful about committing to the Army. It may stipulate more time and work than you want to give. Listen to the other posters on this one. I've talked to many soldiers here who regret signing on since it's more than they expected. I've also talked to medics who love it here, so depends on you. See if you can come as a contract worker. there's no time commitment (I can leave whenever I want) and the money is excellent. Don't let others without experience try to scare you with their ignorant hyperbole they got from CNN. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. However it still comes with some risk. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Good Luck on your decision. I know I made the right one for me.
MM
Baghdad

I actually looked into this about three years ago (as I was finishing my undergrad degree), its a bit different for medics I think than it is for linguists. First off, there IS a time commitment. Unually a year, which is generally 1.5-2 months of training, then you get moved in-country and work for 9 months or so, then you come back and spend another 1.5 months or so helping to train all the replacements coming in! Another problem with this that I found, is that there is actually quite a bit of competition for these contract spots, and it seems that the ONLY way to get a job is if you know someone who is ALREADY there. That being said, I was considering it pretty heavily for quite a while! The pay is really good (100-150k for your 1 year of service...a good portion of which is non-taxed), you have no living costs while you're there, and you're helping to rebuild the country. Of course, you're also mainly doing occupational health work and primary care...there is VERY little if ANY emergency care done by the contract medics. Also, while most of the jobs have you ONLY in the green zone (in fact you're not even allowed OUT of the green zone if you WANT to!), that doesn't mean that there's no risk! If you're someone like I was then, no wife/girlfriend, no children, no real comitments...it might be a good fit for you. Just be sure you know what you're getting into before you do it! Oh, and the REQUIRE NREMT-Paramedic! If you google the topic you can usually find some good forums with all the info and people who know more than I do!

Nate.

 

[Old Grunt]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. If they just got back, it could be 12-18mo before they ship out again.

It's a bunch of B.S. You know people are hiding out in the Army. Walk around any post and do a right shoulder check.

The Marines are a lot more squared away on this, the Commandant of the Corps implemented his "Every Marine into the Fight" policy which is a directive to ensure that every active duty Marine deploys.

I wish the Army would adopt a similar policy. If you are a career soldier, you need to deploy with the rest of the Army, not find ways to avoid deploying.

At any rate, you are right, 12-18 months is the target refit time for redeploying time. The only time that gets stretched is if the unit is switching to a new format i.e. strikers.

Are you going into the Navy, Marines, or Air Force? Good luck to you, either way.

 

[positive51]

I'm in Iraq right now, and I would say do not come here if you don't have to! Especially not in the army. Check out the navy or the air force, they both get treated MUCH better. As a medic you can expect to get stop lossed after one tour, and end up doing at least 2.

*check out positions as a medic with KBR*

they run all the services on army posts in iraq

you would have to put yourself through school, but you would make way more money, get treated 100x better, and be much safer.

 

[Perrotfish]

OR just take a military scholarship. They pay for all tuition, all fees, 20K signing bonus, $1,900/month stipend, double pay as a resident, and the knowledge that your filling a slot that they wouldn't have filled otherwise.

Not that there aren't lots of reasons not to do that to, but its a better choice than contract medic.

 

[Depakote]

OR just take a military scholarship. They pay for all tuition, all fees, 20K signing bonus, $1,900/month stipend, double pay as a resident, and the knowledge that your filling a slot that they wouldn't have filled otherwise.

Not that there aren't lots of reasons not to do that to, but its a better choice than contract medic.

That sounds like the smart thing to do if you're set on military service. I would have to believe you'd be kept safer as a military physician than a deployed medic. Plus, you'd have no loans to pay off, so a lot more money later as opposed to a low medic pay now.

 

[Nasem]

ok, but just to warn you about the whole iraq medic thing...
My friend came back from Iraq (he was a marine) less than a year ago, he was telling me some sick **** (this is the stuff you don't hear about in the news often) about what the terrorist coalition forces do when they capture an american soldier/ medic / engineer / etc, they torture them to death...I don't wanna get into the graphic details.... but it is REALLY bad

 

[UCDavisISokay]

dude, u better go sign up now, since they are going to pull most of the troops about by next 3 or 4 years

 

[positive51]

A contractor-medic is a totally safe gig out here, trust me. You will make ridiculous amounts of money, say you have "combat" experience, and again, will be almost 100% safe. You won't leave post, and the the bigger posts are almosts completely secure. The only threat is indirect fire, and its not as bad as it sounds.

Trust me, a 15 month combat tour, as a low ranking army medic will be now were near as glamorous as I'm guessing you've made it sound to yourself. You will be under paid, over worked, and treated horrible (especially since your promotion points would be so high as a medic).

Its really hot out here to, it got up to like 140 in August.

 

[ScubaEMT]

CRAZY!! I was thinking right along the same lines.

I was planning on shooting myself in the chest and then doing surgery on myself... I am sure it would look great on my application! The best part is that it wont even require any kind of commitment. I can just go to med school as soon as I recover.

Does anybody know where to get a scalpel. Oh.. and I think I need a pair of tweezers to pull the bullet out with... and maybe a mirror to put on my ceiling so I can see what I am doing.

People need to be a little less silly in trying to pad up their applications.... and please nothing about how the OPs interest in going to Iraq could be anything other than padding ze app when (s)he just wants to join the Army for a year and then head off to school.

Lame.

 

[Chuckwalla]

Little tip. If any of your upcoming plans involve the words Army, Marines, military, or Iraq rethink them. Rethink them long and hard. Not to decide whether they are good plans but to figure out what the hell you were thinking in the first place.

 

[GoldShadow]

Not entirely sure why you guys are saying that being an army medic is so hard. I've played the game Battlefield 2, which is a very realistic combat simulator.

If you're a medic, you can heal people by holding a medikit near them, and if anybody is killed you can revive them with a portable defibrillator an unlimited number of times. I understand that in real life, the medikit healing would be a bit slower and you might need to shock someone three or even four times to bring them back to life, but I don't see why that would be such a problem.

If you want to get promoted and increase your pay grade rapidly, just find a fellow soldier who's willing to be shot and revived multiple times; you get loads of points for revives. Just don't let your CO see this, as you may be kicked and banned from the army if they find out about your "stat-padding".


I'm glad army videogames exist, they've really taught me a lot about what the military is like.

 

[UCDavisISokay]

I'm glad army videogames exist, they've really taught me a lot about what the military is like.

I am pretty sure it is not at all like the video games. for instance, in the video games, do you stand around in a formation for 2 hours doing nothing ?

 

[Revenant]

Dying in a foreign policy blunder looks good on an app, makes you well-rounded.

I say go for it

 

[Old Grunt]

ok, but just to warn you about the whole iraq medic thing...
My friend came back from Iraq (he was a marine) less than a year ago, he was telling me some sick **** (this is the stuff you don't hear about in the news often) about what the terrorist coalition forces do when they capture an american soldier/ medic / engineer / etc, they torture them to death...I don't wanna get into the graphic details.... but it is REALLY bad

That's why you always save one bullet for yourself.

Expect no quarter from the insurgency and go to your Gawd like a soldier.

 

[Old Grunt]

A contractor-medic is a totally safe gig out here, trust me. You will make ridiculous amounts of money, say you have "combat" experience, and again, will be almost 100% safe. You won't leave post, and the the bigger posts are almosts completely secure. The only threat is indirect fire, and its not as bad as it sounds.

Trust me, a 15 month combat tour, as a low ranking army medic will be now were near as glamorous as I'm guessing you've made it sound to yourself. You will be under paid, over worked, and treated horrible (especially since your promotion points would be so high as a medic).

Its really hot out here to, it got up to like 140 in August.

Indirect fire is only indirectly threatening...

Stay safe bro. Who are you with? I was with the 25th ID.

 

[Old Grunt]

I am pretty sure it is not at all like the video games. for instance, in the video games, do you stand around in a formation for 2 hours doing nothing ?

Or pull security for a VIP dog and pony show video?

I am pretty sure that is a mission in "America's Army".