I am looking for some current information.
How difficult is it to get a Navy surgical internship?
I have searched for information on Marine GMOs and have found where someone said that it is harder to get assigned to a combat platform than a support platform. Is this still true?
If you were assigned to just a support platform, would you have less of an opportunity to go to such schools such as Airborne or cold weather survival medicine?
Anyone been assigned to a Marine Expeditionary Unit? What what was that like and how difficult is it to be assigned to one of those units?
Thank-you
Admit to not knowing med side as well, but coming from the green side... Marines get very, very few billets at Airborne. (Support units, like some of the logistics types, probably have more jump billets because it is in their mission. Combat units, with the exception of ANGLICO, Recon, or Mar Soc get very few/none). And they are highly sought after. Few units get any at all, and those that do will probably not send their GMO. Not saying impossible, but very hard. If you have an aching desire to jump out of an airplane, best bet is to pay to do it. Second best bet is to join the Army, where they give those billets out like candy.
Bridgeport (mountain/cold weather training) - more likely if stationed on the West coast, I think. But a crap-shoot - depends mostly if your unit is going.
Again, didn't go on a MEU (went OEF), but know lots of guys who did. Some had great experiences - did some cool training ops and hit every libo port in the Med (read - drank their way through the Mediterranean, returning broke but with some great stories). Others do no cool ops and cut "gator squares" in the middle of the gulf for six months (read - you stay on ship the entire time. No cool operations or ports. As GMO, you would probably see a couple of patients in sick call, but can't imagine that many. Do some training. Go to the gym. Take a nap. Go to chow. Take a nap. PT some more. etc - gets very boring). Those units have long workups, so before you even go overseas you have six months of training where you are gone a lot. Then you are gone for seven months. I doubt it's the most cush job. And sometimes they don't even go on ship - they just get sent straight to Afghanistan or Iraq.
I
believe that amphibious ships (which carry MEUs) have their own GMOs - at least the large decks, which have relatively extensive medical capabilities. As far as getting assigned to a Marine Battalion (Infantry, Combat Logistics Battalion, or Squadron) which is going on a MEU - may not be impossible, but don't set your heart on it - who gets sent is always liable to change. I'm guessing, however, that if you went to the detailer and said, "I want to deploy!" - they would make it happen. Then again, when I volunteered to deploy again, I didn't get sent...
