civillian vs military trauma treatments

[MackTheKnife]

Retirement status

There's retired and retired. Under General (maybe Colonel?) once you are ten years post-retirement, you are permanently retired, unless the President signs an order or something.

When a service member, officer or enlisted, retires with less than 30 years, they are transferred to a Reserve List. In the Navy it is called the Fleet Reserve List. Once the member reaches a combination of 30 years, i.e., retires at 20 years, goes into Fleet Reserve for 10 years, they are then transferred to the Retired List. A certificate is received for both events from the parent service's personnel branch. It is not dependent upon rank, officer/enlisted status, etc.

 

[Veneficus]

No, it does not take an act of Congress. Chief Petty Officers are appointed by the Bureau of Naval Personnel. It does take a courts-martial to "bust" a Chief to a lower paygrade. Commanding Officers do not have the authority.
The only thing that is congressionally related is DOMA (Goldwater-Nichols Act). Under the provisions of DOMA, senior enlisted (E8 & E9), are limited to 1% and 2%, respectively, of the force.
As for signing your name with your rank and appending retired, any military member, officer or enlisted, is allowed to do so. If you happen to read any of the military-related periodicals, the authors (admirals, generals, other officers and enlisted) append "Retired" so as to distinguish themselves from active duty.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[EpiEMS]

senior enlisted (E8 & E9), are limited to 1% and 2%, respectively, of the force.

Teh 1 purcent!!!!!!

Interesting to note. Senior enlisted are the go-to source for all knowledge of military topics among junior officers, no?

 

[RocketMedic]

Depends....junior enlisted usually troubleshoot everything in my bit of the Army.

 

[MackTheKnife]

Yes, they are

Teh 1 purcent!!!!!!

Interesting to note. Senior enlisted are the go-to source for all knowledge of military topics among junior officers, no?

The senior enlisted are responsible for training the junior officers. In the Navy, they are also expected to be the subject matter expert on whatever equipment they are trained on.

 

[TheMidnightPhilosopher]

I dont think the civilian world should go too far emulating military medicine, at least as far as EMS is concerned. There seems to be a mistaken belief that being a medic in the military means youve seen it all. In reality, a civilian EMS provider probably sees and treats a much greater variety and number of medical and trauma emergencies. Those medical emergencies military medics do occasionally treat are generally things you rarely see in the civilian world, and virtually all of their patients are otherwise healthy, relatively fit younger males, not exactly widely representative of the typical civilian EMS patient.

In the Marine Corps I recall Corpsman generally being about as useful as tits on a boar. I hate to say that, and it flies in the face of the hollywood image of the combat doc who is an indispensible member of the unit, but to most of us they were little more than mobile motrin dispensers who spent most of their time sitting around a branch aide station giving vaccines and finding ways to get out of formations, work details, and PT.

A civilian paramedic and EMT sees sick and injured patients pretty much every shift they work. A military medic generally doesnt gain a whole lot of experience, and what experience they do gain isnt necessarily applicable to the civilian world.

There is some truth in your comments sir, however there is also many inaccuracies. It is true that in the military we have a mostly healthy population and military medics generally treat ENT issues and musculoskeletal injuries in a stateside non wartime setting, that is not true when the setting changes to wartime.

Also in most protocols EMT's do not do clinical care, where military medics do. There are turds in every profession. A military medic does not gain a whole lot of experience and what they do learn isn't generally useful? Tell that to most of the PA's and some MD's you drop patients of to. Wow.

 

[mycrofft]

I think joeshmoe's comment is a barometer about the attitude some troops have towards medical providers, as well as about some medical providers. I had folks who had no use for health care, even going so far as to hide their own AND OTHERS' medical woes. I had a patient spirited away by PJ's via C-130 when the ER doc who diagnosed his "mild MI" had dictated car transport only.

 

[Doczilla]

It's all about who you ask. In units that perform direct action and other kinetic operations, their medics are hand-picked and trusted. The higher the risk, the more acuity the operation requires, the more carefully they pick their medics.

I'm not knocking support, but usually you see the turds in the "Charlie meds" , the melting pot of preventative medicine specialists, vet techs, and "combat medics" that did not seek opportunities to support the ground pounders who thrive on the front lines.

If you're content to inventory the same MES chests every day, and fill out halfhearted SOAP notes in some clinic for a living, chances are you won't rub the combat arms guys the right way when youre placed with them at the last second to fill a deployment quota.

You can usually spot these guys lugging monolithic refrigerator-esque aid bags,(with staple guns on the outside) with a kit setup that looks like they dumped their clunky, unkempt vest in superglue and rolled it around in a pile of GP pouches. Oh yeah, don't forget the trauma shears MOLLEd smack dab on their front plate.

 

[Doczilla]

I think joeshmoe's comment is a barometer about the attitude some troops have towards medical providers, as well as about some medical providers. I had folks who had no use for health care, even going so far as to hide their own AND OTHERS' medical woes. I had a patient spirited away by PJ's via C-130 when the ER doc who diagnosed his "mild MI" had dictated car transport only.

I worked with some PJs and CCT's last year. Amazing dudes.

 

[RocketMedic]

I'd kill for a Charlie Med slot...I'm trying to ACAP and I'm still on the NTC roster for August, with an anticipated drop date in September...

I saw everyone and all sorts of illnesses and injuries downrange.