AD Deployment as an augmentee--

ESH · 08-16-2006, 17:10

Am an 18D with 5/19 SFG, finishing the Q-Course in the next few months. As graduation approaches, I want to get all my ducks in a row so I can deploy already and do the job (3 years in training without a recycle...)

Am interested in deploying to Iraq or A-Stan with an Active Duty team as an augmentee, and am looking for info on the process. Any info regarding who to contact and what paperwork is needed would be appreciated.

Additionally, how does the order of merit list work for schools? Would like to try and get SOTIC or SFARTAEC before I deploy-- I know that slots are hard to come by, but its worth trying for considering the operational environment.

Spoke to my company's training NCO, and unfortunately didn't have any specific info regarding the above, and could't really talk when I called. Would wait until I get to my gaining unit, but as I said, I want to start finding out what is necessary before an opportunity is lost.

Thanks in advance for any info--

NousDefionsDoc · 08-16-2006, 17:41

Quote:

finishing the Q-Course in the next few months. As graduation approaches,

You are not an 18Anything with anybody if you haven't finished training.

You are in school now and I highly suggest you focus on finishing the task at hand before you start gazing up the road.

Asking about advanced skills before you even graduate? On this board? Bad form. I remember a time in 7th Group when a question like that would get one's rucksack slung down the hallway like it was shot out of a cannon.

You think you are so ready to be Special Forces Medic on an A-Team in a combat zone that you can afford to devote your time to other skill sets? Special Forces medicine IS an advanced skill - you think you've learned it and can move on? You want to go with a Team as an augmentee? You think they will take you because you went to SOTIC or because they need a Doc?

Perhaps your new Teammates would be better served by you making sure the Team's med package and you are GTG before you start worrying about other things.

I hope you graduate and I hope you get your wish and you get called. And I hope you do a good job for whoever you go with.

You should give thanks to the deity of your choosing that I am not your Team Sergeant.

ESH · 08-16-2006, 18:23

Understood.

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 08-16-2006, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

You should give thanks to the deity of your choosing that I am not your Team Sergeant.

You should also be thankful that I am neither your Team Cdr, Company Cdr, Bn Cdr. There is no such thing as an augmentee-you are a team member or you are not a team member. I would no more stick a new guy in with a functioning team as anything, much less someone who apparently wants to be a glory hound just to be able to "deploy" with the big boys. This is not a game. If you want to go active duty then go active duty, if not return to your unit and become a member of that organization, get on a team, learn what it means to be a team member, learn the ropes of how that team functions, and prepare yourself to deploy because sooner or later you will.

I would no more send someone to an advanced skill program for anything unless he needed that skill to meet mission requirements. For every "badge" or ASI chaser out there, there is someone who is not getting a slot that needs to be filled for real. Worry about being the best damn 18D there is and if and when you need additional skill sets then if you are worth a damn and your chain of command feels you have to potential to benefit from the training and will be able to use those skills to benefit the team then you will get it.

7624U · 08-16-2006, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESH

Additionally, how does the order of merit list work for schools? Would like to try and get SOTIC or SFARTAEC before I deploy

Thanks in advance for any info--

Get to the back of the line

ESH · 08-16-2006, 19:03

Originally sent a response to NousDefionsDoc, but as this has gotten the attention of others, allow me to clarify on the thread.

Am not a "glory hound" or a badge/skill chaser, and did not intend to come off as wanting to be hot s*#t out of the gate. As a new servicemember, I have a big weight on my chest as far as bringing something to the table, whomever I serve with. It is a sincere concern and one that I take seriously. The two aforementioned schools have been given to guys I am with now...."newbies" prior to arriving to AD groups. The utility of these schools have been mentioned by CADRE on numerous occasions, and is the only reason I inquired about them.

As far as the "augmentee" question; my guard unit has already lost a number of soldiers to active duty and during a quick phone conversation said that it probably would not sign off on me going active duty. Am surprised my desire to deploy would incur such animosity.

Will focus soley on the task in front of me--

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 08-16-2006, 19:13

Just disregard, I obviously am wasting your time and mine.

NousDefionsDoc · 08-16-2006, 19:15

+1

ESH · 08-16-2006, 19:37

Sir, I absolutely understand your and NDD's replies and appreciate them.

Didn't mean to sound confrontational or argumentative, was simply caught off guard by the "gloryhound" comment. Will concentrate on my MOS and learning the basics first, and drive on...

v/r
ESH

lksteve · 08-16-2006, 20:03

the hole's deep enough...put down the shovel...

**Eagle5US** · 08-16-2006, 20:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESH

Sir, I absolutely understand your and NDD's replies and appreciate them.

v/r
ESH

Obviously you didn't / don't understand their comments.
Realize this...
IF you graduate, you will be a cherry team medic. With any luck, you will be a junior medic and have a senior you can LEARN MEDICINE from. You have the minimum book smarts required to graduate that phase of the course.

Other courses can indeed by useful-but let me tell you a short story of a guy fdrom an NG gropup that came to my team as an 18D for a real world deployment. Real mission, real bad guys, real bullets in a really bad place on a continent not far from here.
He was schooled out...18D, E, C, SOTIC, MFF, Door Kicking, INTAC, he had a list a mile long. Team time-6 weeks total in between schools. deployments-ZERO. My team SGT looked at his "resume", and listened to his school list, and said...one word...CHERRY
First engagement, first casualties, guy couldn't perform and was sent packing never to be seen again in our AO.
Schools mean dick. Stay focused at the task at hand. Learn medicine. Everything else is gravy.

Eagle

MtnGoat · 08-17-2006, 10:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by lksteve

the hole's deep enough...put down the shovel...

+1

x SF med · 08-17-2006, 10:25

ESH-

****RANT ON****

NDD is an 18D, TS is an 18D (and more), before I became an 18D I was an 18B.

You are still in the Course - focus on that.

When / If you get to a Team, you are an FNG (did it twice) and are expected to have the rudiments of your MOS already, fine-tune them under the tutelage of the Sr. Team member of that MOS, and cross train in other MOS's, in other words become a functioning Team member and learn, learn, learn - coming out of the Q you know enough to be dangerous to yourself and others if you have no SA and think you know anything other than what you learned at the Q.

Upon arrival at a Team - you will be lower than the lowest layer of whale shit in the deepest part of the ocean, and will go lower if you come across as a know-it-all or wannabe superhero. Think about it, most Heroes are dead by the time they become Heroes, with a few notable exceptions - and even those guys chalk that up to luck, which is a fickle misttress.

Team Daddy is GOD and the hierarchy after that is determined by him and the consensus of the Team, you will be an unknown quantity of unknown quality, and disposable (even as an 18D if you make it) until you show you are a Team member and valuable. Earn the schools you want to go to by first becoming a productive, functioning and valuable asset to your brothers on the Team, if you deserve the schools, you'll get them.

****RANT OVER****