[freeheel]

Howdy -- it's a privilege to be a guest on this site, and I want to thank you all for your service at this difficult time. I'm a civilian physician assistant. I practice in a small-town emergency room WAY upstream in the Rockies. Thanks in advance for your patience with what is going to be a LONG-WINDED intro.

I'm 47. I served in the Marines in the early 1980s, then went into journalism ... but tired of that profession's pervasive dishonesty after several years and decided, in my thirties, to pursue a career in medicine. I became a PA in 2000. Right now I'm intent on joining the Army as a battalion medical officer. My application package is complete, and an Oct 16 selection board is supposed to decide my fate. I'm just under the wire age-wise, but there are some medical and other considerations that might keep me out.

If I get in, I want to go to Iraq ASAP and get experience at managing trauma.

My interest in SF, oddly, results from my journalism background. From 1987 through 1994, I reported extensively from Afghanistan. By October 1994, the civil war seemed stalemated, so I headed stateside to take pre-med courses. As I brushed away flies in the departure lounge at Peshawar Int'l Airport, I recall reading a short blurb in a Pakistani paper about a ragtag student ('Talib') militia that had just emerged and was trying to take over Kandahar ... !

The things I and a few colleagues did routinely in the 'old' days -- like walking over some of the world's highest mountains for a week to find and interview a local leader -- are just completely beyond the ken of today's media hacks.

I can't help but daydream that my background might make me useful to Special Forces. Besides my OJT in Dari and Pashto, I studied Arabic in college. I can't speak it, that was 25 years ago, but I have a base to build on. For what it's worth, I'm certain I'm fit enough, despite my age, to complete the qual course.

However I use the verb 'daydream' advisedly. My best info is that it's next to impossible to get posted to SF or Ranger units without already having a special ops background prior to becoming a PA ... which in fact makes perfect sense to me. If I were an SF or Ranger battalion commander, I wouldn't want it any other way. So my plan now is to try to get into an infantry, preferably Airborne unit, go to Iraq, pay my dues, learn and do as much as I can ... and then ponder my options. Obviously I would appreciate any and all advice from 'quiet professionals'. But I've only done a couple of cursory searches on this site on "physician assistant" and "medical officer." So I'll hold specific questions til after I've done more homework. Thanks again for your service -- and your patience. Semper Fi!