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Hi Ghost. I am saying this as a former 91B who reclassified to the newer MOS designation. I joined the military back in the 1990's and was in until the mid 2000's. I started as an E1 and worked my way into the NCO ranks/grade. While I never deployed OCONUS I did do a contract in Afghanistan a few years after I got out. Here's the issue; being a civilian paramedic isn't about providing trauma care in a non-permissive environment. Medical cases abound and the patient populations are incredibly diverse. Additionally, the trauma patterns tend to be more blunt in nature. You are dealing with complex chronic pathology, significant medical issues and a civilian operational environment. This is markedly different than what many 68W series guys get. Certain ASI's such as the M6 have significant civilian crossover however and the newer flight medic programme looks to provide NR-Paramedic credentials. So, as a soldier you potentially have other schools and options that you can choose from with better civilian crossover. However, as a soldier, you are there to serve Uncle Sugar and he's under no obligation to hand you a civilian credential that you may not fully understand but believe you deserve. I believe military medics have much to offer, but they will likely need to attend the proper training and education programmes to successfully make the civilian paramedic transition. Luckily, the military is usually pretty good at offering assistance to combat vets as they transition into the civilian workforce. Unfortunately, I fear you simply do not know what you do not know. Please attempt to look at the bigger picture and appreciate the fact that you may not have a fully developed appreciation of the role of the civilian paramedic.

We don't set the path. That you don't like the path is not the point. The path is what it is. If this is what you want to do you will follow the path. What's more, that you don't like the comments that you solicited doesn't make any of them wrong. Nobody has belittled your service. Nor does your military service have anything to do with what you don't like in the civilian world. Good for you. Just like the Army trained you their way to do their job, civilian EMS trains you to do things their way in their job. It's no different. Want to do the job? You earn it. You may have little experience with this yet, but EMS has a pretty bad rap for people wanting things for nothing. It hurts the profession when people take shortcuts or try to beat the system. There are times when a workaround to solve a problem can be a good thing. When it comes to education, however, it creates bigger problems. What's interesting here is that you have no idea who you're talking to. You don't know our backgrounds, our experiences, our education, where we've been or what we've done. Yet you're presuming an awful lot. What's more interesting is that just about every combat vet I know or work with none of them make a big deal about it. Downplay it, even. It's the loud one's you need to look out for.