US ARMY COMBAT MEDIC

[armymedic571]

Ft Sam. Love that place. Its more like a vacation than a duty station.

to answer your question. I am currently assigned to the 28th ID, Div Surg Cell. Pushing papers in not my bag.......I can do the work, but whew.....I hate it.

Before that, I was with HHT 2/104 CAV (RSTA), 56th Stryker Brigade in Taji, Iraq.

Later AM 571

[Doc D]

Fort Sam Houston is pretty gay now. Atleast when i went through Charlie Co. 232 medical Battalion....we got smoked every day, they tossed our bays every day, we got mass punished for everything, we got dephased 3 times throughout the cycle, no weekend passes, super fast paced, low passing rate, lots of people fail out, less sleep then basic training, in most cases less then 1 hour personal time. It was a shitty 18 weeks, i would have just done basic training twice instead of going back there for a fresh 18;.

[chbare]

Fort Sam Houston is pretty gay now. Atleast when i went through Charlie Co. 232 medical Battalion....we got smoked every day, they tossed our bays every day, we got mass punished for everything, we got dephased 3 times throughout the cycle, no weekend passes, super fast paced, low passing rate, lots of people fail out, less sleep then basic training, in most cases less then 1 hour personal time. It was a shitty 18 weeks, i would have just done basic training twice instead of going back there for a fresh 18;.

That's pretty much how I remember it. You have four months or so to learn a bunch of information. Without tight structure it's rather hard to attempt to accomplish that task. I also had a fair number of students fail out of my class, that is the way it goes in some of these programmes. In addition, getting smoked, having your room trashed, and mass punishments are pretty standard concepts associated with initial Army training. Yes, AIT is still initial training. It's too bad you never had a pass because as I remember, San Antonio was a single dudes dream. Then again, when people mess up, you get de-phased. I did not receive a pass (Friday night and Saturday only) until about the six week mark.

Take care,

chbare.

[armymedic571]

You all make me laugh. When I went through Sam it was a 14 weeks program.......Key word here is DISCIPINE........but that is another topic.

I will agree that it is a different ball of wax. Not a whole lot of room to learn...just sink or swim....

[chbare]

You all make me laugh. When I went through Sam it was a 14 weeks program.......Key word here is DISCIPINE........but that is another topic.

I will agree that it is a different ball of wax. Not a whole lot of room to learn...just sink or swim....

I am not sure I see the humour. When I went through, it was a 10 week programme and we did a couple of additional weeks to cover the new AED and self assisted medication EMT-B guidelines that were just beginning to roll out. I think I was there for about 12 weeks. Am I dating myself or what?

Take care,

chbare.

[Doc D]

Fort Sam Houston is pretty gay now. Atleast when i went through Charlie Co. 232 medical Battalion....we got smoked every day, they tossed our bays every day, we got mass punished for everything, we got dephased 3 times throughout the cycle, no weekend passes, super fast paced, low passing rate, lots of people fail out, less sleep then basic training, in most cases less then 1 hour personal time. It was a shitty 18 weeks, i would have just done basic training twice instead of going back there for a fresh 18;.

LOL i get -2 rep for talking about how the 232 medical battalion is, LOL.

But yeah too many females got raped so they took our overnight passes and whatnot. Did you know 68w(medic) and 11B(Infantry) are the only people living in bays for AIT? Every other MOS gets 2 to 4 man rooms for AIT. Lol.

[chbare]

LOL i get -2 rep for talking about how the 232 medical battalion is, LOL.

But yeah too many females got raped so they took our overnight passes and whatnot. Did you know 68w(medic) and 11B(Infantry) are the only people living in bays for AIT? Every other MOS gets 2 to 4 man rooms for AIT. Lol.

I hope you realise that when you deploy, you should expect rather spartan conditions? In addition, living in a bay for five months is bad? Also, you seem to complain about loosing your pass; however, with the overall type of behaviour you just described, what do you expect? If rape occured, and it very well could have, this should be considered quite serious. So sorry of it was an inconvenience.

Take care,

chbare.

[armymedic571]

LOL i get -2 rep for talking about how the 232 medical battalion is, LOL.

But yeah too many females got raped so they took our overnight passes and whatnot. Did you know 68w(medic) and 11B(Infantry) are the only people living in bays for AIT? Every other MOS gets 2 to 4 man rooms for AIT. Lol.

Nope for being ignorant......

BTW, your last post isn't funny. That is serious business were taking about, and your using it like a punch line. FAIL.

CHBare, I went through school in '96. I am fairly sure it was 14 weeks long. It's funny because I made it and now I can think back about my time there. In reality, the curriculum is horrible and incomplete. Not to mention condensed.

I have sent several letters to the US Army Medical Center and School. But all I got back was a thankyou letter for being a concerned NCO. Figures.

[tskstorm]

LOL i get -2 rep for talking about how the 232 medical battalion is, LOL.

But yeah too many females got raped so they took our overnight passes and whatnot. Did you know 68w(medic) and 11B(Infantry) are the only people living in bays for AIT? Every other MOS gets 2 to 4 man rooms for AIT. Lol.

You get negative 2 rep for poor presentation, horrible grammar, and a condescending attitude. Ignorant was a good summation.

You will learn, here on this forum, you are at the bottom of the barrel, you're an EMT or "just an EMT" as you put it. Even at that you manage to sound completely incompetent, and undereducated.

You think mastering 5 trauma skills makes you a medic ? Get a real education, then we can talk.

You're complaining about living in a bay for AIT? Good luck to you when things actually get rough.

It is without a doubt that you fail someone with your attitude. You don't want to put gloves on you don't want to protect yourself no problem you will fail someone by passing disease from one patient to another. Could be as simple as rhinovirus. Or fail yourself when you're attitude gets you in the wrong place at the wrong time and you catch a bullet in the head.

[maverick56]

Fort Sam Houston is pretty gay now. Atleast when i went through Charlie Co. 232 medical Battalion....we got smoked every day, they tossed our bays every day, we got mass punished for everything, we got dephased 3 times throughout the cycle, no weekend passes, super fast paced, low passing rate, lots of people fail out, less sleep then basic training, in most cases less then 1 hour personal time. It was a shitty 18 weeks, i would have just done basic training twice instead of going back there for a fresh 18;.

LOL i get -2 rep for talking about how the 232 medical battalion is, LOL.

But yeah too many females got raped so they took our overnight passes and whatnot. Did you know 68w(medic) and 11B(Infantry) are the only people living in bays for AIT? Every other MOS gets 2 to 4 man rooms for AIT. Lol.

Did you ever think that maybe there's a reason behind that? Look up unit cohesion. I'm sorry, but I've tried pretty hard here to be patient, consider your age and experience, support you, give you some slack and maybe explain to others where you might be coming from. But this crap just sounds whiney and immature. You do realize that you joined the ARMY, right? Not a fraternity or the golf team. So you had a bay for AIT, big deal! My entire enlistment, that bay at Ft Sam was the nicest quarters I had! Otherwise, I split time between a semi-insulated, unheated, open-rafter barracks built at the start of the Korean war and a cot in the corner of a chopper hanger. Then while deployed in the early days of FOBs, I saw a cot and tent a total of 14 times in 12 months, sleeping in abandoned buildings and in or under my truck. So excuse me if I don't sympathize with your irritation over living in a bay for 18 weeks.

And passes? Yeah, those aren't a right, they are earned. And with the sorry excuse for discipline I see in the majority of new recruits... Too many females got raped? I'd say that's a major issue and damn good reason to clamp down on free time! Damn, you used to get passes pulled for not having your boots shined enough or because the DS decided the bay floor needed to be buffed.

You don't like mass punishment. Do you understand the reason behind it? It's to get you into the mindset that you are a team - you live, work, and function as a unit. Particularly as a medic or infantry grunt, if you can't grasp that mindset, that concept of unit cohesion, you will fail. You or someone else will die. You might prefer an individual slap on the hand, but it's not preschool, it's the ARMY, and the Army is in the business of WAR, where slaps on the hand and individuals don't mean a damn thing. They are trying to prepare you for the reality of that. Instead of whining about it, maybe you should find the reasons behind it. Someone as "HOOAH" as you seem to be, proud of your uniform and preparing for a first deployment, you should be taking every opportunity to learn from people with experience, from your instructors, what it really takes to be a good soldier and a good medic. Everybody comes out of AIT feeling like they've conquered the world and are now johnny badass - you haven't and you're not. You should feel good, confident in what you have accomplished, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that your education starts when you walk into your first unit.

God Bless the "new Army."

-SGT Boyce

edited for formatting

Edited June 7, 2010 by maverick56