Military "medics"

[kuo34]

As an Air Force Reservist (yes, I left the Army for the Air Reserve because they have a/c and cable), direct patient contact personnel are usually referred to by their job titles or associated nicknames (i.e. I'm referred to as a BeE because my job title is Bioenvironmental Engineering), LPNs and RNs (enlisted and officer) tend to be referred to as nurses, flight medics (I'm not sure what the official term is) tend to be medics - these are the NREMT certified basics that are the baseline of military medicine in all branches from what I understand. A friend of mine has a son that just got through corpsman training and he's NREMT-B certified now. Anywho, all that being put aside, the common terms I've heard in my limited exposure to the Air Force for personnel are the official "Airman" term, medic or flight medic in reference to medical personnel by non-medical personnel, and "trooper" as an all encompassing term for AF personnel in lieu of airman. It's not always easy to identify who is patient care personnel by uniform insignia alone. The AF uses a job field identification type badge above the name tag on the left breast, but the snake and staff only broadly identifies the personnel as working in the medical field in some shape form or fashion. EFMB and CMB badge wearers are not necessarily Army medics. Personnel wearing medical unit patches also run the range of job fields. I recall the Navy having similar insignia for veterinary services personnel as well as corpsmen (though it's been a long time since I've worked with any of them).

I guess what I'm saying is the best way to figure out who's a doc, nurse, or medic as far as the military and military type services are is to observe them carrying out patient care or getting a good look at their CV. It's just like the civilian side - I've seen a lot of NREMT certified EMT-Paramedics that I wouldn't trust to feed my fish - titles and nicknames only give you part of the story. Working a few hundred hours with them will tell you who's a real medic.

[ksmedic202]

Richard B-

I was a corpsman in the mid-90's. At that time if you wanted to work in the medical field in the USN as enlisted personnel, you went to Corpsman "A" school where you recieved your basic core insturction (no pun intended). After that, you recieved your first set of orders. Many of the specialties, i.e. x-ray, ortho tech, respiratory tech, required admission to a "C" school (C school, in the navy-haha-sorry) or an extended period of OJT. Many of the "C" schools had some sort of basic requirement to get in (think pre-reqs).

Corpman "A" school consisted of the EMT-b ciricula and clinical setting ciricula. I went to class 5 days a week, 8 hours a day for 3-4months. On the downside, I did not recieve any NREMT credit for my class, which followed the NREMT ciriculum. I am sure that has changed now.

Your basic corpsman after completion of corps school was corpsman-0000 (quad-0 in lay speak). Completion of OJT or "C" school would earn the corpsman a different designator. My favorite was corpsman-8404 or field medic. These corpsman went from corps school to Field med where they did an additional 8 weeks of intensive training with the USMC. You could then be deployed with Marine units as a medic. As it was a general time of peace in the world back then, I didn't get that opportunity. I would imagine that has changed today.

Clear as mud? Hope I could help.

[AirForceMedic]

As an Air Force Medic (4NO)....yes, all medical personnel in the enlisted Air Force wear the same/similar badge above the left breast "U.S. Air Force" but we don't all do that same job. As a medic myself, we can do anything from work in hospitals to deployed environments. We are fairly versatile and know many skills from a basic assessments to IV's and phlebotomy to caring for traumatic and non traumatic amputations (as well as a million other injuries). I love my job. We can do so many different things. Although we don't get to come out with an RN or MD, we still get to jump right into patient care and really make a difference with whoever we care for. It does not matter if someone is an Air Force Medic, a Medic in the Marines, or Navy, or Army. Our mission is still the same.....and in the end we all step up and do what we are trained to do, even if it means working together and combining knowledge.