Medic in the Regiment

[Struk]

What is daily life like as a Ranger Medic?

It's probably a heavy question to ask and if it violates opsec feel free to delete it.

[Jim]

No, it is a question, but I'll let someone in the medic world answer your question.

[RSOVRanger]

I'll toss my 2 cents in. I was an infantryman who was re-trained in-house at 3/75 as the battalion MEDSOV medic. It also probably has changed since I was around.. but here's how it was when I was there.

it depends on where you're assigned.

Company medic, Basic day stateside? show up for work, do morning formation, do sick call for the company. Each platoon medic sees his platoon's men. After that, PT, then chow and then prep for or begin supporting whatever that day's duties consist of. You might be going out with your platoon to a range and shooting, but bring your aid bag and have a secondary function of being the medical support if things go wrong. You might be staying at the aid station packing bags for training or deployments in the future. It all depends and changes day to day.

HHC is about the same, except it's morning PT then be back for BN sick call. Run that, then handle whatever supporting tasks there are for the day. A company or the battalion may need additional medical support for X training, so a team of medics might be tasked out. Prep for Y needs to occur, so you may be running around with a dod vehicle getting supplies from the hospital etc. There's a ton of medical supply related duties that need to get handled, as well as paperwork... more intensive of training, more direct support and indirect support occurs. You may be part of support for, or be going through, qualification/requalification/training specifically for your medical duties. Every medic needs to qual/requal to be able to perform as a medic in Regiment, every year. hands on as well as written tests.

Overseas, it depends on what's going on. Generally speaking due to being the medsov medic I was rotating day "on" day "off" but to be honest it was on every day for casevac. Only thing that changed was if I was slated to be heading out on a bird for any casevac calls. medics forward had more to worry about, given that they were the initial care for any patients, as well as being in the actual tactical situation at that point. If a bird went out, then it was balls to the wall to provide the best medical care available given the medical assets and people on hand, until the patients were good to go with whatever needed to happen... When I wasn't taking immediate care of casualties (which was thankfully few and far between) I was ensuring the elements forward of me had the assets they required to be able to complete their mission, taking care of sick call, and doing checkups on guys who had been patched up and returned to duty.

Being a medic in Regiment is by far one of the better jobs in my opinion. Especially if you do well enough and get your Tab, for no other reason than you have a VERY marketable skill should you decide that the army isn't a career you desire... Ranger medic = walk on with any fire/ems company/department nationwide, basically. Like the army but decide being a medic isn't for you but you got your shit? 4187 to your secondary MOS awarded when you got your Tab and go be an 11B if you don't want to reup to reclass to something else.

Lots of options, and a very rewarding line of work. I take pride in the fact that there are Rangers living a happy civilian life due in part to the actions I performed and care I provided overseas. There's nothing more rewarding than having a patient you cared for overseas thank you once you're stateside, letting you know that of everything that night they were on the litter, your voice is what helped them hang on.

It's also a huge responsibility and isn't for everyone.

[Sleepy Doc]

Straight from the man..

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