Ranger Medics in Combat?

Caring for the warriors: How medics contribute to mission accomplishment.
RngrDoc75
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by RngrDoc75 »

This issue has been so well addressed already, I almost don't feel the need to respond.....but I will.

Ryno78-

My first point is this; IT IS ALL ON YOU! Whether you want to be a good medic, a good infantryman, or a good Ranger (notice I separated those) - IT IS ALL ON YOU!!!! You make you what you are, not the Army, not the Regiment, and not your leaders. All those entities cannot help you unless you take the first steps in whatever direction you want. You need to define what you want to be. Define what you want to be now, 5 years from now, and 20 years from now. If, in particular, you want a career in medicine, then being a Ranger Medic is a tremendous stepping stone. For that matter, so is being a Ranger Infantryman. On the website alone, there are several examples of both Ranger Medics and Infantryman who have gone on to become physicians, physician assistants, and nurses.....as well as lawyers, businessmen, and so on.

To address some of your questions...Do Ranger Medics get to kick doors, kill bad guys, go to sniper school, jumpmaster school, SERE school, SCUBA school, join Recce Teams, and so on? Yes, some of them do. No not all of them by any means. Has any medic done all of those? None that I know of.... Do Ranger Medics get to go to several advanced medical schools? Absolutely. Ranger Medics are required to spend a month working in a major metropolitan trauma hospital, conduct annual combat trauma management training to work advanced skills, and maintain multiple certifications including ACLS, PHTLS, PEPP, BLS, and TCCC. So, any Ranger Medic who spends 2-3 years in the unit does all of those unless he is a complete turd for some reason (again, on him). Do Ranger Medics get to go to Flight Medic, Dive Med Tech, Critical Care Paramedic, High-Angle Rescue, and a bunch of other schools. Sure, but not all of them. Again, nobody I know has done them all.

Have Ranger Medics done some shooting? Yes, there are quite a few medics who have taken down bad guys. There are also quite a few Ranger Medics with Purple Hearts right now. It goes both ways you know.

You can be a good infantryman or a good medic in many different types of units. You also need to decide whether you WANT to be a Ranger. Being a Ranger is not about which MOS you are. It's about being part of something bigger than you. It's about having higher expectations of yourself and those around you...every single day, both on duty and off duty. It's about being part of something that has a higher calling and is important to the nation. It's about being ready to do what the nation calls on us to do. It's about training hard so you meet all those obligations. It's about being a leader, but when I say that I don't mean necessarily in charge of people. You don't have to be in charge or give anybody in order to be a leader. It means leading and showing others the right, best, and mastered way to do things and inspiring them to do the same. Rangers of every MOS have been doing this for years. They do it for those around them and for the Army at large. Where the Rangers go and what the Rangers do; the Army will follow and emulate. Sometimes it is storming the beaches of Normandy, but sometimes it is developing a new standard operating procedure or training method that the Army makes into doctrine.

If you are going into this with a mind set of what you can get out of the Rangers, then you're off on the wrong step. The Regiment is not obligated to give you anything except the leadership and resources to provide you an opportunity to do your best. The Regiment is not obligated to send you to any school until you have demonstrated the readiness to go a school/training event. That includes Ranger school, SOCM, Jumpmaster, Trauma Centers, and so on.... One does not join the Ranger Regiment to go to schools and get badges and shiny things. One joins the Regiment to be a Ranger and be among those with kindred spirits who want to be amongst the best, do their best, to do what is best for their country (and each other). You get to go to the next challenge, or school or whatever based on your performance in the last school/challenge and based on your performance today. You will face times when you have an opportunity to try out for some cool school, but you may miss a key event (deployment, exercise, or training event) with the unit. You suddenly get surprised with the question of which is more important; getting some school/badge or doing what the unit is doing. You would be surprised how many schools get turned down or passed over because that individual Ranger decides it is more important to him to be with the unit.

I'm tired of typing now. Think about all of that...
RngrDoc75
Ranger Medic, 75th RGR Regt
1990-1995 at 1/75
1995 to 2012 at RHQ
2012 to 2015 at USSOCOM
2015 to Present CoTCCC/Joint Trauma System

if you can do the math and have been in the Regt medical team in those years, then you probably know who I am...

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Joshua
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by Joshua »

I want to make an observation. I agree with Ranger Snafu. Some medics, (we use to call them Operational Medics in the SADF), were the most humble, quiet professionals I've ever had the privilege to work with.

Ops. Medics were all trained to be airborne. They went into all the hot zones, and saved many lives. But if needed they could also be a force multiplier. However all SF units had their own internal Ops. Medic’s, integral part of the team. He was a warrior first and medic second.

Ranger Dan made this observation: Good medics are much harder to find than good assaulters. I agree with him as well.
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Asystole557
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by Asystole557 »

I was previously an on-call firefighter and was frequently on calls, 75% of them being medical. I really liked the medical aspect of it and it's a great skill to have, whether using it in a career or not. I plan on getting a bachelor's degree before I enlist and I am signed up to begin EMT-Basic training soon. Once I get that, I will be an EMT in the civilian world and once I finish my bachelors, I am heading down to the recruiter. So either way, I will have a decent pre-hospital medical treatment backround (I know it won't be nearly as great as the Spec Ops Medics) and will be better able to help my brothers if the need arose. It's about what I can do to help and get rid of the enemy, not about the title.
Just out of curiosity, How are you going on medical calls if your not an EMT yet? Im an EMT basic and even with that there is a very limited scope of practice because as a basic you are only BLS. Perhaps it is different where you are from because here they make all firefighters be EMT basic certified.
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Sleepy Doc
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by Sleepy Doc »

I was going to write a long winded answer to your post... but all the others have covered that and then some.

It boils down to this; you choose the job you want to do, whether it is infantry or medic. By nature of the beast, the Ranger Regiment cross trains everyone to some degree, whether you are a grunt or a cook, medic or chaplains' assistant or forward observer. You will never be "stuck", as you say, training to do your job, because every job is integral to mission success or failure.

Everyone has a part to play. You have to decide which one is right for you.
B Co 3/75 '95-'99
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"ahh, Daniel-san.. When balance good, Karate good...everything good!.." K. Miyagi
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ma91c1an
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by ma91c1an »

Well...to be specific, I went to MFF and to Jumpmaster as a Ranger medic during my first enlistment. I attended a MFF JM MTT, but bolo'd on JMPI. My bad. I had the opportunity.

I also attended the complete SF Medic Course, at that time, 300F1, OJT, and Med Lab. I missed the Scout Swimmer course. My platoon sergeant made it a point to prepare me to attend Ranger School, and while it took me two recycles to get it done, I did it, and it remains among my proudest accomplishments to this day.

I was on the order of merit list in the platoon CP, and I went to Ranger School when my turn came. I had to let my slot slide a couple of times, because I had to deploy with my platoon, but I did not mind. I was taking care of my men--and that was the priority. My ambitions came second.

After I went SF, all of the schools in the Army inventory opened up to me, and I attended several more. Since I had already attended the SF Medic Course, when I went to the Q Course I did so as an SF Engineer, and was awarded two SF MOS's on graduation. I was the senior medic on my ODA, but being a school-trained demo man was extremely helpful during planning in isolation. Later, I attended O&I. Those three courses in combination gave me a lot of expertise, but all of that training is wasted if you are not up to the challenge, and I do not mean just graduating the course. What really matters is, what do you do with it when you are on your detachment, or deployed with your platoon?

One thing that I will say is, if you are not absolutely dedicated to being a medic, then you should not take the slot. Today's Ranger medics are trained to a far greater degree than we were in my day, and I was one of the first four Ranger medics to complete the entire SF Medic Course. Do not misunderstand me and think that I am boasting. Far from it. There was a need, a crying need, for the trauma skills that were taught in Med Lab in the Ranger Battalions of my era, so SOCOM approved the slots. And thank God that they did.

Modern day Ranger medics are some elite motherfuckers. I do not know how they are managed in the Battalions today, but during my era, we were either assigned to a platoon and remotely managed by the BAS, or we were assigned to HHC, and chopped to our home platoons. Either way, we belonged to those platoons, and for four years, I belonged to the Bad 'Muthers. That was my platoon. And they always will be, until the day that I die.

We trained continuously. Either with the platoons, or in the BAS. There was never a slack day. If there was dead time on the training schedule, we were teaching grunts how to manage gun shot wounds and how to punch IVs up in the platoon area. When we went to the range, my platoon sergeants always ensured that I had my time on the line. There was not a weapons system in the Ranger platoon that I was not fully trained on. I even went to EIB testing, as well as EFMB.

There was no question that I was a Ranger first. I was assigned to the 2d Squad of the Bad 'Muthers. I lived with those motherfuckers for four years, when I was not TDY. They remain my closest brothers to this day. We trained together, we whored together, and we fought together.

When I went to war the first time, I carried spare ammo for the pigs, a Claymore mine, a LAW, as well as frags, smoke, thermite and CS grenades. All of this in addition to my own bandolier of spare 5.56 for my CAR15, my .45, a machete, and my M5 bag. When the 82d Airborne came over to scrounge our grenades after Calivigny, they could not understand what the fuck I was. I looked like a Ranger, and I was, but I also had an M5 bag. I was not like their medics. I was a Ranger medic. It was a huge difference, and at that time in the US Army, only Rangers and SF trained their medics to that degree.

As a Ranger medic, you are at the tip of the spear, alone, with your platoon. It used to be that we moved with the platoon sergeant in the rear of the formation, or with our squad. You were embedded, integral, to that platoon, and our boys depended on us to stabilize them and prepare them for transport. When they evacuated, we usually went with our wounded, and we did the hand-off at the BAS.

If you enlist as a Ranger medic, you will be a Ranger first. You will attend the Academy of Health Sciences at Ft. Sam Houston, rather than the Benning School for Boys (I later did that as an 11A), and then you will go to Jump School, followed by RASP. Only after RASP, assuming that you make the cut, will you go to Battalion. Then your real training begins. It will never end.

Either way is honorable. Grunts are the core of the Battalions. But they need good medics. Good medics are tough to make.

Good luck, whatever you decide.
-------
Classes 12, 13, and 14-81.
Company A, 2d Battalion (Ranger), 1st Platoon, "Bad 'Muthers," 1980-1984;
SFQC 4-84.
Company B, 2d Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), ODA 151, 1984-1986.
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whocares175
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by whocares175 »

its been said over and over. figure out what you wanna do, kick in doors or practice medicine? are there Ranger medics that have: EIB, EFMB, CMB, HALO wings, SCUBA bubbles, Pathfinder badge, Ranger tab,etc....YES. what do you consider a COMBAT school? i consider a combat school when you are finally deployed IN combat. prior to that everything is just training. the test is the experience. as a Ranger medic are you going to go to Ranger school-YES. it is a small unit leader's course and every NCO in Regiment is a small unit leader. will you get the opportunity to go to HALO school..probably not, unless you get it as a re-enlistment option or move up the food chain. SCUBA-maybe. Jumpmaster/pathfinder-yes. however these aren't really combat schools. the unit training is more combat oriented than any army school for the fact that it's conducted solely by combat veterans of that unit. as a medic IF YOU PASS SOCM, you'll be an expert in multi system trauma trained to approximately the level of a 3rd year resident when it comes to trauma. so you decide. i was an infantryman in Regiment, now i'm in the qcourse for SF medic and just completed SOCM. PM me if you have other questions.
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RangerX
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by RangerX »

ama201 wrote:My brother in law is trying to be a PA. I'm glad he chose careers in healthcare.
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goon175
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by goon175 »

I have read in some places that there are a lot of Emergency Medical Technician-Basic trained Rangers within the Regiment. They aren't as highly trained as the Spec Ops Medics but they know more than the TCCC training Rangers get
Not to dog pile or anything, but this has turned into a great thread for any one else considering the 68W route in Regiment. To address the above quote I would first like to mention that I never saw any Ranger get EMT-B certified (so I'm not sure where you got that), but most Team Leaders get EMT-I certified which is obviously a step up from EMT-B. Now, it seems you discount what TCCC actually is. It is NOT EMT-B certification, but you learn things that EMT-B's don't, such as start a saline lock/start an IV, give a nasal pharyngeal, do a needle decompression, etc. I'm not a medical professional by any means, but I would trust my life to a Ranger who has TCCC under his belt over the civilian EMT-B any day of the week. The spc.'s and sgt's who go to EMT-I obviously do a lot of classroom work, and then a couple weeks of ambulance ride alongs getting real world medical experience that is obviously above the basics you learn doing RFR/TCCC certification. It goes with out saying that none of this compares to what a Ranger medic does (4 months of pre-socm, 9 months of socm coming out as an advanced tactical practitioner).

As far as schools go, most of the badge hunter schools aren't really that cool when compared to the other stuff available to Rangers. You will see when/IF you get there. The two badge producing schools that ARE cool - MFF and CDQC, but they are long schools and when you only have so much time between deployments, and they aren't skills that you will be needing on a day to day basis....yeah you can figure out where they fall on the to-do list.

As an aside to all that...regardless of MOS, you do some pretty cool stuff during RASP now, to include explosive breaching. By far the "coolest" thing you will do in Batt. is deploy. I don't think there is anything in the military that can compare to going on a mission as part of a Ranger strike force. But thats just me.
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goon175
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by goon175 »

well now I just feel stupid seeing that all the comments in this post were from 2010.....my bad....seems I have been having issues with looking at the date of things lately....
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt

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K.Ingraham
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by K.Ingraham »

No Goon, that is a worthy addition to a thread worth resurrecting, given the number of 68W candidates that have apeared here lately.
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Sleepy Doc
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by Sleepy Doc »

K.Ingraham wrote:No Goon, that is a worthy addition to a thread worth resurrecting, given the number of 68W candidates that have apeared here lately.
Indeed. Especially given that the methodology described by Goon has now been publicly validated. With everyone from the RCO on down being trained in basic lifesaving measures, and the medics getting the most advanced training it has been a huge success in making sure the Soldiers get home.
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Jim
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Re: Ranger Medics in Combat?

Post by Jim »

The Sleepy Doc wrote:
K.Ingraham wrote:No Goon, that is a worthy addition to a thread worth resurrecting, given the number of 68W candidates that have apeared here lately.
Indeed. Especially given that the methodology described by Goon has now been publicly validated. With everyone from the RCO on down being trained in basic lifesaving measures, and the medics getting the most advanced training it has been a huge success in making sure the Soldiers get home.
...and getting Rangers home is what is most important.
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