Deployment as a nurse in the air force????

Question

My husband is considering joining the air force. He will have "health care" on his contract to make sure that he will be working in the health care field after tech school. is it common for nurses to be deployed to korea or iraq? i guess what i'm asking is...is it more likely to stay with family on base or for him to be gone all the time considering his job field in the air force.

any other tips or advice u may have would be helpful. we're married for 7 years and have a 4 year old and 14 months old and are trying to figure out if our family is strong enough to handle the life changes and the way of life the air force brings. thanks! :)

Answer 1

The demand for nurses in the US alone is huge.  I'm sure if he needed a good paying job it wouldn't be hard to find one.  Stuff like the Air Force is a passion and if that's more imoprtant in making your family happy then do it.  Who knows where they would send him.  

Answer 2

First of all, I may be a little confused here but let me try.  If your husband is in tech School he would be a "Medic", or some type of specialist (ie Lab Tech, Rad Tech, Pharm Tech).  But either way it is fairly common for Medical Personell to be deployed to different locations including Iraq and Afghanistan.  However, its not as likely to be deployed as a medical person as say a security forces officer.  with that said with everything going on his chances may be higher to be deployed.  I was in the Air Force for 6 years as a Medical Laboratory Specialist, I was deployed one time in that 6 years to Kuwait.  A good friend of mine who is also a Medical Laboratory Specialist is deployed to Afghanistan right now, and is at a "EMEDS" (or MASH) hospital, front line hospital.  If he is a general "Medic" his chances would probably be a little bit higher than a Lab person just because more of them are needed to man a facility than Lab Techs.  Hope this answer helps you out a little.  I will say that if your husband is a Medic and he is deployed he WILL be a little safer than many other career fields in the Military.

Update:  One more thing, if your husband gets a job like Immunization he more than likely will not deploy to a battle zone.  There are many jobs in the Medical feild that will be a little less likely to deploy, those jobs that dont deal directly with patient care.  As far as having to move every 4 to 5 years, you will definetly be moving if your husband is an officer, and unless things have changed I was at the same base for 6 years although I had remote duty assignment orders when I got out.

Answer 3

I'm really confused....

Is your husband a nurse, as in BSN?  If so, he should be talking to an officer recruiter and not enlisting.  

You stated that he will have health care on his contract and you mention tech school which make me think that he will be coming in enlisted.   Enlisted personnel have many choices in the medical career field.

Could you clarify if he is coming in as an officer vs. enlisted.  

Answer 4

1.  He'll need a dependent waiver to come in.  

2.  Does he already have his RN?  If he doesn't have his degree he will be enlisting and health care is a mighty large group!

3.  Yep, medical fields do deploy to Iraq, Afganistan, and other locations.  Someone has to run the field hospitals.  During Desert Storm about 3/4 of our hospital at Langley deployed, leaving the hospital with next to nobody.

Korea is a remote, and is just like any other base.  He might get orders there, he might not.

4.  Everyone takes their chances when they come into the military.  Yes, some careers deploy more than others, but it really varies on the specialty.  Hubby's specialty as a maintainer deploys a lot, other maintainer specialties don't deploy at all.  

Plan on moving every 4 or 5 years.  Plan on hubby being gone for months at a time every couple of years.  Plan on leaving behind your house and your friends, to make new friends and set up a new house, just to do it all over again and again and again.  Plan on your children going to an assortment of schools, some good some bad.  Plan on living in some great locations and in some places you'll be praying for orders out of.  If you think you can handle that, then go for it.  If you don't think your family is cut out for that, well....

Personally, I love our life in the AF.  Yeah, it stinks when he's gone or when he's working 14 hours a day, but we've lived places other people only dream of visiting.  My children aren't sure if they're Americans or Europeans!  We have friends from all over the world.  Sure it's hard to say goodbye (although we just say "See you later!"), but it can be a good life.

If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to holler! :)

Edit:  To enter the AF, you can only have 2 dependents.  Since hubby has 3, he will have to file a waiver and hope it's accepted.