Life after a Special Forces or Navy SEALs Medic???

Question

If I were one a special forces medic or navy seal medic, what do you think I should be in the civilian world? I want something dealing with the medical field, what can I use with the training that I have from the military on to the civilian world. Do you think I should be a nurse or a doctor or what is the medical profession? Be informative.

Answer 1

ha. i think these are careers in themselves.  dunno much about buds/seals but i know in the army, you're not actually SF until you're an NCO..which is gonna take 4 or 5 years, plenty of nights in the dirt, and a bunch of small paychecks.  go to college and if you still have the military fever try the national guard first...the military is not at all what it looks like on tv...you don't slay dragons, you rarely wear your class a uniform, and every weapon you fire--you clean. it sucks. have fun.

Answer 2

18D is a great field and makes the BEST doctors in the world.  Just a regular army medic has training that many civilian doctors can't compare with, unless they are in the inner, inner city where gang wars are common.  I don't know about the Teams, but they see about as much action and have similar training as 18D, so...

Selection is hard, you're be with some of the best out there and really have to prove yourself, but that is with all SF and SO Groups. :)  

After leaving the military, it would be only natural to go into medicine as a civvy.  However, from what I have seen, it gets frustrating seeing the way things are done compared to the way they should be done.  Hospitals are money entities, with little spend on equipment, and the military spares no expense on the tools and training to keep their people alive.  It isn't the doctors who are causing the problems, but the people in charge and insurance agencies who say that you have to do this and that before you can do something you know will help.  I made the mistake of working in a hospital for a while, and was glad to leave them.  Though, as a fully trained 18D, you can do pretty well.  Trauma doctors are hard to find, and D's make the best.  The can also work under conditions that make normal doctors snivel and whine.

Since your training will send you overseas, you may find you do your best in small villages where they have little in the way of medicine.  You may not have the bank account to show a lifetime of work, but there isn't anything like helping someone who can't afford it make it through another day and pay you with a smile.  

I want to state that I wasn't an 18D, though I wish I had the ability to have been.  I just didn't have the brain for it.  Even if you wash on training, you will learn more than most will forget.  

Good luck and I hope you get the grade.  It will be something you will always cherish!

Answer 3

IF is a big question, you would have to make it thru the SF Selection or BUD/S before you were even allowed to go to 18-Delta or SOCM.

If your a SEAL Medic and only a SOCM, then EMT-P would be a good start, if your a full 18-Delta or Navy IDC, then a Civilian Equal (and after a few years OJT) would be Phys. Assistant. The PA program actually got started via the Navy IDC program after Vietnam.

18-Delta is a little over a year long and nothing compares to it as far as trauma and austere medicine goes, but it is in Ft. Bragg, not sure having to stay at Ft. Bragg in a school command is worth a year ;-)

Navy IDC is also over a year, it does not come close to 18-Delta as far as trauma goes but it is a much better clinical course than 18-Delta and is in San Diego, but SEALs do not go to it anymore :-(. Both courses are not like a civilian year long course, you will be doing 12+ hours a day and also get a lot more hands on doing things no EMT-P school would let you do, ie; sutures, minor surgery, full phsyical exams, etc...So depending on what you want to get into then that should help you make a choice as to what branch to go into. You can go to the full 18-Delta Course as a SEAL Medic but they are discouraging it now under the new SO Rating since once you make E-7 you will not really need your Medical Skill as much as just being a tactical leader and operator.

Answer 4

Those Fields in the military are hard to have a job in the every day world, maybe some type of Police or Correction. medics can do many thing in the regular world so really check into the military and make sure you don't want to make that you career to begin with.

Answer 5

Well, just being a corpsmen in the Navy basically translates into being a paramedic or medical assistant. You could go to college and complete the required civilian certificates while you are in, but this would be on you own time and seperate from being a corpsmen.