Navy corpsman (someone who knows)

Question

i have a few college credits toward healthcareers. i was wondering if the rate or job was over filled. i asked a recruiter and all he said was it varies.. i heard that many in tthis field were having to go overseas on several tours so i dont understand how it could be overmanned.. could someone tell me about this, is it overmaned? can i get in ? my credits are in A&P, and hematology . i believe i could learn fast and advance quickly in this field.. i dont have a criminal record but maybe some mild credit issues... how should i go about trying to get into navy corpsman.

Answer 1

Talk to a Navy recruiter!

Look at the AF & Army programs too!

College credits will help you later on for promotion points.

Answer 2

Best to discuss it with a Navy recruiter. They are supposed to know all the answers to those kind of questions.

Answer 3

Try the other services - if the rate is overmanned it will mean you will have slow advancement = less opportunity.

Answer 4

Unfortunately the Rate is very overmanned at the moment, and seems to be very popular at the moment as well. Knowledge in the civilian sector (schools) does not really make it easier to advance. It may help on the the advancement exam, but there are a lot more things involved in being selected for the next pay grade than professional knowledgee.

If you really want to be a corpsman, sign up for DEP and stick it out a few months to get in. The rate is said to be opening up here in the next year or two..which would be about the time you would be up for a E-4 exams anyway.  

As for overseas tours...well that depends on what NEC you get, and well yes quite a few of them have done several tours in theatre, including myself. Luckily though I've been able to move myself around, not just go right back to the same places. There are several "combat going" sets of orders now..It used to be only FMF like myself went into the combat zones with the marines...now we have the I.A. billets (Individual Augmentee), and riverine squadrons which are comprised of only sailors. This makes it possible for a non-FMF corpsman to serve in theatre.

The only real good your accumilated college credits are going to help is that you can use them to enter the military one paygrade higher...so you would be a Hospitalman Apprentice (E-2) and quite possibly you could complete some other requirements to bump that up to E-3

No...they are not "combining" anything. Just the training site.   The only thing that is changing at all is that the training facilities are moving to a location at Ft Hood Texas outside San Antonio, along with the Army and Airforce Medics. Each individual branch will still train in seperate school houses and completely independent of each other.   There will be no more addition to the ranks of HM as a result of the move. In fact it is the opposite. One of the reasons it is moving to Texas is because of larger facilities for training purposes (as well as a more realistic training enviroment, meaning heat and sand...)...why do I know?..because this is my life. and will be for atleast 10 more years...but I would stay a Corpsman until they forced me to retire if I have my way. I also think it's time to settle down a little and I am currently looking into orders becoming an A school instructor. My rotation date from my current command is next June. I plan on starting at A school next fall.

Answer 5

yes, HM is full.  so full in fact that Females can't get it at all and many males are waiting nine months or longer before they can ship.

  this trend is not expected to get any better any time soon, especially since A school is merging with all the other branches by 2010 and ALL 5 will train all their medics/Corpsmen in one location( Texas I think)

your prior experience means nothing..you will still have to be trained the Navy way( which in many respects gives you the ability to do MORE than any civilian)