Re-up

[Combat Medic 5]

hey guys retention is hounding me right now. but i don't know if i want to "Re-up" considering we may have "Dem" commander in chief. "Re-Up" bonus for me is like $19,000 for 4 years.

my MOS is at about %33 Strength we need medics. i love saving lives. but i need to go to college too if i get out in 11 months (ill be stop lossed in February) i can use my GI bill 50k to go to college. I want to be a critical care nurse. any experience with this decision? advice would be appreciated. thanks.

 

Jonathan Mallard

"Combat Medic"

[Koliadko 207]

hey guys retention is hounding me right now. but i don't know if i want to "Re-up" considering we may have "Dem" commander in chief. "Re-Up" bonus for me is like $19,000 for 4 years.

my MOS is at about %33 Strength we need medics. i love saving lives. but i need to go to college too if i get out in 11 months (ill be stop lossed in February) i can use my GI bill 50k to go to college. I want to be a critical care nurse. any experience with this decision? advice would be appreciated. thanks.

 

Jonathan Mallard

"Combat Medic"

 

 

Either choice you make, your sevice is greatly appreciated. Advice can be very helpful but ultimately, you must do what's best for you.

[Juggernaut 11,054]

You need to follow your heart bro!

You HAVE given enough to pursue your own path with no worries that you haven't given enough.

If you re-up, consider being a lifer.. NOTHING wrong in that either.

After your second enlistment, your 1/3 of the way to a full pension.

If your heart is set on going to school and useing your gi bill, do it now.

I intended to use my bill, but I got a job and a girlfriend when I got out.....

Kept putting it off another semester. ended up waiting too long,

I just fell into the "Day to day" trap.

 

So if you get out, get your ass in school!!!!

 

Remember, Many fields are short handed right now. Both in military and Civilian jobs.

 

BOTH paths before you are worthy ones.

 

It is up to you to choose!

 

FWIW, we are all very proud of you, we value our service members , LEO ect. on this board.

[RangerM9 1]

hey guys retention is hounding me right now. but i don't know if i want to "Re-up" considering we may have "Dem" commander in chief. "Re-Up" bonus for me is like $19,000 for 4 years.

my MOS is at about %33 Strength we need medics. i love saving lives. but i need to go to college too if i get out in 11 months (ill be stop lossed in February) i can use my GI bill 50k to go to college. I want to be a critical care nurse. any experience with this decision? advice would be appreciated. thanks.

 

Jonathan Mallard

"Combat Medic"

 

 

this is coming from a non-soldier, non-vet, person in the medical arena, so take it for what it is worth and meant to be.

 

You have done you duty already, you made it home safe and sound, you have saved lives. If i were in your shoes i would keep my ass safe, go to college and get that BSN, and save lots of live here at home.

 

I say that because i think Iraq is falling apart fast, and i have yet to see a report recently that says things are getting better. the nation is losing the will to support the war, the world is tired of it, and the situation just keeps getting worse....through little/no fault of the soldiers......the problem with fundamental terrorist and religous zealots is that no amount of logic, no amount of losses is enough for them to give up the fight, so personally i have a pretty bleak outlook for our efforts over there. Not faulting our fighting men, just think that IRAQ was a mistake, Afganistan was not a mistake in my opinion....leadership decisions that will be debated for many years in history classes....

 

So...that said, i applaud you for your duty to the nation, and thank you for your service, but humbly suggest you take your experience and education and apply it to saving lives here in the US. We sure need good nurses at home, we have quite the shortage these days.

 

Regardless of what you decide, i think i speak for all of us when i say we are proud of you and all the soldiers who have and will serve our nation.

[bernerz 11]

Why not try to get into the army medic to nurse program? When I went to school, one of the few other guys in the BSN class with me was an army medic who was having the military pay for all of his schooling. When we finished he was given a comission. He seems pretty happy with it. As far as the critical care nurse aspect of it, I don't know how the military decides who gets to do it and for how long. When I got out of the coast guard, I knew that I wanted to do critical care and was able to get into an ER internship program after I finished. Not a day goes by that something interesting doesn't happen. You have a few more options open in the civilain world plus you can always quit the job and go elsewhere if you want, no need to get permission. Just my 2 cents.

[Juggernaut 11,054]

KEEP us posted either way!

[shaneman153a 39]

CM, there is a follow-on school in El Paso that is almost a year long, I believe it turns you into the equivelent of an RN after school + enlistment. You have to know more about it than I do, I'm sure you knew people in AIT that went straight from San Antonio to El Paso. If that's what you want, tell your retention NCO you want it, and tell him you want 22.5k, that's the max now. If he says no, tell him to go fuck himself. If you're afraid of an E-6 retention NCO, give me his number and I'LL tell him to go fuck himself! If you want to go to college, with the current OPTEMPO, you know that's not realistic.

 

One more thing to consider, I'm planning to get out at the end of my ADSO, I'll have 9 years and 8 months by that time. I'll be turning down an $800 dollar-a-month pay raise to do it, but I'm just not going to be able to get a master's anytime soon when I take a 15 month vacation every 18 months. JMO

 

One more thing, look into "degree completion". I don't know if it's offered to your MOS, but 2 SPC's in my unit disappeared for 8 months to finish college as full-time students. I can go as long as 18 months doing the same, but you have to pay the time back. Good luck, and as Juggs said, follow your heart. And ass-rape that retention NCO.

 

edit: One more thing, if you do re-up and take the bonus, make sure you get it AFTER Feb. in tax-free zone! Get it in writing bro.

Edited September 1, 2007 by shaneman153a

[Combat Medic 5]

yea thats the ASI (Additional Skill Identifier) M6 its a LPN position though not a RN. i have to put a 5988 in for it my retention guy said and it would not be guaranteed by my contract. im thinking about the "School Option" its like 6 months of college you can go to. like its your place of duty. if i can get my EMT I, i would be happy. The army gives you a EMT B only in your AIT. but with my combat medical experience EMT I would be cake and i wont have to tip toe so much because of my limited civilian credentials. i mean for christ's sake i can put in an emergency airway in but if i do it to a civilian im going to prison!

I love saving lives! Like the other day i saw a man in wal-mart that i treated in Iraq he was with his wife and daughter. he recognized me and introduced me to his family. the way the family loved up on that scared man shook me more than you can know. the only reason he is still alive is because i knew how to correctly put on a tourniquet start an IV and splint his broken body. the way that little girl hugged on to her daddy......i could barely hold the tears back.

it took only a short year i go from jr medic to sr. medic. when i see my jr medics fucking around when they could be learning how to save lives it kind of ticks me off. they just BS like nobody's dieing. sure no one here is dieing but i just cant fuck around like they do. they still are kind of like kids from my point of view. that part of me feels a duty to the soldiers. who cares if i agree with the war or not im a medic i help make a bad thing good....

[Koliadko 207]

Jonathan, this is from a very close friend of mine. I took it upon myself to forward your question to him. This is his response that he asked that I forward to you.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a 66H about to retire after 25 years, my wife served as a 66H for 18 years in the USAR, my oldest son served 4 years of Active Duty as a 68WM6, and my daughter In Law is just finishing her 8 year committment in the IRR (she's also a 68WM6)

 

You're absolutely right that we need combat medics and, as you know, to an 11 Bang-Bang there's no other man or woman on the battle field more valued than that medic.

 

There are a couple of options for you. First there's still the green to gold program which would allow you to go to college for your BSN and start to fulfill your desire to become a critical care nurse as well as get your degree and a commission.

 

Another option is going into the USAR while attending College, understanding that you could stll be deployed at any time (and if you've only got 4 years of Active now remember that when you get your discharge that you're automatically put into the IRR and they're being called up all the time). The re-up bonus is something that wasn't available for my son, a matter of timing and bonuses come and go. Had I wsworn him in two months earlier in 1999, he would have gotten an enlistment bonus, the same is true had I sworn him in 6 months later, so bonuses are purely a matter of timing.

 

Now, as to the civilian world after the Army I'll relate what happened to my son after he took his discharge in 2004. Yoou become prime meat on the employment front because most employers recognize that you're reliable, that you've been trained to be a leader (and even a PFC is a leader in the army), that you're motivated and competent, that you've been trained in teh Army Values and as any soldier knows, you automatially get to the point where those values aren't just an acronym that you have to learn but that they become a part of you.. My son and his wife moved back to where my retirement home will be and where my family lives while I've played geographical bachelor for the last 5 years this January. He took a job as an LPN at a local extended care facility. As an LPN he was automatically put in charge of a group of Nursing Assistants. A few months after he started work he called me to tell me that he had some news. apparently he was called to the Director of Nurses office and was faced by the DON and the Assitant DON. Suspecting that he must have done something wrong, he snapped to parade rest (trainings hard to let go of and that's NOT a bad thing). His DON looked at him and said, relax, I know that you're a soldier but what we want to see you about is good news not bad. She continued to say that several "residents, their families, the NAs who worked for him and other staff at all levels had remarked about how good, competent and comassionate he was and that even though it's unusual to do so that they wanted to give him a $1.00 an hour raise.

 

So take heart, whatever you decide, you're a soldier and always will be, you've learned things and seen things that you don't even realize yet and that the general public will never see or experience.

 

As for serving under a Dem CinC... I was one of the hangers on through the Clinton days and several times I wanted to chuck it all but then on 20 Jan 2001 GW took the oath of office and it was like we all took our first breath in eight years. Automatically much of the garbage was gone (Consideration of Others training and the year long Al Gore minute by minute manpower survey which took about a minute from ach minute of your work or training time to keep updated). Then on 9/11 we who'd stayed and those who came in later were somehow ready to defend our nation and to jump into Afghanistan one month after 9-11. In those few short months we became warriors again. Under Clinton some of us had to hang on so that when daylight hit again we were ready to move on and to accept our new citizen soldiers into our ranks and train them to Charley Mike.

 

So I haven't really given you any advice other han to make the right decision for you at this time. You have nothing to prove to anyone, you've already done your time and you can be proud of that and if you decide to go on, do so with pride as well.

 

Warrior Medics HOOAH

 

 

 

 

Tom (ill-informed, undereducated, financially challenged, a soldier and a redneck by choice)

 

"THIS We'll Defend"

 

 

Romney/Giuliani 2008

 

"If you can't stand behind our troops, then by all means, stand in front of them"

" (Liberal)(del) Secular Progressive Propaganda is sometimes farcical, sometimes anger producing, but ALWAYS illogical AND dangerous"

[bernerz 11]

A few more thoughts. First, most LPNs out in the civilian world work in nursing homes, simple fact. You already have more skills than most LPNs ever will. Getting your EMT you could do on the side while you are still in. It doesn't take that long and again, you already have more skills than most EMTs do. I know the obligation you feel, given the opportunity (wife says hell no) I would go back in either full or reserve. Its folks like you that make our military so outstanding. My guess is that you didn't join for the money, don't make that the reason you stay.

[Gruven 0]

Hey man if you can and get a bonus take it. I got out back in 00 from the USAF, and I am now re-enlisting into the Army in their Blue to Green program. If you love what you do, and have a chance to get a career out of it and are young stay with it. Not many places offere retirement after 20 years. And the corporate world is completely screwed up. Take your time, and make the right decision. College will be there after you have served 20. 50K is a lot of money, but if you want to go to a good University that will cover 2 years

 

The money is nice, and don't let anyone sway you from it. Money is not everything, but if you have a family to feed it does help. Hell I was so stubborn when I was in as an E-3 making jackcrap back in teh day I refused to have my wife work (old southern tradition and up-bringing). After working a second job and 80 hours a week for 5 months straight I said Fuk tradition

Edited September 1, 2007 by Gruven

[sggrosso 0]

2 cents from an army vet 98G E-5 who ETS-ed way back in '89. I was looking at a huge bonus then, 25k for 5 years.

I knew that if I stayed for 9, it would be for 20 or more for sure. But I wanted a greater challenge and more money so I could have a family and put them first ( was single at the time, with definite fiance possibility). I got out, schooled for two years, married and had kids. I went through several jobs, but each was a better situation. I would say that if you have these type of issues, get out and put your family first, it has made the greatest difference in my life. I was one of those guys who really gave 100% for four years, so I had no regrets and lots of accomplishments-hell I made E-5 in less than 3 years in the MI field during the cold war without a college degree. Go where the biggest challenge is while you can. If you have opportunities in the service that you want, then stay and work on schooling while serving. Thanks for your service to our country.

[d0lphin2 0]

2 cents from an army vet 98G E-5 who ETS-ed way back in '89. I was looking at a huge bonus then, 25k for 5 years.

I knew that if I stayed for 9, it would be for 20 or more for sure. But I wanted a greater challenge and more money so I could have a family and put them first ( was single at the time, with definite fiance possibility). I got out, schooled for two years, married and had kids. I went through several jobs, but each was a better situation. I would say that if you have these type of issues, get out and put your family first, it has made the greatest difference in my life. I was one of those guys who really gave 100% for four years, so I had no regrets and lots of accomplishments-hell I made E-5 in less than 3 years in the MI field during the cold war without a college degree. Go where the biggest challenge is while you can. If you have opportunities in the service that you want, then stay and work on schooling while serving. Thanks for your service to our country.

 

Hi- I can't make the decision about your re-up. I can and most sincerely thank you for your service. I would go back to school. The health care industry is out pacing the number of qualified individuals. I am going back to college to get my degree in radiography. I want a job that is High tech and close personal contact with the patient. Because it is a such a growing field and a lack of accredited folks a lot of Hospitals are doing a debt forgiveness and paying off your student loans. Most community colleges offer it and then you can chose your specialization ie CT, MRI, or Sonogram. You could even be outside the hospital working for a research firm or Homeland Security using this tech to detect bomb. So I say go to school. Even though you are not in the military you are still serving the people with your knowledge and experience. I know that must be very important to you and maybe why you are looking for help. It is recession proof.

 

Good Luck.

 

John