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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on September 4, 2009 at 11:21am

The military can definately be a different entity when it comes to firefighting. In the military, like the civilian world, there are often seperate fire and EMS. When I served at Mayport Naval Base, the fire dept was civilian D.o.D and EMS was provided out of the base clinic by Navy Corpsman. On some bases you have firefighters who are a part of the military, but you do see many bases having DoD civilian firefighters more.

If being a firemedic is a career goal of yours, it can be obtained. If you are still serving the military offers many education benefits that you can take advantage of, I would suggest doing so. Take a class even if you don't think it will apply to such a goal. I knew of an accounting course offered while I served that I didn't take, but had I done so, it would have counted for my math course I had to take for my degree. So those general ed courses do transfer. Also take advantage of CLEP and DANTES tests for credits. I would suggest you look into a tech collge that has a fire science program and take a placement test early, some schools have a wait list. Get your degree, get your fire certifications, get your paramedic and it can make obtaining such a goal a reality.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Matthew Pratt on September 4, 2009 at 2:06pm

John,
Thanks for the reply but due to the lack of info I provided I think we are on 2 different trains. Please allow me to go through my history. I joined the Marine Corps out of high school at 19 years old and was fortunate enough to get Crash Fire and Rescue. My expirence in Yuma AZ was vital to my sucess as we had an OIC (Officer IN Charge) that pushed EMT and further education. Long story short, in my 4 years in Yuma, I got my Associates in Fire Science as well as a number of other certifications, including HAZMAT Tech, Aerial, Pumper, EMT, Instructor I, Inspector I, Officer I and II, amoung other NIMS certifications. I got out of the Corps in Sept 2006, and was immediately hired across the truck deck by the base fire dept. I stayed there for a couple years and recently transfered to Ft. Knox Fire Dept just south of Louisville KY.

I have been a part of nearly every type of dept that you had mentioned in your reply. While in Crew, we ran the airfield, as a civilian we handled the base as well as mutual aid to the airfield. In Yuma as a civilian, we ran a fully staffed ALS Dept. When I moved to Ft Knox, I moved to a much larger base and it has its own hospital and therefore we have a seperate EMS dept. We all are EMT B's but I was trying to see if anyone on here had any expirence in the process of transfering the EMS department from seperate to all within the Fire Dept within the department of the Army. I know that this does happen as the army base in Yuma recently went to this. I am still very new to the people here but I want to make sure all of my ducks are in a row if you will before i go to the chief asking to take this on. I think it would be foolish of me to not have a clear concise plan of attack in this matter.

But thank you again for your input.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on September 4, 2009 at 2:22pm

So do you know if the base hospital is staffed by civilian EMT's or is it staffed by military personnel. If military personnel, it could be a duty station for someone vs being deployed. I was Navy so it would be like a sea/shore rotatation, this could be a similar Army version. If not, I would see reason not to bring it up to your chief, maybe they have other information or reasons, it could be worth checking out.

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