Is FMSS a requirement?

[Orzonus]

I go to bootcamp in January and was just wondering if I HAD to go to FMSS. I've searched a coupleforums and I keep on finding different answers. I honestly can't make up my mind if I want to go. Some days I'd like to go and serve with a marine unit and other days I think I'd rather be working in a hospital/clinic. I guess I'd just like the option of going or not.

Thanks in advance.

[crazycajun]

Orzonus,

The deal is according to Da'Chief and current operations, is that all males are going to FMSS. This to can change at any time.

Look at it this way, currently there are Corpsmen out there that have been to Iraq/Afganistan two, three and some are heading back for their fourth tour. We need HMs trained and ready to go. Just because you go through FMSS doesn't mean you'll be stationed with the Marine Corps, itmeans you have the required NEC to go to the Marine Corps. With that said, just because you are stationed at a Naval Hospital or Naval Medical Clinic,it doesn't mean you are safe from being deployed with the Marine Corps. We get quite a few Medical Agumentation Personnel (MAP) from the Hospitals and Clinics to deploy with the units.

Don't get wrapped around the axel, it's part of the job!

Hope this answers at least part of your question, let us know if you have more.

[Orzonus]

Thanks for your quick reply! :)

[MAWDoc]

You should also keep in mind that if you do get orders to a hospital or clinic, you will be augmented to a Marine Corps unit to deploy. This is an almost 100% certainty.

Consider this when/if you choose orders out of school...

1) You graduate, go to FMSS, then to NNMC Bethesda/Portsmouth/Jacksonville or any other hospital in the US. 6 months later, your POMI officer receives a Medical Augmentatio Personnel request/tasker from an FMF HQ (MAW, Division, MLG, MEF) to provide 20 HM 8404s to support a maneuver battalion in Iraq for 7 months. You, not having been yet, and being in a platform billet with the 8404 NEC, are a commodity, and will almost certainly be told that you need to gather the items on a gear list, check out of your department, get out of your lease (if you rent in town), complete your POA and Will, update your page 2, make sure your evals and service record are squared away, get on a plane and arrive at Camp Pendleton, Camp Lejeune or any of the other USMC installations. Check in, go to Desert Talon in Yuma, AZ for 3 weeks (wing) or Mojave Viper in TwentyNine Palms, CA (Div/MLG) for combat predeployment training, back to your hospital for a month or two (maybe), then back to the unit to deploy to Iraq.

2) You go to an FMF unit, deploy with the men/women you work and live and hang outwith every day, come home 7 months later, work in the BAS/RAS/FLAS (clinic) where you see sick call, treat Marines & Sailors, train as a Corpsman, and get ready to go a year or 18 months later for a 2nd tour.

Either way, you're going - bet on it. If not Iraq or Afghanistan with Marines, to an Army training unitin Iraq orAfghanistan, or a CJTF in a number of other countries which is engaged in GWOT operations. We (corpsmen) are too few and too in demand to believe that you won't get a call to deploy somewhere. Better (to me, anyway) with the guys & gals you know...

[USN HM 350Z]

Very true.

I just checked into NMCSD and I will probably be deploying in Aug.

I can't wait.

[doc.matthews]

Best advice I can give on going to FMSS is that it is FUN. You get in shape, get yelled at, and you understand a little more about the way the usmc works. They dont spend ALL their time doing medical stuff also, from what I got from the course you are there to become a marine. In the end, its worth it. Being greenside is what some people view as the military. Here in Okinawa we have a hospital that is blueside, and it is a big difference. When I first got on island (me and my wife had orders here but both were unaccompanied)I went to visit my wife in her barracks and saw someone walking around without footgear or a shirt(as a corpsman you should know about the shoe part, and he was a corpsman)...so I asked him to go put some clothes on, he began to argue with me and just as I was about to chew him up my wife reminded me that we were in blue side barracks lol. Navy life and marine corps life are complete opposites, as most would be able to tell ya. Just think about what you want to do as an HM, more than likely you will see greenside before you get out, and go from there. I love different aspects of blue side and green side, you will like each for both kinda thing.