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I have been out of the Navy now for about 3 years now, and every now and then I start to think about how unfair green side (Marine) corpsman are treated compared to their wet side counterparts.
I did two combat tours with the Marines as a corpsman and finally got shore duty, at that point they tried pulling me to go back to iraq for a 3rd time and a few months later tried pulling me to afghanistan for a year tour. I worked with 30 other corpsman that never deployed any where. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has been in this situation. This seems a bit unfair. Maybe one of you old salt dogs can chime in and provide some reasoning behind this...i won't even touch how unfair it is for a corpsman on the ground vs a corpsman on a ship get the same hazard duty pay......
I'm not proficient with HM lingo. I'm assuming that the green side corpsman do their deployments in the Middle East or in very hostile areas while the wet side corpsman do their sea duty time aboard a ship.
So, what would differentiate you from green side to wet side corpsman? Could it be a crucial NEC that you hold? It could be that you have the experience needed to be in a hostile situation and have proven yourself to be placed in that type of environment--I'm thinking the detailer may view you as person who has the requisite experience in a particular theater and instead of choosing a person from the wet side to deploy to the desert, they (detailers) pick someone who is "accustomed" to that type of environment. Just a thought.
Sorry to shatter your dream, but life isn't fair...
I know a few Air Force folks who work come in late, have two hour lunches and leave early everyday who on average work 5 hours a day. Some get enlistment and re-enlistments bonuses...One in particular got purposely pregnant to get out of deployment and again to get out additional duties of an Unit Inspection...There are also Air Force "flyers" who are gone for a total of five days and get tax-free re-enlistment bonuses and all sorts of other entitlements for simply tipping their aircrafts wing in a combat zone...More planes "break down" in Hawaii than anywhere else. What should normally take a few hours to fix takes a week in Hawaii. I wonder why? lol
My sis is an HMCS and an IDC, she so far has never had to deploy with marines, though she had to qualify with the marines for the IDC school. She said the people staying on ships and shore duty are usually the corpsman with more schools, ie xray or PT techs.
Maybe if you can get a school sometime it might help.
i'm just glad i'm not the only one that can see all the bs that takes place, but here is my question...
if all these higher ups know this type of stuff happens, why don't they put some policies in place to prevent that type of abuse?
i'm just glad i'm not the only one that can see all the bs that takes place, but here is my question...
if all these higher ups know this type of stuff happens, why don't they put some policies in place to prevent that type of abuse?
1. i served for a total of 8 years, not because i enjoyed it..but because i had to extend to avoid a 3rd tour to Iraq
i did two tours to iraq with 2nd Batallion 5th Marines (front lines) as a corpsman
2. did you not read the posts..the bs i am talking about is the fact that people can get out of doing deployments way too easily
3. it does not occur that often in civilian life because if you try to get out of doing your job, you will be fired...not so much the case in the military sector
1. i served for a total of 8 years, not because i enjoyed it..but because i had to extend to avoid a 3rd tour to Iraq
i did two tours to iraq with 2nd Batallion 5th Marines (front lines) as a corpsman
2. did you not read the posts..the bs i am talking about is the fact that people can get out of doing deployments way too easily
3. it does not occur that often in civilian life because if you try to get out of doing your job, you will be fired...not so much the case in the military sector
It's not just Corpsmen that have those issues. It's pretty much all branches and all MOS's!
Honestly, I think it's just luck of the draw as far as which unit you get assigned to out of MOS school. My son got out and reclassed into a new MOS when he reenlisted. His MOS is Aircraft Rescue and Firefighter. He was sent to an air station where they do NOTHING but sit around and wait for something to crash. Some of his buddies ended up in other units where they actually get to go out and fight fires... Like I said, luck of the draw...
It's not just Corpsmen that have those issues. It's pretty much all branches and all MOS's!
Honestly, I think it's just luck of the draw as far as which unit you get assigned to out of MOS school. My son got out and reclassed into a new MOS when he reenlisted. His MOS is Aircraft Rescue and Firefighter. He was sent to an air station where they do NOTHING but sit around and wait for something to crash. Some of his buddies ended up in other units where they actually get to go out and fight fires... Like I said, luck of the draw...
Even in the Marine Corps, over half of the personnel have never deployed, but there are indivduals and specific units who have been over 3 or 4 times.
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