# Helicopter rescue EMS??



## SMButton91 (Aug 5, 2010)

Hi i just obtain EMT-B certification and have started on a EMT department. I will be going to school for my EMT-PS very soon as well. But before all this i wanted to join the airforce Pararescue, but was turned down before boot camp. Is there any other helicopter rescue EMS department out there?? It just seems so cool haha. thanks for all input!!


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## citizensoldierny (Aug 5, 2010)

Umm... try the Army. Get your 68W then try for ASI F6. I'm sure they'll put you somewhere where your skills can be put to use and you can get plenty of experience.


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## zmedic (Aug 5, 2010)

Er, I'd want to know why he got turned down for PJs before bootcamp before I'd start recommending him for the Army.


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## citizensoldierny (Aug 5, 2010)

I can think of any number of reasons original poster may have been turned away , ASVAB scores, Criminal past, bad credit, health issues etc. Air Force is way more selective and currently have a waiting list to join and ship for certain MOS's and I'm sure they are even more selective for their Special Ops. What may have kept him out of Air Force and Para-rescue in particular may not be an issue or waiverable for the Army. I got turned down by the Air Force because of body fat and tattoo's and had no trouble joining the Army. If he wants to try the Army it can never hurt, all they can do is say no. 
I was just offering him a suggestion on how to achieve his goals.


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## Phlipper (Aug 5, 2010)

citizensoldierny said:


> I can think of any number of reasons original poster may have been turned away , ASVAB scores, Criminal past, bad credit, health issues etc. Air Force is way more selective and currently have a waiting list to join and ship for certain MOS's and I'm sure they are even more selective for their Special Ops. What may have kept him out of Air Force and Para-rescue in particular may not be an issue or waiverable for the Army. I got turned down by the Air Force because of body fat and tattoo's and had no trouble joining the Army. If he wants to try the Army it can never hurt, all they can do is say no.
> I was just offering him a suggestion on how to achieve his goals.



The Army will take darn near anyone.  I'm living proof.


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## citizensoldierny (Aug 6, 2010)

Phlipper, 
Me too, that is pretty much the long story short of what I was saying.


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## SMButton91 (Aug 6, 2010)

My record is as clean as bleach, and i had the highest asvab score out of my group. i got turned down because i've had multiple surgeries on my foot and ig they didn't want any liabilites, and at the time i tried to enlist they had an overstock of people joining and were looking for any reason to get rid of people. Unfortunatlly it went that way, but i'm still looking into the coast guard, or navy. But was just wondering if any departments had a rescue helicoper squad or anything of that nature, so i don't have to go through reprocessing and possibly getting turned down again.


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## citizensoldierny (Aug 6, 2010)

Smbutton,
You'll find it's all what the services need at the moment, right now apparently it isn't much due to the economy. Of them all the Army is most likely to waiver surgeries as they always have the highest demand for bodies. I started in Field Artillery(combat arms) and the guy who bunked next to me in OSUT had a rebuilt ankle from a car accident and he got in and made it through. And he was far from alone in this respect. The Army has medic slots and helicopters, which to me sounds like what you are looking for. As for civilian helicopter rescue opportunities  at EMT-B level I'm thinking they would be pretty rare as the whole idea of most med-flight services is to bring a higher level of care to scene. See if there are any National Guard units that do medical in your area, they are usually more than willing to let you check them out on the weekend, and being part-time they may be better fit with your desire to go to paramedic school. If your really lucky they may even have a medevac unit close to you.


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## 8jimi8 (Aug 6, 2010)

SMButton91 said:


> My record is as clean as bleach, and i had the highest asvab score out of my group. i got turned down because i've had multiple surgeries on my foot and ig they didn't want any liabilites, and at the time i tried to enlist they had an overstock of people joining and were looking for any reason to get rid of people. Unfortunatlly it went that way, but i'm still looking into the coast guard, or navy. But was just wondering if any departments had a rescue helicoper squad or anything of that nature, so i don't have to go through reprocessing and possibly getting turned down again.



You will find that you need to be at minimum a paramedic.  And a damn good one with at least 2-3 years of busy 911 experience to even be considered for a flight position.

go to flightweb.com


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## SMButton91 (Aug 10, 2010)

Oh no doubt, im getting my paramedic in Jan. Its kinda pointless if you want to be fully involved in the EMS field to only be an EMT-B. I'm going to retry the military after i get my paramedic certification. Also i work for an ambulance service in Madison county IA. So hopefully they will appreciate my skills a little more this time haha.


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## Roam (Aug 13, 2010)

What about a Coast Guard rescue swimmer? I am not certain but if your foot is strong enough you should be able to join. Sometimes the Air Force just looks for any excuse not to enlist people..


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## NorCal (Sep 2, 2010)

I was enlisted with an Air Force PJ unit, but I was not a PJ in any shape or form. We had 7 or so UH-60 helicopters and several C-130's that were rigged with rescue equipment.

I'm out now, and I'm pushing 30, but if I had to do it all over gain, I would go PJ in a heart beat. 

I have several friends who are Army Medics, and they seem happy, but they are not PJ's. (No disrespect intended) One of my buddies loves being an Army Medic, and he is treated very well from what he tells me. They are two people you don't want to piss off: the Medic and payroll.


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## MrBrown (Sep 2, 2010)

Real helicopter medical personnel wear orange flight suits with "DOCTOR" written on the back and David Clark headsets.

Ambulance, Medivac descending .....


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## Phlipper (Sep 2, 2010)

NorCal said:


> I was enlisted with an Air Force PJ unit, but I was not a PJ in any shape or form. We had 7 or so UH-60 helicopters and several C-130's that were rigged with rescue equipment.
> 
> I'm out now, and I'm pushing 30, but if I had to do it all over gain, I would go PJ in a heart beat.
> 
> I have several friends who are Army Medics, and they seem happy, but they are not PJ's. (No disrespect intended) One of my buddies loves being an Army Medic, and he is treated very well from what he tells me. They are two people you don't want to piss off: the Medic and payroll.



In 1989, when I was a lowly mechanized Army grunt on his second hitch, we ran air assault ops in an operation called "Flintlock" against US and NATO special operations - defending bridges and rail heads against, trying to find and capture them, etc.  And out of all the 7th SFG, Marine Recon, and Brit SAS, etc. teams only the Air Force Para Rescue units went the entire exercise without being caught.  Every single other NATO special ops units had one or (usually) more of their teams nabbed.  Back then we didn't even know what an Air Force Para Rescue was but we knew they were tough as nails, very fast, and very sneaky.  And remember, guerrilla ops isn't even their mission, they are medics.  And they certainly impressed everyone in my battalion.


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## BorderDog (Sep 3, 2010)

Just started hiring again.

BORSTAR


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## Afflixion (Sep 3, 2010)

gotta be a BP agent for 3 years before applying to BorSTAR


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## TonyB (Sep 23, 2010)

you can always try the Coast Guard rescue swimmer. i'm currently in the coast guard at the Health Service Technician school to be a corpman. my emt instructor was a AST2...and the new school chief is a ASTC. But just go talk to recruiters and just do your research. I had to wait two years to come to corpman school...if you want any information about Coast Guard just send me a message up here. And don't take anything from the Guardian...that movie is not the real deal.


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## NorCal (Sep 23, 2010)

As for civilian helicopter operations, I recently discovered out of two companies providing life flight services in my area, only one of them employ's paramedics. (Cal-Star and Reach)

I spoke to a Cal-Star pilot last week who stated his rig is comprised of one pilot and two flight RN's.

Reach on the other hand, is comprised of one pilot, a flight RN, and a paramedic. The Reach pilot told me his company has found the combination of have an RN and medic works best for them because the medic is better suited dealing with personnel on the scene of an accident in the field and obtaining information in the field; and the RN is better suited during the interactions with the medical personnel at the hospital. He stated their skill sets compliment each other and make things run smooth.

It was an interesting conversation.


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## slloth (Sep 23, 2010)

NorCal said:


> As for civilian helicopter operations, I recently discovered out of two companies providing life flight services in my area, only one of them employ's paramedics. (Cal-Star and Reach)
> 
> I spoke to a Cal-Star pilot last week who stated his rig is comprised of one pilot and two flight RN's.
> 
> R



yeah Cal-Star requires 3 years experience as a nurse in an ER/trauma center or 5 years as a Nurse in EMS.

And A BA in Nursing


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## LonghornMedic (Sep 23, 2010)

SMButton91 said:


> Hi i just obtain EMT-B certification and have started on a EMT department. I will be going to school for my EMT-PS very soon as well. But before all this i wanted to join the airforce Pararescue, but was turned down before boot camp. Is there any other helicopter rescue EMS department out there?? It just seems so cool haha. thanks for all input!!



Not sure what you mean by "helicopter rescue EMS department." Are you talking about using a rescue hoist to rescue people from things like floods? If so, most of these types of helicopters are run by fire departments(i.e. Los Angeles City and County FD), state police(i.e. Maryland State Police, CHP, Arizona DPS), federal government(i.e. BORSTAR, National Park Service) or county sheriff departments(Ventura County Sheriff, San Bernardino County Sheriff, Las Vegas Metro PD SAR, Los Angeles County Sheriff). STAR Flight in Austin is the only 3rd service I know of that does rescue call outs and firefighting. They are run by Travis County now and are no longer run by Austin-Travis County EMS. 

Or are you talking about EMS helicopters who respond to scene calls like trauma or medical calls? There are hundreds of EMS helicopter companies across the U.S. (i.e. Mercy Air, Air Evac Lifeteam, PHI).

If you go the firefighter or police route, you will have to put in your street time and that will take on average 5-10 years to get high enough rank. Private EMS helicopters are easier to get hired on with, but they will require 3-5 years of *BUSY *EMS street work.


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## waltcallie (Oct 3, 2010)

FYI, I was turned down for Army and USCG due to more than one surgery on the same joint. Granted this was 15 years ago, just my 2 cents.


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## KELRAG (Oct 5, 2010)

Austin's STAR flight is the only one I know of but im interested about any other services that do.


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## RESQGUY (Nov 4, 2010)

The Navy Has a Helicopter Rescue swimmer program too. On top of that you could also try out for SAR MED-TECH. Pretty much a flying Corpsman. I know a couple soild HM's. They have done some cool SH*T.


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