Advice for career in tactical EMS

[Luno]

Go on vacation, and this happens?

Well first of all I don't think I deserve the insults. Showing mutual respect is a matter of integrity and I believe it speaks volumes about character. Secondly I hope all of the references to the "close knit" TEMS community weren't meant to intend your ability to somehow influence my personal advancement in the field, if that’s the case I don’t believe I’m the one with their head in the wrong place.

I didn't insult you, I insult my friends as a means of showing affection, you don't rate. And your personal advancement in the field? Give me a break, you don't even have an EMT merit badge yet, you have to start in the field to advance.

As I made sure to reiterate throughout this conversation, I’m not speaking from experience. The basis on which I situate my perspective is one of the larger picture revealed through objective scientific scrutiny, which was established by the scientific community to be much more reliable than subjective analysis oh somewhere around the turn of the 3rd century.

You aren't even speaking from objective scientific scrutiny as you have no basis to judge success or failure in the field. You have decided to run with a flawed premise of which you have no basis in reality. There is very little to no data that is available to the general public about success in TEMS as a veteran, so your conclusions are flawed, even in the 3rd century.

My point is simply this: The data has proven beyond a doubt that the war in the middle-east is doing severe psychological damage to a significant number of returning combat veterans and because of that those veterans are having difficulty finding suitable employment. This is a fact mind you. This being the case, I believe that the institutions who had traditionally sought to employ combat veterans are starting to look elsewhere for this very same reason, and the data supports that. The psychological damage done to combat veterans in the Iraq and Afghan wars is not something you’ll hear about on media rotation. These veterans are hidden. It’s something they don’t want you to hear about or talk about, partly because there are just so many of them.

I welcome your data, but until you supply this, I'm going to call bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:. I spend more than a small part of my time working with combat veterans and assisting them in finding employment, and your facts don't hold water... So please, cite your sources.

In any case, I believe common sense is all that’s required to see the potential for problems when placing a psychologically damaged combat veteran behind a swat vest, and if there is a die-hard military man heading up a tactical unit somewhere who is willing to overlook that potentiality simply for the sake of adhering to a certain sense of military pride or what have you, I’d say I hope I’m never taken hostage in his jurisdiction.

You lack the resources and data to ascertain if/that the person in the vest is "psychologically damaged," and lack the ability to differentiate between psychological issues particularly as they affect not only veterans but also your average law enforcement officer. I would welcome you to either provide your data, or kindly find your seat in your EMT class and get at least a completion certificate before you try to compare your opinions to those who have done this for a living.

 

[Luno]

Hitting back from the 3rd Century

Well ok, I think my assertions have been misconstrued a bit, so I’ll start by addressing that. I’m not saying that every combat veteran returning from these wars is has a psychological problem, what I’m saying is that the numbers of them that do tell me two important things:

1) Probability of death and dismemberment aside, if I enlist in active duty military service and I am deployed to the mid-east, I stand a decent chance of coming home with a debilitating psychological illness that may well defeat the purpose of joining the military in the first place.

Again, data?

2) From the perspective of someone who is not a member of the armed forces, I feel it’s only logical to assume that anyone looking to employ a combat veteran would at least consider the possibility of an underlying psychological disorder, and whether they consider it or not, the fact remains that the probability that one exists is heightened in combat veterans in contrast to their civilian counterparts in EMS.

Again, this isn't "common sense," this is a subjective opinion based on what data? You've alluded to "more pervasive" than what media would have you believe, and you believe this because? I think it would be illogical to assume that you wouldn't consider a possible underlying psychological issue with anyone attempting a career in the safety services, but I'll buy that you could consider that with a veteran as well.

Things I am NOT saying are:

A) That lack of military combat experience alone makes a civilian candidate more competitive

B) That you are personally not qualified to be a tactical medic on the basis of your combat experience

C) That I know more than you or any other combat medic

When it all boils down any military combat medic was once a student before using his learned skills in combat. Not one of you in opposition has explained yet why the same can’t be done outside of the military institution. There is no limit to what one can learn. Maybe it’s my lack of a comprehensive understanding of military service but I don’t understand why you all are so keen to believe that this gap between knowledge and application must be bridged on the military battlefield, which I would imagine is just as dangerous if not more so than a domestic tactical setting.

There is no limit on what one can learn, however you should consider that TEMS is largely affected by military experience and research. There is very little that civilian experiences can contribute at this time. There is a world of difference between running scenarios with simunitions and getting actually shot at, and until you're actually under fire, you don't know how you're going to act, and if you were on my time, I'd be far more concerned about that, than having to deal with a vet's PTSD. That being said, I was former military, non-combat and made it in the field. There is a way to make it happen, but it took a lot of effort, listening 100 times more than talking and keeping my opinions to myself until I had practical experience to base them on.