Becoming a tactical/SWAT medic

[RedFiremedic]

Hello. I'm getting close to testing for my Paramedic certification and am planning on moving into the Ozarks area within the year. My goal is to become a full-time firefighter paramedic and gain some experience and work towards eventually becoming a tactical/SWAT medic, either full-time or in addition to staying on a fire department (the latter is what's more likely and what I'm leaning towards).

My specific questions right now are:
- would joining the Army National Guard help me towards a tactical medic career?
-- is 68w combat medic beneficial at all, or does it matter? I'd prefer to go 12m firefighter.
-- should I go through Basic before or after getting a firefighter job? Where I'm from, applicants are given military priority even if they're not veterans.
- do agencies provide the certifications (such as TCCC, PHTL, TMAST) or should I try and get some of those while working as a firemedic?

I knew of a couple of guys who became SWAT medics just with EMT/medic experience and because of their National Guard status (they were friends of friends of friends so I'm not able to badger them with questions unfortunately) and that's the route I'd like to go. I'd prefer to stay away from the cop approach...I'd rather become a SWAT medic via firefighter experience than going through police academy/becoming a deputy like some websites suggest.

I know I'll need years of experience and certifications to get anywhere close to being a tactical medic (not to mention staying in serious shape). Does anyone else have any advice to offer? I know every team has different requirements but any advice and guidance is very appreciated. I'll definitely be reaching out to departments after I move, but I feel like I've exhausted the general internet of new information.

 

[CCCSD]

Does the agency you are interested have them?
Are they FD medics?
Are they Police?
you don’t just walk in and say I want to be it.

NG 68W isn’t going to do much as it depends on what your unit does. 12mike? That’s usually non existent in most areas.

You need to discuss this with the agency AFTER you move and settle into your job, wherever that is. They know what they want. They will train you in the areas they want.

TCCC/TEMS are just monkey skills you should already know.

 

[RedFiremedic]

Does the agency you are interested have them?
Are they FD medics?
Are they Police?
you don’t just walk in and say I want to be it.

NG 68W isn’t going to do much as it depends on what your unit does. 12mike? That’s usually non existent in most areas.

You need to discuss this with the agency AFTER you move and settle into your job, wherever that is. They know what they want. They will train you in the areas they want.

TCCC/TEMS are just monkey skills you should already know.

Thank you for your response. I'll definitely be talking to people when I get down there, and was just wondering if there was anything I could do to better prepare myself for such a job in the meantime. I tend to get needlessly anxious about "wasting time" but for now I'll keep preparing myself in the ways I know how. I would like to join the National Guard but definitely want a job skill that can be applicable in my career as well.

 

[sock307]

Hello. I'm getting close to testing for my Paramedic certification and am planning on moving into the Ozarks area within the year. My goal is to become a full-time firefighter paramedic and gain some experience and work towards eventually becoming a tactical/SWAT medic, either full-time or in addition to staying on a fire department (the latter is what's more likely and what I'm leaning towards).

My specific questions right now are:
- would joining the Army National Guard help me towards a tactical medic career?
-- is 68w combat medic beneficial at all, or does it matter? I'd prefer to go 12m firefighter.
-- should I go through Basic before or after getting a firefighter job? Where I'm from, applicants are given military priority even if they're not veterans.
- do agencies provide the certifications (such as TCCC, PHTL, TMAST) or should I try and get some of those while working as a firemedic?

I knew of a couple of guys who became SWAT medics just with EMT/medic experience and because of their National Guard status (they were friends of friends of friends so I'm not able to badger them with questions unfortunately) and that's the route I'd like to go. I'd prefer to stay away from the cop approach...I'd rather become a SWAT medic via firefighter experience than going through police academy/becoming a deputy like some websites suggest.

I know I'll need years of experience and certifications to get anywhere close to being a tactical medic (not to mention staying in serious shape). Does anyone else have any advice to offer? I know every team has different requirements but any advice and guidance is very appreciated. I'll definitely be reaching out to departments after I move, but I feel like I've exhausted the general internet of new information.

Hi RedFiremedic,

I would strongly encourage you to make the military the core foundation of all your training. Aside from the personal benefits of service, it will professionally prepare and launch your career in public service. I was an infantry marine and eventually became a paramedic after I got out and it greatly prepared me for the world of TACMED. On many teams, the Medic is a shooter first, and medic second. As far as getting certifications, agencies should sponsor you, but if that could be a ways down the road Id recommend going to a TCCC or TECC class on your own to start building that experience.

 

[Jim37F]

The Army has largely divested 12M. They're not structural firefighters. Fire/Rescue/EMS on base is provided by civilian Firefighters hired directly by the Federal Fire Department (Fed Fire) that works for the Department of the Army (or Dept of Navy/Dept of the Air Force) and aren't military Service Members.

Instead 12M from the best of my understandings serve as Airfield Crash Rescue (ARFF) and in support of forward airfields. They're not a very common MOS, pretty much none on Active Duty, and when I was ETS'ing off Active Duty, I asked the in service Recruiter about re-classing to 12M myself. Turned out in the entire State of California there was one single unit in central Cali in the National Guard, none in the Reserves.

The Air Force has MOS for Firefighters (I'm not sure what it is off the top of my head), and a lot of guys in my FD are FFs in the local Air National Guard as well. Once again, regular base Fire/Rescue/EMS is Fed Fire, the Airmen are ARFF Crash-Rescue, but given the nature of the Air Force vs Army, there's a lot more Air Force firefighters than there are Army Firefighters.

I do know the Marines have ARFF Marines as well, though I'm not entirely sure if it is its own dedicated MOS or subset of a different one. As far as I'm aware the Navy doesn't have a dedicated Firefighter MOS as every Navy Sailor gets some basic Firefighting training in their Boot Camp (as it's essential for damage control onboard ship... how they manage ARFF for their Airfields I don't know).

So that's military firefighting.... if you're looking at enlisting just for the veterans preference points... Any MOS will do. You don't have to be a one trick pony focused solely on Fire or Medic. Don't be afraid to check out Engineering (you could definitely play up the training and use of hand tools and hauling around heavy sh...tuff in an interview) or heck even anything in IT (say you get hurt on the job one day, heaven forbid, and can't do a physical job anymore, not that I've taken my own advice... .ultimately there's a ton of available job fields across all the branches from the hooah hooah tactical stuff you can only find in the Military like driving tanks to a whole ton of other stuff, you'll be a lot happier finding something you're actually interested in than just trying to pigeon hole yourself into something just because you think it matches something else...

 

[Uclabruin103]

I would highly discourage joining the military ONLY on the prospect of potentially helping get a job after. If you're heart is in serving, then go for it. If my department is anything like the rest of the country, we're hurting for bodies. And are even thinking of potentially dropping our medic requirements for an academy or two to catch up with retirements.

My department has a partnership with a local police department where they're reserve officers and part of the SWAT team. There are fire medics on the team, and even MDs from our local hospital. They go through all the swat training the cops do, and will be on call and go to any call-outs swat does.

At least in my area, you're goal is to be on a very specialized team that is pretty selective, and has some hoops to jump through. Best of luck to you.