Posted: 10/31/2010 8:08:41 PM EDT
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We(11Bs) had to take CA guys on a bunch of patrols to remote villages in the mountains of Khost on the border of Pakistan. IMHO, CA is just a PC thing. They promised all this crap to the villagers, and then left and never kept any promises. So we had to deal with pissed off villagers. With these afghans, if you promise something, its expected that you do it.
Seems like, again from what I've seen, the CA guys(speaking of the ones in Khost) are along for the action ride. They'd show up, do some talking, get in some fights, then be done with it. I guess its an easy way for them to get a CAB the real way. |
| CPTK, not sure if its in CA, but I know in Khost, namely Sabari and Spera districts, we had officers come out and do these field hospital type things. I forget the phrase for them. They would show up and set up a clinic basically. All the villagers within 15 miles would show up and get treatment for stuff from rashes, to broken bones, to tuberculosis. It was pretty neat seeing this happen, as it showed you another reason to be proud for being over there, and believing in the cause. Even more so when kids get helped. |
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CPTK, not sure if its in CA, but I know in Khost, namely Sabari and Spera districts, we had officers come out and do these field hospital type things. I forget the phrase for them. They would show up and set up a clinic basically. All the villagers within 15 miles would show up and get treatment for stuff from rashes, to broken bones, to tuberculosis. It was pretty neat seeing this happen, as it showed you another reason to be proud for being over there, and believing in the cause. Even more so when kids get helped. Thanks for the posts guys. I'm a physician (surgeon) with the USAR now and am deployed to an FST in Afghanistan until January. My reserve commitment ends next year and I was thinking of going active. Unfortunately, I'm repeatedly told that I wont be doing any field work as a surgeon because I'm "too valuable" of an asset. I have training in trauma and field care (TEMS) which is what I enjoy doing. Does CA have a need for surgeons? Will I get deployed outside the wire? I hate being a Fobbit. I would like to provide medical care in the field for locals/soldiers and set up hospitals/aid stations etc... Being a doc sitting in the FOB is driving me nuts. I do more shooting and have better weapons at home. I come to Afghanistan and my OIC tells me that I'll never get to do anything because if something happens to me his career is over. I have been requested by the Battalion Surgeon to go to COBs that need docs and gets hit a lot but am turned down by our OIC. |
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CPTK, not sure if its in CA, but I know in Khost, namely Sabari and Spera districts, we had officers come out and do these field hospital type things. I forget the phrase for them. They would show up and set up a clinic basically. All the villagers within 15 miles would show up and get treatment for stuff from rashes, to broken bones, to tuberculosis. It was pretty neat seeing this happen, as it showed you another reason to be proud for being over there, and believing in the cause. Even more so when kids get helped. Thanks for the posts guys. I'm a physician (surgeon) with the USAR now and am deployed to an FST in Afghanistan until January. My reserve commitment ends next year and I was thinking of going active. Unfortunately, I'm repeatedly told that I wont be doing any field work as a surgeon because I'm "too valuable" of an asset. I have training in trauma and field care (TEMS) which is what I enjoy doing. Does CA have a need for surgeons? Will I get deployed outside the wire? I hate being a Fobbit. I would like to provide medical care in the field for locals/soldiers and set up hospitals/aid stations etc... Being a doc sitting in the FOB is driving me nuts. I do more shooting and have better weapons at home. I come to Afghanistan and my OIC tells me that I'll never get to do anything because if something happens to me his career is over. I have been requested by the Battalion Surgeon to go to COBs that need docs and gets hit a lot but am turned down by our OIC. thats known as a medcap medical civic action program. its a feel good thing doesnt really do much. CA is all about relationships. going into active CA is next to impossible for a regular reservist, believe me i tried. you can transfer over to CA you might not branch over but if you find a CA battalion or higher we always need doctors and vets. you will go outside the wire i guarantee it! im going to go class now but if you have questions ask and ill answer when i get in tonight |
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We(11Bs) had to take CA guys on a bunch of patrols to remote villages in the mountains of Khost on the border of Pakistan. IMHO, CA is just a PC thing. They promised all this crap to the villagers, and then left and never kept any promises. So we had to deal with pissed off villagers. With these afghans, if you promise something, its expected that you do it. Seems like, again from what I've seen, the CA guys(speaking of the ones in Khost) are along for the action ride. They'd show up, do some talking, get in some fights, then be done with it. I guess its an easy way for them to get a CAB the real way. sounds like one of three things either you had a crappy CA team, your maneuver element didnt know how to use CA as a force multiplier or you guys were in a kinetic fight and CA was not the optimum tool. could be a combination the first thing were taught and i mean the very first thing in CA school is "never promise anything" it is THE golden rule. ask any CA guy what the number one rule for CA is and that will be the answer. but heres what really happens. a battalion gets a 4man CAT attached to it. they have to support us or we aint much good. usually we get sent to the shittiest area first if the commander is smart or if he doesnt like us. so in the shitty area we hook up with the company who will give us his shittiest men/material to support us. then we go to work. if that company lets us. we work with the non leathal fires and local civic leaders to try and develop a strategy to get the locals to start supporting the US effort. 9 times out of 10 if our plan is implimented it works. most times the commanders dont listen to us and inevitably the wrong guys get caught in the cross fire until higher gets mad and says "make this area green on my power point slide or else" we offer our advice again and it gets implimented and bam! red to yellow yellow to green. it doesnt always work that way but thats been my experience quite a bit. there are cowboys dont get me wrong and it sounds like you had some. for a while CA had the highest casualty rate in the reserves. its also the most deployed MOS in the reserves and second most deployed in the Army. behind SF. thats what i was told in school years ago so maybe thats changed. its a great job though it does have its downfalls. |
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MEDCAPs are not just touchy feely. They exist for a reason... oh yeah, we get great information of all kinds during a medcap, send the females to talk to the women, ask the kids questions, withhold care for stuff make follow up appointments, put people in the biometric system, take pictures for the PAO, etc. but to your average joe its just another day in the sun watching the CA guys fuck around. and the locals dont exactly get comprehensive care. medcaps are also not allowed in a lot of areas because it udermines the local medical infrastructure. took us a while to figure that one out. now its all about putting a local face on it and afghanistan is very different from iraq |
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Thanks for all the posts. I'm looking for something that gets me outside the FOB from time to time. I hate being told that I'm "too valuable" or "if you get hurt my career is over." I like to operate and be in active FSTs but hate being a Fobbit. If I go active I want to take care of our soldiers in the field and off. I didn't join to be kept safe. I feel safer here in the Stan than I did in NYC. I don't need to knock down doors (although I've been through SWAT School) but, I do want to get into the field more. I would like to set up hospitals/aid stations, provide field trauma/surgical care etc.... In the past I was an EMT and since have had TEMS/TCCC training as a trauma surgeon. I was told to look into CA and ask the SF recruiter if they could use someone with my skills. I have emails out to both.
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for a while CA had the highest casualty rate in the reserves. its also the most deployed MOS in the reserves and second most deployed in the Army. behind SF. thats what i was told in school years ago so maybe thats changed. That was still being said at the schoolhouse this year. It's a small community and 95% of it is in the USAR. |
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I got your email sir.
ill be honest ive called the SORB and emailed and was flat out told they wouldnt deal with me unless i was active duty. thats why i never got an email. youre probably in the same boat. they could give a shit about reservists if its something you want to do here is what i suggest. locate a unit close to your home. it shouldnt be hard there are units everywhere! here are some links to help. sorry i dont know how to embed. also some of the CA units are Airborne theres one in california, maryland and some other places i cant remember and others are FID/UW which is very cool. i believe that one is in columbus ohio. anyway check these two places out. http://www.usacapoc.army.mil/ http://www.civilaffairsassoc.org/html/caunits.html talk to someone at the unit and they can give you more information and any unit would be crazy not to want a person with your skills. you will have really two options. first is that you can be at brigade and with the medical team i believe we call it a public health cell or something along those lines. you will be resposible for the overall health and welfare of the soldiers in the brigade as well as overseeing the medical programs any of the teams decide to impliment. you rub shoulders with the higher head quarters medical teams and if you want you could hang out in the field hospital or do CA stuff. youll have free reign. our docs didnt do shit but hang out at the aid station cuz our detachment wasnt doing many medical programs the other option is to just become a team chief. i wont lie, that job is cool as shit. youll get a team sergeant (someone like me) and two enlisted and thats it. youll be assigned to a battalion and sent off to do "great things" you can be as busy or as lazy as you want and focus on any aspect of our functional specialties with very little oversight from higher. for officers in CA its the job to have in my opinion. once you get to detachment level and higher it blows to be an officer cuz its boring BUT again you have very little oversight so you can do just about whatever you want. in CA you can have an officer at any level work till he passes out or you can sit around and suck your thumb. its just up to how you want to manage. the work load is there its just how you manage it. ive been very fortunate in CA, ive always been on busy teams and ive got to do some cool shit that is way outside my MOS. if you want a cool deployment, CA is the shit if done right here is our "bible" it might give you an idea of where you want to go and what we do in technical terms http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-05-40.pdf |
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for a while CA had the highest casualty rate in the reserves. its also the most deployed MOS in the reserves and second most deployed in the Army. behind SF. thats what i was told in school years ago so maybe thats changed. That was still being said at the schoolhouse this year. It's a small community and 95% of it is in the USAR. yeah sounds about right. are you a SWCS instructor? |
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OUTSTANDING CASoldier!
You're one of the few that gave me a lot of insight about CA. I think I would go with; "the other option is to just become a team chief. i wont lie, that job is cool as shit. youll get a team sergeant (someone like me) and two enlisted and thats it. youll be assigned to a battalion and sent off to do "great things" you can be as busy or as lazy as you want and focus on any aspect of our functional specialties with very little oversight from higher. for officers in CA its the job to have in my opinion. once you get to detachment level and higher it blows to be an officer cuz its boring BUT again you have very little oversight so you can do just about whatever you want. " I want to get as high speed as they will let me. I will go anywhere, do anything and sacrifice everything to save our soldiers. Hoo Ah! |
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glad i could help sir. i usually troll around here or hall of heros if you want my ako i can give ya that if you have more questions. if you decide on the Arizona or Maryland units let me know. i have first hand knowledge about those.
there is also another CA NCO on this board "addictedtoguns" very cool individual, i met him in iraq as he was leaving and i was going in, hooked me up with a surefire M96 and a 240B scrapper tool. the other fun thing is that pound for pound a 4man CA team carries more fire power than just about any other conventional element. i like that 
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youre in the stan now all you gotta do is find the closest maneuver unit and ask for the civil affairs guys tell em you want to do some medical engagements and bam! youre in like flynn. if you run into a tall bald german guy let me know! he was my roomie at bragg
i think there is a unit in florida im not sure. |
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youre in the stan now all you gotta do is find the closest maneuver unit and ask for the civil affairs guys tell em you want to do some medical engagements and bam! youre in like flynn. if you run into a tall bald german guy let me know! he was my roomie at bragg i think there is a unit in florida im not sure. I didn't even think about that - good idea. I'm at FOB Shank with the 909th FST. I will definately look into it. Thanks again. |
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for a while CA had the highest casualty rate in the reserves. its also the most deployed MOS in the reserves and second most deployed in the Army. behind SF. thats what i was told in school years ago so maybe thats changed. That was still being said at the schoolhouse this year. It's a small community and 95% of it is in the USAR. yeah sounds about right. are you a SWCS instructor? Nope. Just went through the course this year as a student. It was the best Army school I've been to, very well run. |