MEDEVAC right out of flight school?

fatbretcantjump · February 13, 2014

Wondering if this is even possible, or a realistic request for a WOJG to make. I know that it's "needs of the Army" but does anyone have any suggestions on how to increase the odds of getting assigned to a Medevac unit?

Thanks in advance...

stearmann4 · February 13, 2014

Select UH-60s to start with, there's no special request process to fly MEDEVAC, it all depends on wats available when your class selects duty stations.

Like everything else at Rucker, your best chance at being assigned to a MEDEVAC unit is to make sure you're at the top of the OML so you can have first pick of what duty stations are available.

Mike-

Joe_P148 · February 13, 2014

Getting assigned to a medevac unit is just a random assignment, that's all.

When you get assigned to a CAB, the brigade S1 looks at the line numbers of what is needed. If there are openings in the GSAB you will get assigned there, if there are openings in Medevac you will fill that slot, if not, you won't.

There's nothing you can really do to increase your chances of getting into a medevac other than asking for it.

Why do you want medevac?

fatbretcantjump · February 13, 2014

Well, my main reason for wanting medevac comes from a desire to save people... military and civilians alike. It would be great to know that there were people alive because I came out and got them.

Also, there's the big draw of the "scramble" mentality of medevac... you get a grid and go sprinting for the aircraft and you're outta there! As opposed to the opposite... I don't like the thought of planning for 3 days for a complex mission with a bunch of meetings and coordination and ACPs and +-30 seconds on every point. All this is based on perception... I may be way off from the reality of things. If so, hopefully someone will set me straight.

I have heard that medevac pilots don't get as many hours, but I think it would be rewarding enough to make up for that.

Joe_P148 · February 13, 2014

If you are willing to take the hit on hours and experience, go for it!

I did the mission for a bit, it was exciting but I found that there was a level of complacency and lack of general aviator knowledge that ran rampant in the medevac community. My experience...

Personally, I feel that you going to medevac straight out of flight school is doing you a great injustice. That TOT + or - 30 seconds equates to being on time, that's it. It's not hard. More importantly VIP and Air Assault units get more hours and build up thier junior pilots to conduct a wide range of missions. Medevac pilots, learn medevac and the associated mission tasks.

I would highly encourage you to keep an open mind about all the missions until you get an assignment.

Just to put it in perspective, there are guys 5-6 years out of flight school in medevac units that still have only 500 hours with combat deployments! If you don't mind that, cool. Keep in mind you'll be incredibly un competitive to your peers in air assault and VIP units and you will be un prepared if you go from a med unit to a VIP or a air assault. Just some things to think about.

Eric Hunt · February 13, 2014

The rapid response time is a big drawback, precisely because you don't have much time to plan the trip - is the weather suitable or is a change coming? Where exactly is the victim, where do they need to go, have I got enough fuel for the trip or will I be too heavy with fuel to do a hoist extraction? Will the flight be done under visual rules, instrument rules, night rules? Is there a navigation beacon to guide me, what will be the lowest safe altitude enroute, how low can I go when I get there if cloud is down to the ground?

Yes, it can be satisfying, helping people, but some times the people are too stupid to realise what a dopey thing they have done and how much you risked to save their sorry backsides - and then they leave without even saying thanks. And there are many, many false alarms, wasted searches for people who have already walked out, and you have to have the experience and mental courage to say "NO. This task is not worth risking the lives of my crew to rapidly respond to somebody who, with a few hours of discomfort, can be safely recovered by ground crew. It is not a life-threatening situation."

Yes, I have been in every one of these situations, hours or days of inactivity, then a mad scramble to get airborne and go somewhere. Glad to have done it, glad not to be doing it any more.

Velocity173 · February 13, 2014

I want medals! Seriously, getting MEDEVAC in peacetime is like getting 64s. As Joe said, definitely won't fly much and when you do transfer (and you will) to GSAB or air assault you'll be a bit behind the power curve. Progressed a few former MEDEVAC only guys and their formation skills were like a 100 hr flight school student.

Having said that, Mike Durrant started MEDEVAC out of flight school and he found a way to 160th. Of course he went 101st first to get the tactical / planning experience but whatever.

brackac · February 13, 2014

Medevac drivers don't really rack up hours while deployed either. Hard to accrue flight time when you only really launch for medical emergencies. Other lift assets do a combination of mission, ring routes, personnel movement, etc, which makes it a lot easier to rack up the hours.

SBuzzkill · February 13, 2014

If you are willing to take the hit on hours and experience, go for it!

I did the mission for a bit, it was exciting but I found that there was a level of complacency and lack of general aviator knowledge that ran rampant in the medevac community. My experience...

Personally, I feel that you going to medevac straight out of flight school is doing you a great injustice. That TOT + or - 30 seconds equates to being on time, that's it. It's not hard. More importantly VIP and Air Assault units get more hours and build up thier junior pilots to conduct a wide range of missions. Medevac pilots, learn medevac and the associated mission tasks.

You can see the same thing in our community based on what team guys are on and what they're primarily doing. When you have a team doing the same thing every day they get weaker and weaker in other areas. It's really bad when your leadership refuses to rotate guys because they want to stay on the teams getting the most hours so you have a small group of guys getting all the experience and everyone else suffers because of it, especially the new guys. That said, for us being busy is not always a good thing if you don't have the flexibility to go out and use some of the time to train on the stuff you're not doing every day.

Edited February 13, 2014 by SBuzzkill

d10 · February 13, 2014

Don't go Medevac straight out of flight school if you have any say in the matter. I don't think anyone here loves the Medevac mission more than I do but I'd never recommend it to a low time pilot. There's nothing fun about being a PI in a Medevac unit and you'll be stuck that way for a long time. The way to do it is to go to a general support or assault company, build your hours, make PC, then ask for a transfer.

Even if you don't care about your career, your only goal is to fly Medevac, that's the way to do it. I went to a GS company and spent a while being jealous of my flight school buddies who went straight to Medevac. I made PC when they were still at 300-400 hours and not even in consideration. When I transferred over I was immediately one of the high time pilots while they were just making PC. Their subsequent deployments were spent in the relatively safe areas doing routine patient transfers, still building time. I got to go to all of the outlying FOBs where all the real action happened.

Rob Lyman · February 13, 2014

What these guys said is mostly true. You won't get a lot of flight time in medevac. You won't get the air assault mission planning experience. But the medevac mission is pretty exciting when you are actually doing it. Landing on a road near a burning vehicle to save a life is high on the excitement level. There are some routine-ish patient transfers, but not as routine as a ring route.

Where my opinion differs is IF you are NG vs AC. In the guard, we do all kinds of other missions back in the states, to include fire buckets, shipboard landings and hoists. I have also done dozens of aircraft transfers for Sikorsky and the Army. We go to airshows (budget permitting) as well as a lot of PR missions. And of course we have a state mission, which is not insignificant in hurricane alley (Florida). BUT that is NG and not active duty. You will also see guys with a lot more hours and multiple tracks in the NG. But that is a different topic.

I feel the reports of lack of aircraft knowledge and complacency are simply anecdotal, and are unit dependent. It doesn't have to be that way and isn't that way across all units. As they say, "Your mileage may vary."

Having said all that, I would still agree that medevac is not the place for a WO1 who is looking for hours.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Rob Lyman

d10 · February 13, 2014

I feel the reports of lack of aircraft knowledge and complacency are simply anecdotal, and are unit dependent. It doesn't have to be that way and isn't that way across all units. As they say, "Your mileage may vary."

Having said all that, I would still agree that medevac is not the place for a WO1 who is looking for hours.

Agree with the first paragraph. The Medevac unit I was in had much higher quality pilots than our assault company.

I'll add to the second paragraph: If you're a WO1 who's not looking for hours, you should be. So much of your value as a pilot comes from that number. A 1000 hour pilot with no stick skills who can't tell you a thing about basic flight rules will be more highly regarded than the best 500 hour pilots. It's not right but that's how the Army works.

apacheguy · February 14, 2014

OP: get yourself a UH-72 course and get orders to Yakima - definitely will put you in an army medevac unit...whether or not you end up liking it is on you.

SBuzzkill · February 14, 2014

Hm, how hard is that to do? 72s to Yakima, I mean.

apacheguy · February 14, 2014

I doubt there's much competition for it, but getting AV branch to do something logical gets tougher every day.

highside7r · February 16, 2014

Good info and I do agree with most of the posts. Times are changing, as well as the mission. USN SAR background, it was natural to want to start my Army WO career in the med, and it worked out. When I got to my 1st unit, already deployed, progression was pretty quick and I was then standing duty. Things can happen at an accelerated rate, so you have to adapt pretty quick and we flew a good amount with several follow-ons per mission cycle. This was early OIF days. The sense of pride and mission accomplishment as a former squid to support Marines was overwhelming, always great to have your medic come back from the hospital with good news of someone making it another day because of us.

Fast forward to my last OEF tour, up north and we hardly flew at all, watching our other Hawk buds fly 6+hrs a day on the ring routes. I watched just about all of our WOJG's motivation seep out, hard to explain to them what combat medevac is all about when one doesn't fly or if they do, it's a simple patient transfer with no one shooting to a hard stand, no zero illum goggle dust landing. These guys are behind their peers big time, not a skill issue but more career wise. Assault guys are getting the hours to make PC, then tracking and advancing.

In that regard, I would NOT recommend going to the med if you can get a choice, and sometimes you do. Currently CAB's are not getting the hours as in the past, so everyone is hurting.

Edited February 16, 2014 by highside7r