RAF Reserves/ Army Reserve Paramedic

[joeg]

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone has any experience of the reserves as a paramedic. Looking at either the RAF reserves and the MERT route or a paramedic in 144 Med in army which is part of 16 air assault. Just looking for advice which offer best experience ect. Thanks

[The Mad Monk]

joeg said:

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone has any experience of the reserves as a paramedic. Looking at either the RAF reserves and the MERT route or a paramedic in 144 Med in army which is part of 16 air assault. Just looking for advice which offer best experience ect. Thanks

Be careful.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think when you sign up, they can call you up when they think a conflict somewhere warrants it.

[Regiment]

The Mad Monk said:

Be careful.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think when you sign up, they can call you up when they think a conflict somewhere warrants it.

That's the idea of the reserves, to supplement the regular forces in times of need e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq. Used to be in the RAF Regiment Reserves, enjoyed it but as I couldn't drive at the time, it was causing problems getting to and from base which was a good 30 miles away so stopped.

Quite a few of the guys I tried with ended up in Kandahar or Basra with stories of bullets whizzing past their heads.

[joeg]

Yeah I'm more than happy to be called up. I have skills as a paramedic that can help

[shouldbworking]

I know a few paramedics in the reserves, attached to other units rather than in the field hospital units. The main struggle for them is time, between demanding paramedic shifts and then going on what can be a weekend with 2-3 hours sleep it's a push. One started out as a combat medical technician and then became a paramedic, the other was regular infantry who retrained as a paramedic and joined the reserves.

No experience on how it differs between RAF vs Army vs Navy I'm afraid.

[anonymous-user]

The Mad Monk said:

Be careful.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think when you sign up, they can call you up when they think a conflict somewhere warrants it.

Can't work out if this is a serious comment, or not...

[The Mad Monk]

Inkyfingers said:

The Mad Monk said:

Be careful.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think when you sign up, they can call you up when they think a conflict somewhere warrants it.

Can't work out if this is a serious comment, or not...

Try it out as a serious comment, just for starters.

A number of people sign up to the reserves thinking that it is about evenings in a drill hall and then 15 days camp in the summer, oh and a few weekends away at camp. They think that's all they signed up for.

Then the government gets involved in Iraq and decides it is going to call up the reservists. you HAVE to go whether you want to or not.

Now explain to me which bit I haven't understood, or am not serious about.

[anonymous-user]

Sorry for the sarcasm, it's not becoming, but I just find it hard to believe that anybody could become a military reservist without realising that there is the chance of being called up for active service at some point.

[Cfnteabag]

Unfortunetly there are a lot who do forget,

[The Mad Monk]

This link will tell you what the commitments are, scroll down to number 8 for the bit about compulsory active service.

http://tinyurl.com/zxer89r

While I was serving, something happened and reservists were called up. It caused me some amusement when reservists would carefully explain that they were reservists and therefore they didn't have to do X or Y. The response from the superior rank that they were speaking to always went the same way! Very droll.

[joeg]

I'm not fussed about being called up. The question was more to do with the job role of army vs raf

[Evanivitch]

Just be aware that many units have introduced an additional commitment to qualify for your annual bounty. So in addition to your summer camp you've got to attend 10 weekends/events to qualify.

Few do it for the money, but it's usually enough to keep the misses quiet.

[joeg]

Yes I'm well aware of the commitment. If I wanted he money would do ot at work. The question is about job roles?

[shouldbworking]

As far as I know, compulsory mobilisation of the reserves hasn't happened since the first gulf war. It's volunteers who then get told they are being mobilised, which is of course no surprise because they volunteered!

[dai1983]

Army v RAF: depends on what the nearest unit is. If it's too far away then you'll sometimes loose motivation to attend. As an Army Combat Medic you'd be attached to an infantry troop/platoon and treat casualties as they occur on the front line. You have kit suitable to treat them for the "golden hour" while the MERT arrives. As a MERT medic then you'll be in the rear waiting to fly out on a Chinook. You'll pick a casualty up and treat them while they are flown back to a proper hospital at the rear base. Depends what you fancy really.

There's also Navy medics who can get attached to the Royal Marines and obviously get to go on ship. The RM also have their own medics but the last I heard they were trying to phase them out and utilise the Navy lads. Also joining the RMR as a civvie is meant to be a ball ache/big commitment.

[joeg]

Thanks for the info....so it's the paras as a paramedic I'm looking at or the RAF both our quite close so no dramas with traveling. I heard with the paras there is potentially options for air MERT with 16 air assault. Whereas this is normally just for RAF medic but I'm not too sure on the truth on this. Have you any experience as a paramedic in RAF how hard would it be to get on the MERT helicopter?

[dai1983]

No idea sorry as I'm RM. Theres an RAF forum called egoat and an Army one called arrse. You may find the "gen" information on there.

They like a least 1 in 4 of us to be team medic trained and I've done the course 5 times as it expires after a while. Some of the courses have been pretty st but some have been pretty good. Depends who's running the course really. It's slightly advanced of using field dressings, tourniquets and basic life support. A highlight was doing a tracheostomy on a sheeps windpipe and lungs then doing some stitches in some pigs skin. They also get limbless actors and fake blood involved too.

[dai1983]

My friends brother was a Medic in the Paras and is now full time reserves.
I'll ask him some questions if you want?

My gut feeling would be that you'd firstly join the Para reserves,
do P Coy etc and then start as a front line medic on a promise of the MERT job. Would you be fit enough and would you be ok jumping out of a plane with your kit strapped to your legs?

[Sherpa]

Morning mate, at the moment I'm fairly sure MERT doesn't exist, it's stood up for ops. There might be some training jobs, but I'd imagine places are highly sought after. Last time I worked with them, MERT was predominantly RAF, but had an Army RAMC doctor on board for anaesthetic purposes.

When it is in use, MERT is provided by Tac Med Wing at Brize Norton, so that might be your best shout if you're local to them.

On the RAF Reserves page there's a specialist number for medical reservists, might be worth a shout; 01400 266886

TMW

[t_nicholls_uk]

Hi there, I know this is an old post but thought I would try my luck.

Im looking at joining the RAF Reserves as a Paramedic next year, now, the website was all up and running up until last week when they took it down, i emailed Brize Norton and they said that it was put on there incorrectly and that I would join as a RAF Medic with Paramedic Qualification.

Does anyone have any inside information on this? I am completely lost about what it all entails now. Its really hard to find any actual info on what is expected from you and what you actually do.

Any info would be great.

Thanks

Tony