Daily routine of an Infantryman?

[cisco]

Here's some free advice: so far, the folks who've responded to this thread have something approaching 70 years of combined Army experience. Try lecturing and pontificating a little less. The rest of us are pretty well versed on how this institution functions. For saying you won't be the young officer who acts like he knows Everything, you seem to think we need the military explained to us.

Sorry, didn't mean to come across like that. There was just some fighting that wasn't needed.

 

[kp2001]

That's part of the reason I tune out the uppity candidates who say "I want to go to med school after West Point!" I say "Oh yeah? There's a slot at Nameless State U for you then."

So tell me this....would you rather have the physicians of your military understand the millitary culture and needs of the Line or not?

Not every physician in the military needs to come from a military background, but you need a certain percentage of them to have a very good understanding of the "true mission" of the Service for which they work in order for them to properly support you.

Sure, we could all go to State U and go to Harvard/Yale/State U medical school and be competent physicians and take great medical care of the people who go outside the wire; however, what will get lost in translation is the small details of military work such as the loss of a single pilot out of a squadron for 3-4wks while awating various tests/rehab etc because there's no medical indication to do it faster causing an entire squadron to not be able to support a Request for Forces. Simple things like that can cause huge disruptions. There are other things that get lost as well that you simply don't get for many years as a physician unless you have spent time in a military training environment (or possibly being prior-service).

Those people coming from prior-service backgrounds or service academies are relied upon heavily by others in the mil-med community to teach those who are coming from State-U. What, you think they get it at the medical version of basic training???

Anyway, you tell me: would you rather have a doc who knew his job and understood yours or one that knows medicine, but has no clue about what your life is like?