Navy PA Information

[CACNavyPA2014]

I am a PA-S graduating in December, and an HSCP student in the Navy.  I am not prior military, and am curious about some things.  What is life like for PAs in combat zones?

[bradtPA]

I have to admit, this strikes me as strange. Don't you think this would have been better asked before you signed on to go into the Navy instead of after?

[CACNavyPA2014]

I talked to several different people, and thought about this decision for several months.  In the end it was what was going to be the best for myself and my family. I talked to several PAs that had experienced deployment, but not necessarily in a combat zone.  Seeing as how activity has changed in the middle east in the last month, I thought maybe I could get some experiences from older PAs who have more experience in the Navy or military in general.

 

I assure you I am not naive and I understand that I will be making sacrifices. This was not a question that I asked because I just blindly signed up for duty, this is a question for people that have more experience than myself.  I did my research and got as much information as I could from the resources I knew. 

[IdahoPA]

I've been a medic in a combat zone.  The Army takes their PAs for the entire (year-long) deployment, but I don't know how the Navy works.  

 

I'm wondering what you're specifically asking.  Do you want to know what your day looks like, where you live, that sort of thing?

 

In our unit, the PAs lived next door and, in some cases, in the same CHUs as other officers.  We had one O-3 RN (who acted as a PA) live with an E4 but they both seemed ok with it. 

 

Most in our our unit staffed the brigade clinic in shifts, working alongside medics and LPNs, doing the exact same job as the docs.  In fact, I bet very few soldiers even knew who was who as far as official titles went.  Pretty much every clinician is a "doc" to them.  (Hell, all but the worst medics are considered such.)  Some PAs were sent to the smaller FOBs and headed those clinics.  In those cases, they were likely to be the only actual provider with the medics.  

 

PAs (and officers) don't do extra duties like gate guard or weapons guards or any of that.  You do have to do the basic training that all seamen do.  As a former soldier, I have little clue what that would specifically entail, but I'm sure they want you to maintain things like weapons qual and combat ops.  

 

Did that help?  I guess the real differences might be that you could be doing all that on a ship.  Being in a combat zone doesn't change what you're doing as much as you'd think.  You might have more rules, like having to be in certain gear, and different missions, but as a PA, you pretty much act as a PA.

[CACNavyPA2014]

Thank you for your insight.  That does help a lot.  This covers a lot of what I was asking about.

[Corpsman2PA]

Former Navy, combat zone and all (currently a civilian PA). Our PA/MDs were in the rear with the gear. If we had anything over our head medically, we sent them up to the main base for treatment.

Most Navy PAs in a combat zone will be attached to Marine units like I was. You'll be responsible for a lot of things, including training up your Corpsman.

You most likely won't have rounds flying your way, but there's always a chance.

Over a 7 month deployment, I saw my MD/PA twice, if that.

His thumbs were sore from all the XBox he was playing.

 

 

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