Military

[DOCMcKenney]

From Your Friends in Iraq,
To start off, I am a Naval Medic with the 3rd Marine Div. located in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. I am currently in Iraq and am hoping to get on a volunteer dept. when I return. I am 20 y/o with my level II, and am an active duty Corpsman(medic).
My Concerns are regarding getting injured wile volunteering and being active duty. Firefighting is a dream job to me, I got a taste of it wile in training and hanging with my friends, all on departments. I am only planning on doing my term then going active in a city.
Another concern is, I've heard East-Coast and West-Coast firefighting has its differences. Could someone explain to me what those are? How much can being active benifit me? Will dept.s hire someone who is active? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

HN McKenney, Brandon K. USN/USMC

[someguythatisonheretowastetime]

Doc,
Are you staying with the 3 MEF or are you getting orders to the 1st or 2nd MEF? West coast is focused more on EMS and Wildland, that's their bread and butter around San Diego. I tried to become a volly around San Diego and they pretty much want full time commitment out of you, which sucks. As far as getting on with a dept, thats pretty much up to your Chain of Command, most wont let you if you are going to miss work but the way I saw it was what they don't know wont hurt em. Where in this craphole of a country are you I am up at Al Asad.
Take care,

[DennisTheMenace]

From Your Friends in Iraq,
To start off, I am a Naval Medic with the 3rd Marine Div. located in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. I am currently in Iraq and am hoping to get on a volunteer dept. when I return. I am 20 y/o with my level II, and am an active duty Corpsman(medic).
My Concerns are regarding getting injured wile volunteering and being active duty. Firefighting is a dream job to me, I got a taste of it wile in training and hanging with my friends, all on departments. I am only planning on doing my term then going active in a city.
Another concern is, I've heard East-Coast and West-Coast firefighting has its differences. Could someone explain to me what those are? How much can being active benifit me? Will dept.s hire someone who is active? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

HN McKenney, Brandon K. USN/USMC

There are no Volunteer Fire Departments on Oahu anymore. Your best bet is to try to get transfered to the Base Ops to ride on the Rescue Birds for a while, or convince you OIC to send you to the beach for a six month rotation as a lifeguard. When I was at K-bay in the early 90's I was blessed to be a base lifeguard for almost a year and we worked a lot with the base fire department, HFD and the City and County Lifeguards. Unfortuantely, as you know, all the commands value their "Docs" so they are not likely to let you go easily. If you can get on some sort of volly organization, try the Red Cross or Civil Defense, getting injured is just the way of life for a 20y/o, if it did not happen vlounteering, it would happen surfing, biking, hiking, driving, etc. The military understands that and as long as you are not breaking the law or drinking when you get hurt, there will be no real harm to your career as long as you heal.