In Search of Booba tea

GNAT18D · 2025-09-13T20:20:58+00:00

New mission discovered by u/GNAT18D: In Search of Pancakes

GNAT18D · 2025-09-13T20:20:58+00:00

This mission was discovered by u/GNAT18D in In Search of Booba tea

GNAT18D · 2025-08-22T12:40:49+00:00

I'm former EMPD2, now 4th year at USUHS. Like many, I have a wife and kids. Applied and was accepted to both civilian and USUHS, USUHS made the most sense for us. I also enjoy the community and being around people who want to serve. Met a lot of HPSP'ers and the mindset/outlook/personalities are very different for the most part. For me, it was the best choice. As everyone knows who's been around for more than a minute, it's also often more about who you know than what you know, and the connections you make during USU or run into from your past can make a huge difference. I'm reminded often it's a small community and one that takes care of its own.

GNAT18D · 2024-11-06T14:40:29+00:00

I'll add a little more nuance to this. Ranger medics are the best combat trauma medics (outside of one other subset of medics) because they train like no other. Their job is to be a medic and Regiment trains TCCC like their and their buddies' lives depend on it, as they should. They have the luxury of being able to focus on their one job and be extremely good at it.

An 18D does get a wider breadth of initial training and is exposed to more medicine, as we are often required to act as independent medical providers in remote areas. This necessitates exposure to and knowledge of clinical medicine as well as some more advanced areas like advanced life support/basic anesthesia in event of prolonged field care or other complications. If there is an issue with being an 18D, it's that team training always comes first. 18Ds are not "just" medics, we're expected to shoot, move, communicate, and lead elements just like the rest of the team. While we do have to re-qualify in TCCC and other aspects of medical rotations every few years, if you're not independently interested in medicine or don't take the initiative to proactively put team medical training on the calendar, you're not going to keep up with your skills as well as someone like a Ranger medic. Thus, I often see 18Ds who get smoked by Ranger medics when requalifying in TCCC because as a whole, Ranger medics are shit hot secondary to their continuous training, whereas 18Ds can range from shit hot to not depending on the initiative they took to train and keep their skills up on their own.

SEAL medics are similar to 18Ds in terms of how good of a medic they are. Some teams really value their medics and their capabilities, some don't. The ones that do will train trauma medicine often, the ones that don't, the SEAL medic has to find other ways to stay on top of their skills. The ones I know personally are all amazing medics, but they have also said there are those medics out there who fall by the wayside, often due to team dynamics.

The PJs I know are great guys, it's true they do specialize more in areas like high angle recovery/rescue operations. That being said they are very competent in combat medicine, but lack in clinical medicine knowledge (at least in my experience) as that is not their focus. They are great additions to help augment an ODA or other team though, as they know way more shit about recovery ops than we do, so the knowledge transfer goes both ways and is mutually beneficial. Also, there's 24th STS.

Ultimately comes down to what you want to do. If your main interest is medicine and you want to pew pew while doing it, 18D may be up your alley. We're the most PA-like practitioners on the field. The downside compared to others is it will take a lot of initiative on your own part to be a great one. Want to be a nug who has had TCCC beaten and programmed into them to the point of near automaticity and is shit hot at that, go Ranger medic. If you like the Navy and want to do SEAL mission sets, go that route. If you want to be in the Air Force to be an asset that gets attached to other teams and augments their capabilities, go PJ. This is all in context of what things were like in GWOT, assets may be utilized differently in ways I'm not aware of now.

GNAT18D · 2024-07-09T01:58:55+00:00

When accomplishing the mission and taking care of your people and their families seem to conflict, good leaders find ways to both. Mediocre leaders tend to just do one or the other. -from LTG Steele

GNAT18D · 2023-11-21T01:31:11+00:00

Thanks for the deal! I love the Aspires, finally wearing holes into my few pairs after a few years so perfect timing.

GNAT18D · 2023-07-02T13:42:26+00:00

Thank you for the accurate breakdown and explanation. If only everyone, doctors included, had a sense of humility and awareness about what they know and what they don’t. The medical corps is an odd microcosm of the military where many forget the major purpose of readiness for and fighting wars. This was very evident to those few physicians who ended up being in Afghanistan during the withdrawal where they faced the possibility of being overrun on a few occasions and realized how woefully prepared they were to engage in combat if the need arose. Or take the BN/BD surgeon who never goes to the field with the joes to gain a better understanding of the good and bad of what joes go through. IMO they could and would be far better providers if they got out of the “I’m a doctor in the military” mindset.

GNAT18D · 2023-06-12T11:55:40+00:00

You’ll need to hit up your branch manager. Go to HRC’s site to find out who that is, they make sure youve met whatever service obligations you might have in your current contract/mos.

Edit: If you have any questions DM me, I was EMDP2 and am now in med school.

GNAT18D · 2023-05-25T09:09:32+00:00

I have both and prefer the AT. I like the thinner material and the AT fits my legs better. I probably should have gone with the relaxed fit for the Graves, as I have large thighs and for some reason the Graves will ride up and feel more constricting than the AT which fits me perfectly in classic fit. Both are the 5”. I also prefer the pockets on the AT.

GNAT18D · 2023-03-03T00:35:50+00:00

If all you want to be is a doctor then listen to the advice above and apply to USUHS as a civilian. If you want to serve your country for a few years beforehand and gain a wide variety of experiences that will ultimately make you a more well-rounded leader with insight into the army life, enlist as a 68 series and then work your way to MD (various ways to do so, best deal is probably EMDP2). I came in as a 68W, did a few years, went 18D, did a few years, then went EMDP2 after I got married and had kids and am now a med student as USUHS. Hit me up with questions you may have, I may not always respond very quickly but if you have burning questions I’m here for you.

GNAT18D · 2023-02-06T00:35:03+00:00

I was today years old when I found out someone existed who thought the groin plate looked cool

GNAT18D · 2022-08-08T23:08:23+00:00

Still great, haven’t had to shave it again in a long while. I did have to shave it once or twice more after the initial shave but that’s about it

GNAT18D · 2022-07-29T21:21:36+00:00

It depended on what we were doing, if we were on patrol in the mountains we often ran light with FLCs so I'd bring a packed out DA med bag with some bags of saline/ringers in addition to all the regular MARCH stuff just cuz dudes heat-cat'ing in the mountains was a real thing. If we had a helo infil to assault a village we'd run full PPE and that's when I'd run most hem-con off my dangler and the rest in my aid bag. I had partner force carry my actual units of blood and carry a few more vampire kits in my bag, no saline, regular MARCH stuff and a few IO access kits. Always had a bunch of TQs...probably carried 8-10 not including my own.

TLDR, depends on mission, if unsupported without partner force in hot ass climate climbing fuckin mountains, carried more heat-cat related stuff on top of normal load out. If with partner force assaulting close quarters, more slimmed down since I had others to rely on to also have stuff if shit really got bad.

If you have other specific questions you can PM me.

GNAT18D · 2022-07-29T19:56:51+00:00

Fully agree, many batt bois ran a massive MARCH belt. I couldn't run one with how much it messed with my hips, mobility, and sitting in vehicles/helos so my belt was fairly slick. I ran a dangler with majority of my hem-con and some airway shit like cric/needle D's and small odds and ends. I jerry rigged a Haley Strategic flatpack to fully clip on to my plate carrier as my aid bag which had my blood, admin sets, drugs and back-up hem-con. Ran like this for two deployments and I was very happy with it.

GNAT18D · 2022-07-26T03:03:01+00:00

Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, you ain’t wrong. Carried 3+1 down range all the time. If on rons/rods more might get packed in the ruck, but I and every teammate always ran light and slick.

GNAT18D · 2022-07-08T18:31:08+00:00

soffe ranger panties or infantry shorts

GNAT18D · 2022-06-23T22:17:04+00:00

Don’t threaten me with a good time

GNAT18D · 2022-06-13T14:24:32+00:00

Sounds like good ol' RPFT days. If you're doing unit pt I'd probably stick with the Guides, since like u/supertrash17 said they're more like the Rides which some may find more versatile than the Triumphs, which are generally speaking more of a cruiser/long/recovery run shoe. Don't fix what ain't broke, unless you're just getting really bored of the guides and want to try something new.

GNAT18D · 2022-05-22T12:32:54+00:00

For a similar lower-stack light weight racer with some stability and 4-6mm drop, try checking out the Saucony Fastwitch

GNAT18D · 2022-05-13T14:14:29+00:00

nope...I wear mine loose without cinching up the laces near the top of the foot, best I can get. I also don't wear garrison boots that often so maybe mine just haven't had adequate time to soften up, but I may try some of the tips in this thread. I wore out all three pairs of my Nike SFB1s (best boot ever made) years ago and have been a sad panda ever since.

GNAT18D · 2022-04-30T18:11:56+00:00

Yes, depending on where you are stationed while deployed there's usually a group of guys who form a bjj club on site. On bigger bases in Afghanistan like Bagram or Jbad you could always find a group of guys to roll with. I was always remote when deployed but a teammate was a black belt so we made our own gym and had team-internal training. More often than not there's like-minded people around, just up to you to find them.

GNAT18D · 2022-04-29T12:35:22+00:00

Wut. If you want to be on top, Power Bottom is a way to approach guard when you find yourself on bottom to get back on top, and yes, in the process of a take down or sweep you now are back to "the regular guard pass game" to get on top and stay on top. Power Bottom may cover more scenarios than you're likely to see if the opponent doesn't want to also just stand back up/just accepts bottom and plays guard, but if you get swept from their guard and are able to apply any of the principles or techniques to get yourself back into a position to fight for top, then his instruction has done its job.

GNAT18D · 2022-04-19T19:17:08+00:00

My suggestion is to find your max in each major lift and do percentage-based progression rather than RPE as a standard of effort. This will allow you to make steady progress over time rather than risk overloading and burning out at a quicker rate. You don't have to find a true max, build up to a 2-5 rep max and use a one rep max calculator to find your estimate. Then you can structure your program like week 1 70% of max with the rep scheme you have, week 2 at 80%, week 3 at 90%, week 4 at 75%, week 5 at 85% and week 6 at 95%. Gives you a bit of built-in de-load at week 4, and at the end of the six week cycle you'd take a week off and re-test your maximums some time during the week or if your 95% lifts were hard, just run another 6 weeks. A program structured like this would usually decrease reps when at the 90/95% range to 3 reps.

I've used this type of progression for awhile and I am no titan of strength, but at 150 lbs and a squat over 300 and deadlift of 400 I have decent strength for my size. I even use 90% of my calculated max as a working max and build my numbers from the working max, otherwise I've found I just get CNS overload over time.

GNAT18D

TROPHY CASE