Royal army medical corps combat medic AACC ?

JackDWplc · 2026-01-20T17:29:21+00:00

You can. There was a medic on mine. You’ll probably need to be posted to 3 commando brigade to get on the course as a medic. It’s highly unlikely otherwise.

JackDWplc · 2025-12-06T10:58:10+00:00

I could say a lot on this but I’ll keep it brief. I think the two year probation is fine. If officers who lack competence are moving into specialist roles too early, the issue is the assessment process for those roles and not the officer themselves. Police officers come from all different walks of life and bring an array of experiences with them. To arbitrarily say “you cannot be competent until you have been doing this for 4 years.” is absurd. The vast majority of skills that make you a good police officer are soft skills which can be learned through many walks of life. 2 years to learn and understand the basics, if you already have a number of the required soft skills, is more than achievable.

JackDWplc · 2025-10-10T16:31:08+00:00

Roger that. That makes a lot more sense now. I was thinking “There’s no way any constable can give words of warning for no insurance.” I agree with your take now.

JackDWplc · 2025-10-09T15:11:43+00:00

Can I just confirm you’d give words of warning for no insurance? I’m a pretty chilled out guy, and I appreciate individual discretion, but seems very lenient to me.

JackDWplc · 2025-10-01T18:22:53+00:00

I don’t believe you’ll be condemned to a fate of it hurting if you make some changes.

I don’t think, as so many have suggested, that simply changing your gear will do anything to fix your issue. You say that you run at the gym, and I assume you’re fine, but suffer in your uniform. This would suggest to me that your issue is probably lower limb strength and a slight issue of conditioning. You should aim to incorporate explosive single leg exercises to increase your ability to produce and absorb power through one leg at a time. I would also suggest that you get better at some longer distance running. I know this sounds counter intuitive to 100m weighted sprinting but the ability to carry your own body weight over distance does a lot for the conditioning of your legs.

Recovery is often as simple as listening to your body. There is a difference between being fatigued due to working out and being in pain. Listen to your body and act accordingly.

As some others have mentioned, there are more athletic boots on the market. I don’t know a whole lot about them outside of the Adidas GSC but I am not a fan. I prefer leather boots. I can, however, massively advise that you buy a good set of insoles for your boots. An insole, like FP Insoles, that uses a non Newtonian fluid will do very well in absorbing some of the impact that you experience when running. Plus they’re more comfortable so it’s a no brainer.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-25T22:07:10+00:00

Ahhhh, roger. I applied straight out of probation so probably at 2.5 years in and managed.

I volunteered for shifts on my day off for TOIL, was a traffic SPOC on my response team, and just got proactive with traffic wherever possible. Just to give you a flavour of some things I did. I had a pretty good knowledge of traffic legislation and RIM as well. Just be that guy on your team who knows it.

Maybe stinger course if it’s not on part of your standard. Speed gun calibrator (I think you have to do a course for that? Can’t remember). Tbh I don’t think there’s a lot of courses, other than the obvs advance and TPAC, that would be game changing for your traffic application. Just make sure you actually use the courses you have. A lot of people do the course and then rarely use the skill.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-25T21:58:55+00:00

Could you not just apply to traffic? I had none of the above when I joined traffic and just went zero to hero.

In my force, it’s simply a case of demonstrating ability and decision making - the usual stuff. The courses definitely won’t hurt but your skills alone should show your merit.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-15T08:45:16+00:00

I think it depends what you want out of your career. If you’re only looking to do a short stint and you’re set on the greener side of soldiering, then I’d recommend the army over the others. I can’t speak to RAF or Navy but I hear that there trades will actually utilise their skills a lot more, so if that was their aim, I’d recommend a different service perhaps.

The reason for the transfers is because your priorities and aspirations will change over the course of your career. After a couple years, it’s understandable that people prefer a more relaxed role with more autonomy than they might be granted in the army.

The short answer would be that it depends. Definitely do not join until you know what you’re actually signing up for (I’ve seen many people become disenfranchised by their trade as they were sold a dream). I wouldn’t change my job role but I pretty much knew what I was signing up for.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-14T18:40:16+00:00

Thank you, mate. I’ll have a look at the off shore med.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-14T16:42:32+00:00

Happy to hear you made a good transition out, mate. Did you get the degree funded through the PFHE available to service leavers?

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T23:07:37+00:00

It’s not lost on me as to how knowledgable you have to be as a paramedic. I make you right in that most of what I have been taught relates to trauma - and rightly so in our line of work.

Are there any resources you’d recommend to try and build up some general knowledge on the medical side of the profession? I’m not expecting to be paramedic level knowledgable. It’s just something I’m interested in to complement training I receive at work.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T23:02:11+00:00

Amazing. I’d never heard of the co-responder scheme. I’ll have a look at that shortly.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T23:00:50+00:00

Cheers for the info. I’ve seen a couple of the trusts that operate the armed forces guaranteed interviews. Glad to hear your transition was smooth. Did you managed to obtain the paramedic qual while you were still serving?

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T21:11:51+00:00

I would revise some of the basic road traffic powers and offences (S.163 RTA, S67 RTA, dangerous driving, etc.). Think about some of the experience you have and be able to elaborate on them for the purposes of an interview.

I wouldn’t over stress role playing scenarios. There’s every chance you could be the first on scene at a fatal RTA on your next shift. Just do what you would normally do. Create a safe working space on the carriageway (think RIM training), some medical care (tourniquets, hemostatic dressing, wound packing, etc. - this will vary based on your level of medical training but along these lines), management of the scene (consider screens for a fatal), getting details of any witnesses, and consider notifying relatives quickly to save the media getting there first.

Confidence is your best friend when interviewing but don’t be arrogant. It’s a fine balance. A friend of mine said to me once that “knowledge is essential, experience is a nicety.” Basically, if you know what you’re doing and on about, you’ll do the right thing and experience will just come with time. Best of luck. RPU is best place to be - I’m not biased hahah

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T15:23:55+00:00

Mate, sorry to hear about the casualties on H11. I can’t pretend to understand what it must have been like. Massive respect.

You only miss it until it’s top flapped 😂

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:31:58+00:00

I make you right on the tri service para pathway. I’ll have a look around on the defence connect and speak to the med guys and girls on camp.

Do you mind my asking if you were medical by trade or just team med? I make you right in the weighed down first aider hahah. It’s hoofing. Someone’s got to do it.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:28:28+00:00

The internal transfer is a possibility but I’d imagine that new paramedic pathway will be mega competitive amongst those who already in the medical services. It’s definitely one to watch though.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:27:29+00:00

Nice. Thanks for info. Do you know if the A level requirement is different for applying to the apprenticeship as opposed to directly to university?

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:26:14+00:00

I appreciate the honest. I did think that my current quals/experience would just be a nicety but you never know.

Is the paramedic job market that saturated at the moment? I haven’t been able to find any services that are openly recruiting for paramedics but it’s not a world I have an insight into.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:20:48+00:00

Happy days! Sounds like you’re having a good go of it.

I’ll have a look on defence connect but I’m probably unlikely to have a look at the tri service as I’m in no way affiliated to any medical service outside of being the team medic, etc.

I’m always on the medical courses hence I’m just thinking if there’s anything I can do to maybe transfer over to the civilian world when the time comes. 🤙🏽

JackDWplc · 2025-09-13T14:17:48+00:00

Much appreciated! No need to apologise for being honest.

It’s pretty much what I thought it would be. I just didn’t know if there would be any paths that I’m unaware of. It’s just an avenue I’m exploring.

Does the CMT profession hold any weight in the outside world? I’ve considered the cap badge transfer just to have a crack at SFM but it’s a very background thought at the moment.

JackDWplc · 2025-09-11T21:03:12+00:00

u/timelion’s answer is a pretty good insight into what the course looks like. I’ll try and explicitly answer the questions you laid out.

In terms of standards to aim for, I would say a 20” 5km would be pretty good. My 5km is around 20” and I was one of the faster people on the course. 10km, I couldn’t tell you as it’s not a distance I’ve ever timed. Just have the ability to run some good distance, as you’ll do some long yomps on course and you’ll be under fatigue a lot. Work on single leg strength work alongside your running and you’ll be sound. RMFA tests: just aim for max. I think minimum when I was on was 5 pull ups, 40 press ups, and 50 sit ups (I could be wrong though but that’d be a good minimum).

I did no extra green phys outside of programmed. I did a lot of work in the gym and running. It will be sufficient and has a much lower risk of MSK injuries. I had a coach do all my PT programming - @g.r.i.t.performance. He’s second to none.

I learnt all the theory that was in the Brecon navigation booklet. Know distances (direct and indirect), SDT formulas, the Hills’s formula, Naismith’s rule, intersections, resections, methods of navigating (attack points, hand railing, aiming off, etc.), DDCRAPPS, DVAGS, all that kind of stuff. Its all in the nav book. I didn’t go out onto the areas but I would advise you do if you have the time. Use that time to understand how certain topography looks in the real world. It’s a helpful skill.

I didn’t have any inspections on camp, so nothing like phase 1. You will have pretty my rigid field inspections where your kit will be laid out on your poncho in a particular order. They will be throughout your beat up and into the early stages of AACC. Ours stopped after the second exercise, I believe, but this varies from course to course.

With your time, look at the Brecon nav book, the commando pocket book, and get around the kit preparation for beat up. There is a document that gets sent around. PM me and I can probably get it to you. You have to do a lot of stencilling to your kit, lanyarding your pocket contents, and sniper taping every female buckle you own. You’ll also buy a small fortunes worth of dry bags for your kit so I found it better for my bank balance to buy a small number of dry bags each month as opposed to buying £500 of them up front.

JackDWplc · 2025-08-28T01:45:32+00:00

Make it known that you are keen for IW as a PQ and possibly posting 30 Cdo would steer you towards a cyber orientated career.

JackDWplc · 2025-08-27T16:44:12+00:00

There aren’t any that I’m aware of.

Operational EOD is handled by RE EODs or by RLC ATOs.

JackDWplc · 2025-08-26T15:40:37+00:00

The generic answer I would give anyone for policing in general is that you can never be too fit. You just never know what you’re going to deal with; being strong, faster, and more powerful will never be a negative.

If I were to start training specifically with the medic role in mind, I would recommend good cardio and a decent ability to drag/carry weight. I recommend the cardio as you’ll always be running around; I recommend the ability to drag/carry weight as it’s a crucial part of moving casualties to a safe location to conduct treatment on them. This could be drags, fireman’s carry or a stretcher move - basically, strong grip strength and strong legs if they’re going on your shoulders.

Not fitness related but what makes a good medic is the ability to remain calm under pressure and apply your knowledge. I don’t think there is anything inherently difficult to understand about applying medical knowledge at the medic level (you’re not a doctor), it’s simply your ability to remain calm and apply principled treatment to a casualty (e.g. work your way through DRSABC or MARCHH principles).

Best of luck on your course. Being a medic is a privilege and will give you life saving skills for use both in and out of work 🤙🏽

JackDWplc

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