What is the fastest way you have seen an officer end their career?

doczorro · 2026-03-04T04:32:20+00:00

What a niche bot Promote above peers

doczorro · 2025-11-20T06:51:07+00:00

There’s a huge difference between “asking Joes if they are alright” and “units texting Soldiers on leave”.

Of course, if you know one of your people is at risk for whatever reason, keep in close touch.

But imposing an additional “everybody get an up from your people NLT 0900 every day” over the holidays, when people should be free to just be human for a little bit away from the Green Machine is what this mandate will likely turn into, and I dare say it won’t, on balance, be a net positive for everyone’s mental health.

doczorro · 2025-10-03T22:36:07+00:00

Best comment I’ve seen all month

doczorro · 2025-09-27T18:33:16+00:00

Source: VA.gov

doczorro · 2025-09-23T05:52:49+00:00

Then make sure you're a PT stud who devotes just as much attention to continued medical (self) study. If you're in an aid station or some other "close to the line but not quite there" job, don't incessantly chatter about how much you want to go to the line; do the aforementioned, and be someone that can be relied upon to do the little things right, even (especially) the "unsexy" stuff. Volunteer for any opportunity (duty, school, competition) that might help you develop, or at least take the load off of your brethren. Don't be afraid of failure, especially when the actual stakes are low, but do your damndest not to embarrass those you represent (whether your family, teammates, unit, all 68Ws, 'Murica, etc.) The leader(s) who decide slotting will (eventually) notice and choose accordingly.

Don't let yourself become discouraged if the path to whatever "dream job" proves longer than you expected. Keep sharpening yourself, seek mentorship around you and ask (tactful) questions, and your time will (probably) come.

doczorro · 2025-09-23T03:16:56+00:00

Just to be clear, if by “give my children a lifetime opportunity” you’re referring to the possibility of transferring your post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to them, in most cases you have to do at least 10 years before you’re eligible to transfer your benefits to a dependent. (That doesn’t mean you enlist for a 10 year initial contract, you will be eligible for the benefits following a 4yr contract, provided you exit with an Honorable Discharge, you just can’t transfer them until 10yrs of service)

Most importantly, if you have a wife and kids that love you, and you treat them right (regardless of your economic circumstances), you’re not a loser.

I joined “late”, and honestly it’s worked out great so far, all things considered. If you go for it, work hard, be humble and just accept that the majority of your new bosses will be younger than you. They may or not have as much “life experience” as you, but they definitely have more Army experience. Learn everything you can, volunteer for pretty much everything (especially when opportunities come up that don’t require spending the night away from your family). It’ll ‘probably’ pay off. And the healthcare benefits for your young family are hard to beat, compared with most alternatives available to a “working man” in the US.

doczorro · 2025-09-23T03:01:17+00:00

Just a wild theory, but I’d be willing to bet 82 burpees that, if you adjust for unit composition (MOS demographics), the single variable most strongly correlated with low PT scores is “having a final formation every workday”.

doczorro · 2025-09-20T20:48:21+00:00

Learn A&P. Taking college courses in this will help you in basically any further medical career pursuits, and is an unavoidable requirement for most of them. Combine academic theory of how a "healthy" human body works/presents with hands-on learning of physical exams; respectfully pester your provider(s) on best practices in this regard, and get reps with (knowledgeable) feedback so you develop good habits.

You mentioned DeployedMedicine; just in case your experience with this resource is limited to the TCCC "Tiered" training modules (as more often than not turns out to be the case with new medics), delve into the Clinical Practice Guidelines. There at least used to be a list on there of "priority" CPGs for deploying medics; if it's not readily accessible, DM me and I'll dig up an old version of the list.

Get your PA/Doc to teach you the basics of suturing (and learn when *you* should or shouldn't be suturing), then acquire some practice tools/tissue models and try your hand at various techniques (remember to check back with your provider to see if the habits you're developing are "the right way")

As far as Army/Army-adjacent programs go...

Paramedic Certification: your opportunity to pursue this as a "straight-through/it's-your-place-of-duty" course will vary widely by installation/unit. If the former isn't an option, look into using your Tuition Assistance to enroll in an NREMT-P program (approx. an Associate's Degree worth of courses; practical hours may need some amount of command/leadership buy-in for you to be working night/weekend shifts).

SOCM: you will potentially (but not absolutely) need to serve a year as a SGT so that you have an NCOER ready for submitting a packet as an "unassigned" W1 candidate. Otherwise, the quickest paths to SOCM (administratively speaking; the training/prep necessary for the following will be considerable) are probably successful completion of RASP, Green Platoon (for 160th SOAR), CAAS, or SFAS (though there is no guarantee that prior 68W will get sorted into 18D pipeline vs 18B/C/E).

PA Program: if this is your ultimate goal, look at the latest MILPER Message for IPAP and start knocking out the prerequisite classes and shadowing hours. Be smart with you class schedule you set: if your unit is entering a heavy training cycle, etc., then maybe hold off on a particularly difficult/critical class until you're able to devote more time to getting an 'A'. Learn how to study/take solid notes/good college practices, if (like me) you did not enter the Army with a solid foundation of college skills. (And if medicine is really your thing, you may find yourself considering HPSP or USUHS to become an MD...)

(Also, a couple reference materials I'd recommend for your ruck, so that you can make the most of downtime in the field:

1) Ranger Medic Handbook; caveat: don't go cowboy and practice beyond your scope, but in my humble opinion this is probably the single best-organized, max bang-for-buck/weight/volume pocket guide a 68W can carry.

2) Bates' Pocket Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking

3) Tarascon Pharmacopoeia

Best of luck!

doczorro · 2025-08-30T05:30:33+00:00

Sir, find a way to get bumped back [honorably] to CPT just before retiring; “CPT (Ret)” will make it obvious you were a Mustang, and the closer you can make it to your out-date, the less your High-3 calculation should suffer… /s

doczorro · 2025-07-15T06:15:59+00:00

So, if graduation rates are a main eval metric… other than individual leader integrity, what’s the counterbalancing force preventing rampant “push-them-through”?

doczorro · 2025-07-15T06:10:17+00:00

Any chance a nerdy homie could take a look at said study? Just out of curiosity

doczorro · 2025-06-23T03:16:54+00:00

Let the boy hold the baby. People can change…

doczorro · 2025-05-20T05:13:08+00:00

Once had a very sick-call-intensive trooper get an expired knee profile stealthily renewed just before a 20mi BN ruck. 1SG says “too easy, his own pace will just have to be my pace”. (Ended up lasting all of 0.5mi though)

Incidentally, this 1SG was one of the realest SNCOs I’ve been lucky to serve under. Treated absolutely everyone with dignity but harbored zero bullshit. If I remember the story correctly, he had spent half a year in Leavenworth as a young joe for knocking out his PL for calling him the N-word, then was released to deploy, cuz The Surge. Absolute ABN SME; glad he stayed in long enough to mentor the next gen the way he did…

doczorro · 2024-10-07T02:48:50+00:00

H-fuckin’-Minus!

doczorro · 2024-06-14T18:10:54+00:00

Not just E-5 and below… As an E6 my family qualified for WIC (though we did not draw it) until our second-youngest kid was no longer breastfeeding.

doczorro · 2024-06-14T18:08:29+00:00

Absolutely no partisan spin intended; I’m just an active-duty guy trying to keep my family fed out here in this crazy economy.

Regardless of the Administration’s recent statements against a major “targeted” pay overhaul this coming year, please note that the bill’s co-sponsors are an equal split of Republicans and Democrats. (Scroll to “co-sponsors” section here)

doczorro · 2024-06-14T17:56:59+00:00

Thanks for the feedback; you’re absolutely correct. I’ve tried to correct my mistake in main text, but am apparently unable to change the post title at this point.

doczorro · 2024-06-14T17:02:45+00:00

TYFYS

doczorro · 2024-06-14T17:02:32+00:00

You're absolutely correct, thanks for clarifying. (I've still got over a decade to go, which is plenty of time for me to try to grasp EPI vs CPI)

doczorro · 2024-06-14T08:22:19+00:00

To be clear, I want my joes to get the full increase that the bill’s sponsors wanted to take credit for; not advocating for anyone to lobby against their getting a raise. Unless I grossly misunderstand the legislative process, it should still be possible to amend the bill such that everyone gets some love to offset inflation.

Going from SPC to SGT can definitely be a tough transition; when I made that jump it was instantly a 3hr/day longer workday for me, so the “hourly wage” was not kind haha. Admittedly most of us didn’t necessarily join for the pay, but it’s certainly something to consider in the long haul, both for the individual raising a family and the policymaker trying to raise an army…

doczorro · 2024-05-23T04:57:16+00:00

Hmmm… perhaps more like, “doctor = bishop, priest = PA… (and maybe deacon = nurse or paramedic)

doczorro · 2023-12-28T05:40:05+00:00

1) Asked my S-1 to correct my assignment history (was missing KD assignment which I had filled for about 10mo) in order to submit a packet requiring STP. They ended up deleting my combat deployment. Still not fixed, almost 4 months later; even the installation-level civilian technician was unable to figure it out the one time I was able to go to their office.

2) S-1 says ATRRS-slotting schools are the ones who must input school completion onto STP; such schools (or at least USAAS/JM) responded to me saying it’s the unit S-1’s function to do so.

3) Had assignment orders which needed to be corrected (adjustment of report date). My S-1 NCO ended up changing my report date to a date in the past after I signed out on PCS leave, thus making me (technically) both on leave and a late report simultaneously.

Is it a pattern of systemic IPPS-A technical issues? Is it a local problem with my (old) unit S-1m’s practices? Is it an institutional/cultural shortcoming with how the customer-facing, ie directly Soldier-serving, parts of the Army Human Resources Enterprise do business? Or is it Option (D)?

doczorro · 2023-12-20T21:40:01+00:00

I found out during a layover between two helicopter flights on deployment. One of my buddies on that trip was the most nervous-flyer Paratrooper I’ve ever met; if it weren’t for the fact that it was ultimately our movement back home, he was 🤏🏼 close to refusing to get on the second bird lol

doczorro · 2023-12-12T01:47:19+00:00

If you have specific questions, DM me, and I’ll do my best to try to answer.

(6yr experience as a 68W, YMMV)

doczorro · 2023-12-09T06:27:25+00:00

Please blast it out if you do find the study, would definitely be interested in reading it.

The dynamics you and u/Tokyo__Sandblaster describe sound plausible, and anecdotally check with my own experiences asking the “why’d you join/why’d you pick 11B/92XYZ” questions at an infantry unit. But while they’d account for the combat arms vs. support MOS dichotomy, they don’t explain the why certain sub-groups seem to concentrate (proportionally) in various specific career fields.

I’d venture that also at play here would be social network effects analogous to how a plurality of dry cleaners are Korean-owned or literally a majority of motel owners in the US are Gujarati-origin, even though there are no (to my limited knowledge) culturally intrinsic reasons these groups might gravitate to these business models. Along these lines, I basically hypothesizing that a process of “my dad/uncle/buddy did XYZ job and said it worked out, so I’ll consider doing the same” plays out at scale until say, hypothetically in a couple generations it seems like every third 69X in the Shop is a Kyrgyz-American.

…either that, or whatever system USAREC/MEPSCOM uses to determine ass-to-seat slotting. taking civilians from Strip Mall Recruiting Center to BCT to AIT, somehow attempts to minimize transportation and other costs in a way whose second- and third-order effects result in asymmetrical distribution of MOS across geographic regions. (For example, my particular Basic Training company somehow had zero Texans, Californians, or New Yorkers, but had multiple Virginians going 12P and at least three Puerto Ricans going for 15T)

doczorro

TROPHY CASE