moving to EOD

[BronkoRob]

well i just finished another deployment with my marines as a line platoon corpsmen and the division is telling me its time to move on, and im up for orders. so im putting together an EOD package. im going to start it tomorrow with the CCC. whats was the biggest burden you all faced when putting this together? about how many months from the time the package in to the class start date these days? or are the classes back filled for months and months? sorry if these are annoying newbie questions, but they are ones i couldnt find an answer to from my command. thanks for any help or advice.

[sniperp]

It took me about a year to get the package together and sent in but i was part of a pre-com so the command was really busy with that and couldn't put time into helping me with my package. Get a hold of Master Chief Treible, scott.treible@navy.mil, he helped me out a lot with putting my package together and he can guide you in the right direction with everything. My biggest burden i ran into was running the request chits through my command. i had to run a chit just to begin the screening then run the actual package through the command and both times i had to run it through several times because of small little things. Shoot me an email at contopm@lpd19.navy.mil or sniperp_99@hotmail.com (use the hotmail one for now since im home on leave right now) and I'll answer any questions you have about putting the package together as best as i can.

[gator28]

sniper gave you a lot of good info in his post. Treible did my package a couple of years ago (wow, i can't believe it's been that long). I don't have any idea about how full classes are, but I'm sure they're even bigger than when I went through. It took me about 9 months between starting my package and leaving for dive prep from my ship. Make sure you know everything you need for the package. My CCC knew absolutely nothing about putting an EOD package together and who to mail it to and all of that. Good luck. Just curious, but why do you want to leave the HM rate to go EOD. Not judging or anything, but I always looked at docs as having so many opportunities to go to different units (DMT, Recon, FMF, etc). Why do you want to come over here? I love it, but I was never a HM and I always thougt being a doc over on green side would be pretty rewarding. Good luck with everything. It's a long road. I just finished EOD tac training and started school in Jan of 07. Keep focused. It's a great ride. Take care.

Gator

[sniperp]

hey gator whats been going on. How was jump and tac training, what unit are you at now. Hoping to hear back this week about my package and shooting for December start, my command wont let me go till Nov.

[BronkoRob]

me moving to EOD is because im looking for the next challange and good career move. ive done 2 deployments with this battalion, they wont let me extend for a third. ive done all the tactical med classes they offer to 8404s and if i ever go back to a grunt battalion i would most likely be in the BAS because of the experiance. its a very rewarding job and i love it, i also like the idea of wokring and deploying in a very tight communitiy. there were just a few things i didnt like about the HM 8404 (FMF) community, mostly from big navy. like even though we do exactly what the marines do and are a very imprtant part we dont get the benifits that the marines get. dont get me wrong the working in a grunt battalion was the time of my life just i want to keep being a shooter and keep up the high speed training. so the only option was to go recon or special programs like SEALs or EOD, but even as a recon doc you will never be a team leader or any type of key leader.

[jgl1974]

I may double check on the recon doc not being a team leader thing. My (very limited understanding) is they have served as a TL and ATL. I advise checking on the MARSOC side and running that through them as well. Best to you and thank you for your service.

[sniperp]

Hey Bronko any news on your package. just trying to get a feel of people going and maybe getting to see some of you guys in person at school.

[gator28]

sniper,
sorry it took so long to respond. tac training was pretty good. jump school is an experience that is impossible to describe in words. you have to experience benning to understand it. i've checked in to MU3 and am already with my platoon doing some MCM training at the training unit. I owe cases already, but things are going pretty well. I have two other guys on my platoon from my class. i haven't been to the mobile unit yet except to check in. good luck. take care

gator

[BronkoRob]

my package is going along pretty well so far. not too many things left. i have no idea when my command will release me for it. probably wait til my pcs date i guess. as for the marsoc, i already looked into it. corpsmen in marsoc are 8427 sarc corpsmen. the only way to get that nec is to go threw the recon pipeline. as far as i have been told the only corpsmen going there (who dont get special favors) are from the recon battalions. there is no garantee at the end of the pipeline i goto marsoc. i could get stuck with regular recon for who knows how long. not that thats a bad things its not what i want to do. ive worked with them and seen them in action, i still would rather do eod. otherwise if i had the for sure chance to goto marsoc i would but the chances are very slim to go threw the pipeline and pick it straight up, considering the caliber of people over there im sure they take the experianced operators over the brand new guys for marsoc. with eod i know at the end of the pipeline im still going to be an eod operator. after the end of all the hard work i dont want to be hoping and disappointed of not getting it.