AF Reserve Flight Nursing

[XLR99]

Hi all! First post here, but I've been lurking for awhile and gathering info. I haven't seen a ton of recent threads on flight, so I'll start a new one.

I've been playing phone tag and trying to track down the correct HC Recruiter for my area. Hopefully I can get the initial interview with the recruiter going in the very near future, but from what I've seen, I'm looking at 2012 before the process is complete.

I'm about to turn 41 , have a pretty varied nursing background including remote history with an air/ground critical care team as an EMT. I've done everything from NICU to adults, organ donation, worked in an OR, and currently work in IT, so I'm pretty adaptable. I've spent quite a bit of time talking with my family regarding AES time commitments, especially the first year, how to handle deployments, etc.

I'm working on getting back in shape and have gotten to the point where I'm above the PT minimums for my age group-dropped ~ 10lb so far over 6 months, but I've also replaced some fat with muscle. By the time COT rolls around I'll be in far better shape

I feel like I have a bit of an idea of the process from reading on here:

-Interviews-I assume initially with the recruiter, later with the AES commander - any other steps in this process?

-MEPS

-COT

-SERE

-Water evac school - haven't seen much info on this

-Flight school

Anyone currently working with an AES who can fill in the gaps or provide any other advice? Looking forward to getting the ball rolling on the selection process now! Also, if anyone's on here from the 445th, that's the unit I'm looking at.

[XLR99]

Hey Larry V - I can't respond to PMs yet - can you PM me your email address please?

Thanks! Andy

[rghbsn, BSN, RN]

i feel like i have a bit of an idea of the process from reading on here:

-interviews-i assume initially with the recruiter, later with the aes commander - any other steps in this process?

that's pretty much it. if you get hired by the commander, you should be good. the recruiter shouldn't even bring you to meet the commander until he knows you have a good chance to pass the flight physical.

-meps

this may be where you get a physical...depends how close you are to the reserve unit. sometimes your initial physical will be through them. or it was for me, but i am prior service and have already done the meps thing.

-cot

this is technically true, but reality is that you will be attending drill weekends for a little while before you get cot dates. that's just the way it is. if you feel like you must attend rcot (2 wk version for reservists) then there are fewer dates and they fill up quicker. if you have no prior service, i recommend the full cot experience. i enjoyed it, and i had 13 weeks at parris island.

-sere

you have to go here and to water survival before you can be a flight nurse, but you don't neccessarily have to go to sere/water survival before flight school. they can be done in any order. there are generally water survival dates preceding and following sere dates so that you can "bundle" your trip to fairchild, wa and knock them both out.

-water evac school - haven't seen much info on this

see above, lol

-flight school

don't know exactly how this is going to play out in the new school house...but down at san antonio, it was a blast. i got to go durring the summer, so we had some down time that allowed for some fun with classmates. you will be crossing paths with these folks for the rest of your career, so make friends! it's an awesome experience that just scratches the surface.

anyone currently working with an aes who can fill in the gaps or provide any other advice?

there is another school these days after flight school, called the ftu (formal training unit). it essentially takes you from a basic flyer (flight school graduate) to a fully qualified flyer (check ride, air time, testing, the whole nine yards). it is located at pope afb (pope aaf soon) and is about a month long. depending on your unit, you may still have another month of training when you get back from all this so that they can evaluate you themselves and see what they think you're ready to handle. in theory, you should be deployable upon returning from the ftu and spending a week or so at home station.

looking forward to getting the ball rolling on the selection process now! also, if anyone's on here from the 445th, that's the unit i'm looking at.

hope some of those answers help you out. larry v is a new nurse in my unit, if he can't answer your questions, shoot me an im when you can or post back here. good luck, my friend!

robert

[XLR99]

Thank you very much Robert! Larry V also hit me up with a great overview of what to expect training-wise. I'll report back after I get with the recruiter this week-the one whose name I was given seems a bit elusive; part of the game...

[LuluB]

Thanks for the question and info..I've been waiting for 20 months for the whole process !! I've finally got a date to report for in processing in sept in SA!! I'm so anxious and excited!! So about how long is the wait for RCOT? I decided to start another job and of course I have no idea when all the training will begin so I don't even know what to say to them...

Good luck XLR99 on this process I hope it goes smooth & fast.

Thanks RGHBSN for the info !

:)