 Well, the reason that I joined the Air Force was honestly I was just really bored with my civilian life I had just graduated from college and I was eager to get into the next chapter of my life But I didn't know where that would be and I actually turned 27 while in boot camp. I Just completed eight years time in service and I am a staff sergeant My AFC is for Alpha zero X one that is health services management And I'm currently on a special duty as a patient movement controller for TPM RCE Actually, neither I came into the Air Force as a tack P and actually was medically eliminated from the course and other Battlefield airman jobs when that happens sometimes they grant you the opportunity to reclass so they have you fill out a dream sheet And it just so happens that I was reclass from that into the for a career fields and actually the majority of the male Four a's ended up in the career field the same way that I did Absolutely not the last thing that I wanted to do was end up behind a desk in the military But once I got to my first duty station, I was actually put into the readiness flight as a unit deployment manager I had a great supervisor my position in the unit was really great And I got a real understanding for everything that we do to support the people downrange and I was actually really good at my job Well, like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to be tack P and whenever they have you fill out that dream sheet for a reclass One of the jobs that I put down was combat photographer. I also was interested in public affairs I just wanted to be as far forward to the battlefield as I could Actually signed up for six years That was a requirement to get the enlistment and bonus that was offered in the tack P career field When I was reclass I actually lost that but I'm glad that I did sign up for six years because it worked out for me in different ways Tech school for the for a career field is actually at Fort St. Houston in San Antonio, Texas It's actually pretty quick all of the Air Force medical tech schools are actually located at Fort St Houston and in comparison to them You're in and out and they actually call you a pop tart because you get there and in about 30 days later Most of the people take off now for me. I got there during the holidays So I took part in what is called as exodus That's actually where you leave the squad room for the holidays go home and then come back If you actually are there during that time I recommend that you go ahead and take leave go home because if not You're just gonna be doing details till everyone comes back and classes start again No, absolutely not I hated it 27 year old man sleeping in a twin bed I was over it pretty quick. The great thing is the facilities are all brand new. They're very very nice Their state of the art for most people they didn't probably didn't mind it that much But I was just over it after bootcamp. I actually got there with my face to already completed So that meant that I got to leave the squadron on the weekend So come Friday after we release I would leave and I'm from Texas So I had a lot of friends in San Antonio So I just stayed with them until Sunday night when you're required to be back at dorms So that was the saving grace for me was being able to leave on the weekends Actually everywhere you can get assigned to not only the Air Force bases But all of the other US military bases as well You can actually get assigned to embassies and anywhere that has a medical detachment wanting to travel the world Medical is the way to go Now the for a career field is actually very broad So what I'm gonna do first is talk about the traditional roles in the clinic And then I'm actually gonna discuss a little bit about what I do right now at my special duty Now a for a can find themselves anywhere in the clinic That's why I describe them as the Walmart of the medical support staff You can find a for a over in CSS the command support staff You can actually find them over in referrals systems readiness Records flight medicine or the front desk now currently. I am a PMC that stands for patient movement controller I am part of a geographically separated unit or a GSU the unit that I'm attached to here at Ramstein is TP M R C E that stands for transcom patient movement requirement center east I know it's a lot of acronyms We're actually tri-service which means that we have Navy Army and Air Force personnel our home unit is Scott Air Force base Back in the States, and that's transcom now TP M R C E has three areas of responsibility That means that we cover all patient movement for you come Africa and st. Com so if a military member or DOD civilian becomes ill or injured in any of those areas We actually are responsible for their patient movement, which covers about 80% of the global patient movement So as a PMC my primary job is to review all patient movement requests So I ensure that all of the admin information in there is correct, and it's validated now TP M R C E works with multiple Organizations to coordinate the aircraft that is used the team that is deployed and the areas or hospitals that these patients are Going to be picked up at and delivered to Now the traditional schedule for a 4a is just like a civilian clinic. That's Monday through Friday 7 to 5 now my current unit We're on what is known as a Panama schedule, which is 24-hour operations Roughly a 12 to 13 hour shift. Now the great thing is you only work about 15 days out of the month, which means that you work two days You're off three then you work three days, and you're off two Now like I mentioned before the for a career field is actually very broad But you can get special codes attached to your AFSC which allow you to remain in a specific shop for the majority of your for a career field now. These are known as SEI codes or special experience Identifiers two shops specifically that I have SEI codes in is systems and readiness Now in order to get these codes you have to get additional Certifications and training for instance in systems since it is on a different network than the base Systems personnel have to get the same certifications at the base com personnel have to So if you really like computers and system and networking that is one option that you can do now each of those actually Transition into the civilian world wonderfully, and you can line yourself up with a job before you even get out Now the deployment tempo for a for a is just like the rest of the medical personnel But deploying as a for a is actually very very rare if you were to deploy as a for a you would be deployed as Part of a pad team or patient administration team. Those are usually located at the larger hospitals Over in the AOR now traditionally a for a is actually going to deploy more often as a TCN escort A TCN escort is actually a third country national And those are personnel that are hired by the military In a different country to perform certain duties and your job would be to superify those those personnel At the very least that would be your job. Now a more common deployment for a for a is for humanitarian purposes Such as going to a certain location because of a natural disaster, but deploying as a for a that's actually pretty uncommon nowadays Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm still really just playing it by ear there's a lot of things that I want to do before I hang up my dog tags and Every year that I complete is closer to that 20 year mark and those benefits start to look really tempting So at this point in time the jury's still out. I don't know Now my ultimate goal is to commission now originally I wanted to commission into the medical services core or MSC Which is actually our officer counterpart, but that has a time-in-service cutoff that I already broke So unfortunately unless that changes I'm still gonna go with just going kind of open general on the officer side Now my advice for a person that wants this job coming into the Air Force is if you want this job or any job In the Air Force pursue that don't allow yourself to be pressured by the recruiter by anyone else If you want a specific job stick to your guns and go after that job They may tell you is like oh, but you can leave earlier or you're gonna have to wait Longer for this job do whatever it takes to make sure that you get that job Now you may be in a time crunch kind of like I was and at that point If you have to go in and get a job that you weren't passionate about or wanted in general Wait till you have your cross-training window and go ahead and at that point apply for that job But not all jobs allow you to cross-train So before you take any job make sure that you have that possibility available to you now My advice to you to be successful in the military is to be patient and to keep a positive attitude That's gonna be very important and it's gonna go a long way in your military career Now all military jobs in the end are still just jobs So that means that they're probably gonna become monotonous at some point in time Commit yourself to a process improvement give yourself a personal and a professional goal and your motivation to succeed and achieve those things We'll find its way into the rest of your career and the rest of your life Well guys, I want to thank you for this opportunity to talk to you about a little bit about my career field and what I do on a Daily basis you guys can find me on multiple social media platforms But the quickest and most efficient way to find me would be go to Facebook Look up wild at heart association and when you see the white star, you know, you found the right spot Now that'll connect you to Instagram that'll connect you to YouTube Twitter all the other social media platforms that we're on Thank you guys for this opportunity and you guys have a great day