Military looking for a few good medics ($120,000 bonus)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8143733/

Sirens wailing, Ed Wheat’s ambulance races through the streets of Newark en route to yet another GSW. In Wheat's world, that's shorthand for gun shot wound. Newark is a city so rough that no one but the state government is willing to take responsibility for emergency medical care. Wheat’s crew is often the first on the scene of traumatic accidents, stabbings and gun battles.

This time, the initial report is wrong — not a gun shot victim, just a 300-pound diabetic, former professional boxer whose hypoglycemic state has him flailing at those who have come to his aid. Wheat, a 6’4” 250 pounds former military policeman, is the perfect candidate to step in and subdue the man. With several police and firefighters, he moves in and takes a hard punch in the eye before the man is loaded into the ambulance for treatment.

“It’s like that some days,” Wheat says, showing off a burgeoning shiner. “It can be quiet sometimes, but a lot of times it’s run and gun, and you’re fighting to stay focused on your job, almost robotic, instead of thinking about what could happen around you.”

Coolness under pressure and his experience with gun and knife wounds makes the 34-year-old the perfect candidate for another job, one the Army and Marine Corps are more and more desperate to fill these days. A few months ago, Wheat and several of his colleagues here were approached by a Navy recruiter who promised a “tax-free $120,000 bonus” if they agreed to sign on as medical consultants with a Marine Corps unit in Iraq.

[lebkuchen]

1. Front page of Army Times, 30 May 2005

New Re-Up Rules:

With 2 years left, you can cash in on:

*War zone bonuses
*Duty Stations
*MOS retraining

$150,000 to stay Army
Bonus now open to SF warrant officers

[Sgt. Baker]

2. specialized draft

This reminds me of the specialized draft talk from a year or two ago. Bush and co keep saying no general draft. A specialized draft would allow them to draft just medical personnel. Guess this is their last ditch effort to avoid the specialized draft.

[tedoll78]

3. Scary.

I have a sister who's a nice, young, healthy nurse.. and I'm about to get my radiologic technologist credentials in August.

I dunno what I'd do if the draft were to come. Probably get her outta the country.

[formercia]

4. Smart move

Regardless of what they say about the draft being impartial, you can bet they will go for people with the skills. The bad guys know that if they kill the medic, a lot more will die.

[rainbow4321]

5. I tried to tell my co-workers/nurses

during pre-Black Tuesday about this..with emphasis on the upper age cut off being ***44 years old***. All I got was blank looks in return.
The fine print also says that the only thing that would get a person out of the medical draft would be "total disability".