Post by Stretch on Jul 10, 2007 1:19:29 GMT -5
Poolee said:
I have recently signed up for the Marine Corps and am unsure of everything at the moment. I want to be a Marine more than anything, simply because they (you guys) are the best. I also want to be an EMT-Paramedic. Because the Marine Corps does not have a specific medical field I am torn. How is the AFFR personell exactly trained and what qualifications do they obtain (Paramedic, firefighter, ect) and do they qualify one in such a way that one can work on the outside world as a licensed Paramedic/Firefighter without going back to school.We have had many names over the years: Crash Crew, Crash Fire and Rescue, and Aircraft Fire Fighting and Rescue. Several years ago, the name was changed to reflect the priority of Rescue over Firefighting: Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting. I call it Crash Crew, because I’m a dinosaur. (But I’m a meat-eating dinosaur.)
Your Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) career starts once you graduate Boot Camp and MCT, and attend the USMC ARFF school. It is located at the Garland Fire Academy at Goodfellow Air Force base in San Angelo, Texas. www.goodfellow.af.mil The school lasts 16 weeks (or so) and once completed, graduates have National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Certifications in Firefighter 1 and 2, Airport Firefighter, Hazardous Materials Responder (Operations Level), and (Emergency Medical Service) First Responder. The graduate with the highest academic average may receive a meritorious promotion up to LCpl.
Once you've arrived at your permanent duty station, it is possible to attend the classes and obtain EMT certification, but that is at the discretion of your Officer and Non-Commissioned Officers-In-Charge. Very few Crash Crew Marines are actually sent to EMT school, so the slots are very competitive.
Active Duty Marines may be sent to California, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Hawaii, Virginia, Japan, Okinawa, or other overseas bases as international conditions dictate.
Many of these Marine Corps Air Stations sponsor Reserve ARFF units, and there are some USMC Reserve ARFF units at other bases across the nation, but I don’t know where they all are.
Your training will continue at your duty station, as you become familiar with the crash trucks, aircraft and airfield. Warplanes can be terribly dangerous. They can be loaded with thousands of gallons of jet fuel, thousands of rounds of ammunition, bombs, rockets, chaff, and flares. A moment’s inattention to business can kill you and your crew.
ARFF crews (four Marines to a truck) are sent out to the airfield for two-hour shifts, waiting for some poor schmuck to auger his plane into the ground. The alert crew, called ‘Hotspot’, will save a couple of minutes off the response time, as they’re already in the truck and next to the runway. Airfields generally open at 0600, and close at 2100. That makes for a long day. While the other Marines on base work a regular 8-hour shift, you’ll still be working.
Hotspot crews rotate, as a rule, every two hours. Inboard crews spend their time in classes, maintaining equipment and the grounds, and other chores. Sometimes the work is merely ‘busy work’, chores assigned to keep everyone busy, instead of simply sitting around. Beware.
You’ll be allowed to go to the base chow hall in shifts, so you’ll still get three squares a day.
Whatever you’re doing, you drop it when the Crash Crew receives an emergency call. A radio call and a siren or air horn alerts the crews, who then rush to their trucks, dress in their turnout gear, and drive out to the edge of the runway to meet the Emergency Aircraft.
If the Emergency was declared after the aircraft landed, the control tower usually gives Crash Crew clearance onto the runway, and we render whatever assistance is required.
Usually, the Emergency is a mechanical failure in the aircraft, and the pilot(s) are able to get the aircraft back to the airfield and land without incident.
Sometimes, however, the aircraft crashes and good men violently die. Mentally prepare yourself for this possibility.
Crash Crews can run their work schedules pretty much any way they please, but most work a 24 hour on, 24 hour off work rotation, using two shifts, or sections. I did work at one Crash Crew that had a Day section, Night Section rotation, but that was during the first Iraq war, and is unusual.
I had many friends who made a career of USMC Crash Crew, one even becoming a Chief Warrant Officer, in charge of his own Crash Crew at Cherry Point, NC. Others of us did one enlistment, and went on our merry way. I know several (including myself) who have used their experience in Crash Crew and the Marine Corps to get good jobs as civilian Firefighters.
Like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. Moping around with your hands in your pockets because you don’t like your NCOs, your job, or duty station is a quick way to let yourself slide into a pissy attitude.
Stay positive and remember that what we do is REAL. While the Infantry guys are the backbone of the Corps, they do what they’re trained for only in times of war. Crash Crew is on the job in peacetime AND in war, putting our butts on the line to save the lives of our fellow Marines.
And finally, no Fire Department is going to just let you walk on without going through their rookie school. It simply doesn't work that way. In my 22 years in the Fire Service, I've never even heard of somebody being hired without completing the full gambit of classes mandated by that State's Fire Academy and Standards and Training Council. National Certifications look nice on paper, but in the real world, where we don't know you from Adam's housecat, you're going to have to be trained and oriented in the ways your individual Department does business. Sorry.
If you have any question about the Marine Corps (that do not relate to Crash Crew), you can get good information from Active Duty Marines, some of whom have just completed Boot Camp and MCT, on Military.com's Marine Wannabe Forum...
forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/9071945704
Online articles about USMC Crash Crews in Iraq:
dogtrack.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1117837418
dogtrack.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1113529136