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Deployment Gear Lists
The gear you need for a deployment will obviously depend on the type of deployment, but every time I deploy I take a look at the gear lists I have to see what I might need to bring that I’m forgetting. Some of the gear lists and deployment checklists I have are old and I don’t even know who created them, but I wanted to post them so people could use them if they so desired. Here they are:
CDR Temerlin’s Gear Organization
Recommended Blackhawk Stomp II Load
Thanks to Steve Temerlin and whoever else created these, and if you have any gear/deployment lists you’d like to share just use the Contact Me tab and you’ll then be able to send them to me over e-mail once I reply.
Types of Deployments
This post will help you learn all that you can about deployments. Personally, I’ve done three deployments, one as a GMO during the initial invasion of Iraq, and two after residency. In 2010 I deployed with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit or MEU and earlier this year I deployed to GTMO. In addition, as both a Detailer and Emergency Medicine Specialty Leader I’ve deployed a number of physicians, so I’m pretty familiar with all the details of the current deployment situation.
In the current operational environment, there are a few types of deployments. They include platform-based deployments, individual augmentee or IA deployments, global support agreement or GSA deployments, and what I’ll call parent unit deployments.
Let’s deal with the last one first because it is the easiest to explain. For what I’ll call a parent unit deployment, you deploy when your parent unit deploys. For example, if you are assigned to the Marine Corps with a MEU, when that MEU deploys so do you. You go with the unit you are primarily assigned to. The same could be said for a medical battalion, a Preventive Medicine Unit, and many other units.
A platform-based deployment happens to people who are stationed at military treatment facilities or MTFs. Some people who are primarily stationed at MTFs are assigned to what is called a “platform.” A platform is an operational unit of some kind. It could be the Mercy or Comfort, a Marine Corps unit, an Expeditionary Medical Facility, a fleet hospital, etc. In essence, it is an operational unit who “owns” you if they get activated or deployed. In other words, if your platform is a medical battalion and that medical battalion gets deployed, you would go with them because it is your platform. If they don’t get deployed, you may never have to do anything for or with your platform. On the other hand, if your platform regularly drills or does exercises, since it is your platform you may have to participate in these drills and get pulled away from your primary duties at your hospital or MTF.
How is it decided whether you get placed on a platform, and if so which one? The main determinant is most likely which billet you get orders into. Some billets at MTFs have secondary assignments to platforms. For example, the billet I am in at NMC Portsmouth is “mobilized to” or “MOB’ed to” an Expeditionary Medical Facility. That is my platform. To be honest, sometimes commands will rearrange platforms, so it is not always determined by the billet you are in. If you want to know if you are on a platform, you will have to go to your command’s Plans, Operations, Medical Intelligence or POMI officer. They are the ones who manage platforms and can tell you if you are on one.
Platform based deployments are the wave of the future in Navy Medicine, and you can expect an increased focus on platforms, platforms training, and deployments as a platform.
An individual augmentee or IA deployment is when a request in placed by an operational unit somewhere for an individual person, you are selected to fill that requirement, and you individually augment that unit. When they deploy, you deploy with them as an IA but stay attached administratively to your parent command. In other words, if you are at NMC Portsmouth but deploy as an IA, you stay attached to NMC Portsmouth the entire time you are deployed. This is the type of deployment most of us have experienced for the majority of our career, but the Navy is trying to get out of the “IA business” and is shifting, as already mentioned, to platforms.
The final type of deployment is a global support assignment or GSA. With this type, you detach from your current command, move or execute a permanent change of station or PCS to a processing center that becomes your new military command, and then you are given orders to deploy. For example, my last deployment was a GSA. I detached from BUPERS, my old command, PCS’ed to my new command, the processing center in Norfolk, and then was given deployment orders to go to my unit in GTMO. During this time my parent command was Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center or ECRC, the processing center, and they were primarily responsible for my fitreps and pay issues.
The unique part of a GSA deployment is that pretty much as soon as you report to the processing center you have to contact your Detailer and Specialty Leader to get orders to your next command. The GSA orders usually only last up to a year, and you’ll need orders so you can PCS to your next command when you get back from the deployment. This is the major downside that people complain about with a GSA…the fact that you get PCS orders and have to leave your old command, which people may not want to do. On the other hand, it can be a major benefit. If you are stationed somewhere you don’t want to be, volunteering for a GSA can get you out of there because you’ll PCS away. In addition, because you are volunteering or accepting a deployment, it may give you some leverage with the Detailer or Specialty Leader. For example, you could say, “I’ll deploy on this GSA, but only if you are willing to write me orders to Hawaii as follow-on orders.” That may not always work, but it is worth a try.
Those are the major types of deployments that currently exist, and here are some additional resources:
IA and GSA Frequently Asked Questions
NAVADMIN 332-10 – IA Manpower Management Business Rules
Call for Nominees for 2017 MHS Female Physician Leadership Course
BLUF: Seeking Navy Medicine nominations for the 2017 MHS Female Leadership Course
NOMINATION DUE DATE: 19 DEC 2016, 0730 EST (e-mail POC details contained in this document)
COURSE DATES: 27-29 MAR 2016 at Defense Health Headquarters (DHHQ) in Falls Church, VA
FUNDING SOURCE: Attendee’s assigned command (BUMED does not fund)
COMPLETE APPLICATION INCLUDES:
- MHS Female Physician Leadership Course Nomination Form
- Attestation Letter
- Nominee’s Personal Statement
- Nominee’s CV
- CO endorsement letter
Point of Contact: POC information is in this document
Navy Medicine,
On behalf of the Navy Medical Corps Chief’s Office and the Council for Female Physician Recruitment and Retention, we are AGAIN excited to offer this opportunity to your rising Navy Physician Female Leaders. The MHS Female Physician Leadership Course is offered to 100 service women across the Military Health System. Please share this information widely.
100 Attendees will be competitively selected from across the Military Health System and there will be 30 seats available to female Navy Medicine physicians. Attendees (and ranked alternates) will be selected by the Medical Corps Chief’s Office. Please review attached nomination form, course details, and attendee criteria. A complete nomination packet is due by the start of business (0730 EST) 19 DEC 2016.
The course is open to all LCDRs (including selects) and CDRs with < 2 years in grade. Residents, civilians, and Reservists are also eligible. Nominees may be self-nominated or nominated by any peer or colleague, however, all will require their Commanding Officer’s endorsement.
This is a leadership development course and simply having the potential for leadership is reason enough to consider nomination. Simply represent your nominee enthusiastically, and let the selection committee make the final decision. Please see nomination form for further guidance.
For nominees unable to attain a CO endorsement, an endorsement letter must be signed by the approval authority for travel/funding.
All of My Fitrep Writing Resources
Someone recently sent me a blog comment asking for more resources to use when writing their fitness reports. Here is one blog post that has everything in it that I’ve created so far:
BASIC ANATOMY OF A FITREP
This video lecture has been watched 690 times in less than a year and a half:
BLOG POSTS
How to Find Out Your Reporting Senior’s Fitrep Trait Average
LCDR Fitreps – Language for Writing Your Block 41
Tips to Improve Your Concurrent FITREP
The Top 5 Critical FITREP Mistakes
USEFUL DOCUMENTS
NAVFIT98 Block 41 Word Spacing Template – I didn’t create this one, but it is very useful. Thanks to whoever did!
Fitrep Instruction – BUPERSINST 1610.10D – Navy Performance Evaluation System
The New Blended Retirement System
There has been a lot of recent activity surrounding the new Blended Retirement System (BRS), and I don’t intend to reinvent the wheel and explain the whole system to you when there are some nice resources that already exist:
Military OneSource BRS Frequently Asked Questions
What I intend to do is give you a bottom line recommendation if you have a choice about using the current retirement system or going with the BRS.
If you know you are going to resign before you are eligible for retirement, you should select the BRS. Under the current system, you would get no retirement benefit, so that is a no-brainer.
If you are not sure how long you are going to stay in the Navy, you’ll have a tough decision to make. I’d read the above resources but also check out this article that discusses how flawed the BRS is:
New Military Retirement System Has Major Flaw
If you know you are going to stick around long enough to be eligible for retirement, my personal opinion is that you should choose to stay with the current retirement system. There are a few reasons for this:
- The BRS shifts risk from the government to you. We buy insurance when there is a risk that we can’t bear ourselves. People buy health insurance because a huge hospital bill could financially ruin them. We buy life and disability insurance because if a breadwinner died or was disabled in our household we wouldn’t have enough money to continue our desired lifestyle. The current government pension system is like retirement insurance. When it comes to retirement, the largest financial risk you run is that you outlive your financial assets. Social security insures against that, but so does your military pension, which regular readers know I highly value. Although the BRS has a pension as well, it is reduced, shifting more of this risk to you.
- Shifting risk to yourself is fine if you invest diligently and aggressively and the market earns a decent return. The problem is that most people don’t invest diligently or aggressively and no one knows what the market return will be over the next 10, 20, or 30 years. There are many people who lack the financial education they need (go here or here to get it) and invest in the Thrift Savings Plan but keep their money in the default option when you sign up, the G Fund. There is nothing wrong with the G Fund and I have some of my own retirement assets invested in it, but it is not designed to earn a high return. It is designed to not lose money and beat inflation. In order to benefit from the extra TSP money that comes with the BRS, you have to earn a high return and will need to be smart enough to invest in something more aggressive than the G Fund.
- If you control your spending, live in a reasonable house, and drive a reasonable car, you can enjoy the higher pension of the old retirement system and fill up your TSP every year, enjoying the benefit of both worlds. We have routinely saved 30% of our pre-tax income for retirement during nearly our entire Navy career, invested aggressively, and reaped the benefits. And I have a retirement pension on top of that?!?! It doesn’t get any better than that.
Detailing for Officers with High School Seniors
A Distribution Guidance Memorandum or DGM is an internal Navy Personnel Command document that guides Detailing. Although most of the time this is not an issue in the Medical Corps if you have a reasonable Specialty Leader and Detailer, if you ever run into trouble getting what you need for your family/career and you have a high school senior, it might be worth it to peruse this new detailing guidance:
Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences Position at USUHS – CAPT/CAPT(s) Only
If you are interested in this position, contact your Specialty Leader or Detailer. The announcement is here. It would need to be filled in early to mid-2017:
Directly supervises 360 junior officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service. Coordinates the School of Medicine’s curriculum and educational programs in the third and fourth years, monitors academic performance in the third- and fourth-year students, and assists fourth-year students in their preparation for Graduate Medical Education applications and selection. Responsible for the School of Medicine’s academic standard in the clinical sciences, as well as personal and professional growth and development of individual students throughout their third and fourth years. Serves on standing committees that directly affect students, to include the Curriculum Committee, Student Promotions Committee, and Board on Review for Interservice Transfers.
March 2017 Naval Postgraduate School Executive MBA Distance Learning Program
Here are a PDF and link to the NAVADMIN:
March 2017 NPS E-MBA Program NAVADMIN
This is how I got my MBA, so I can answer detailed questions about the program. If you’re interested, use the contact me tab to get in touch with me.
Application to Join Surgeon General’s Digital Vanguard Team – O4 and Below Only
Here is a message from the Navy Surgeon General announcing this new techology initiative. The application can be found here – Digital Vanguard Application Package.
From: Faison, C Forrest (Forrest) VADM USN BUMED FCH VA (US)
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 3:28 PM
Subject: DIGITAL VANGUARD
As you all well know, the technology landscape is rapidly advancing and fundamentally changing expectations and behaviors in all industries to include healthcare. As the military population rapidly adopts new innovations into their lives, there will be an expectation that their healthcare providers leverage these technologies in the delivery of care and as a means to improve health. Navy Medicine must look to enhance innovation and accelerate our velocity of learning if we are going to maximize health and readiness of a young and tech savvy population.
We need a sustained infusion of new ideas, experiences, and approaches from outside of the Military Health System and healthcare to meet our mission and build tomorrow’s leaders. To address this need, Navy Medicine is
establishing a “Digital Vanguard” of 75-100 junior enlisted and officer staff who will participate in various events to increase their situational awareness of emerging technology and how other industries are leveraging it and share their discoveries with the rest of our Enterprise. The expectation is that this cohort will serve as a distributed network of forward thinkers advising Navy Medicine leadership on how to capitalize on opportunities that new technologies can bring to improve health and readiness. I want to be sure you are aware and ask for your support as the group will be distributed throughout the enterprise and their participation will require a long term commitment across multiple commands. Expected participation is 10 hours a quarter as well as some TAD for training and education.
The BUMED Digital Health Office will liaison with you/your staffs and the Corps Chiefs to identify members for the group from across the various Corps. All applicants must have a command and Corps Chief endorsement. Costs for travel, lodging and fees associated with events will be funded centrally by the BUMED Digital Health Office. Travel logistic coordination will also be managed by the Digital Health Office to minimize any additional burden on our Commands. Applications are expected to be released in late September with final membership decisions completed by the end of November 2016.
My thanks in advance for your support in this endeavor.
Very respectfully,
C. Forrest Faison III, M.D.
VADM MC USN
Surgeon General, U.S. Navy
Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
How to Find Out Your Reporting Senior’s Fitrep Trait Average
One of the most important markers of a good fitrep is that your trait average is above your reporting senior’s trait average. Since most officers initially write their own fitrep and create their own trait average on the first draft, it is important to find out your reporting senior’s trait average so that you can try to be above it. Here are a few ways to find out what it is.
First, in order to have a trait average, your reporting senior has to have served as the reporting senior for officers of your same rank from any corps. If they have not done this, they’ll have no pre-existing average. For example, if you are a LCDR, your reporting senior does not have to have ranked LCDR physicians. If he/she has ever ranked a LCDR of any kind (nurse, Medical Service Corps, line officer, etc.), then they will have an average.
If they have an average, here are the ways I know of to find it:
- If you’ve already received a fitrep from them in your current grade, then you can look at your Performance Summary Report or PSR, which you download from BUPERS On-Line. The number in the lower right in the “AVERAGES” column (circled below) is their average for that rank.
- If you haven’t received a fitrep from them, maybe you have a friend in the same rank who has received a recent fitrep from them. You can look at their PSR if they’ll let you.
- You can ask your chain of command or command fitrep coordinator. They often know because they are trying to make sure that all of the fitreps being done don’t change the reporting senior’s average in ways he/she doesn’t want.
- You can ask the reporting senior. They just may tell you.
The bottom line is that if you are drafting your fitrep, you want to try and find out the average and grade yourself above it. In the end, the ranking process may move you below it, but by submitting the draft with an above average grade you may increase the chances you stay above it.
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 