I have a four year degree, but I’m not happy with my job @ the city morgue. I do, however enjoy working in the health care industry. I plan to use my GI Bill to pay for nursing school & become a nurse in the Navy. I just don’t want to spend my entire Navy career on a boat or on a remote island like Guam. Can I request to be stationed stateside or even on one of the coast?
Depends on your NEC.
AVCM, USN,ret
you’ll have to find that info out with your recruiter. My brother was a navy corpman. He never went out to seas but he did get stationed at japan, indian head near dc, and hawaii. But thats something you’ll have to discuss with the man.
Depends. My ex has been a Navy Corpsman (FMF) for over 10 years and has never set foot on a Navy ship. You will usually rotate between sea and shore duty. Sea duty doesn’t always mean a ship, some overseas assignments count. Seems to me your best bet to avoid the ships is to go to the Field Med school in NC. Then you’ll probably be assigned to Marine units repeatedly, and they are normally not based on a ship.
You might spend some, but it is unlikely you’ll be there your whole career.
You can rerquest your assignment, but the needs of the navy must come first.
Hey, GREAT career move. Good luck.
News flash! Navy=boats! I’ve never understood why people who don’t want to go to sea join the Navy! duh
)
OBTW Guam’s a great place to be stationed and until you’ve experienced sea duty, how do you know you won’t like it?
Still, with a 4 year degree why would you enlist?
Ask a navy recruiter as to the rotations of nurses sea/shore duty.
For the first 13 years of my 25 Navy career I was a Hospital Corpsman. As such I served at a Naval Hospital in the states, Fleet Marine units on both coasts, in Cuba during the Missile Crisis, and in Okinawa, along with serving in all of the various type commands in the Pacific Fleet with the exception of carrier duty. I only asked for a specific type of assignment once and that was when I first re-enlisted with broken service. I not only got the home port I wanted, but the type of ship as well.
You will have to attend and complete Hospital Corps “A” School first. Near the end of that school you can indicate a coast for your first significant duty assignment. You might get lucky since there are about equal numbers of Naval Hospitals on each coast. You might get lucky. But, it is all pegged on the needs of the service.
As for your goal of nursing school, once you are at your first duty station after Hospital Corps School you might want to look at having the Navy put you through nurse training at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. A link to their web site is below.
You can request, but it doesn’t mean you will get it. All Navy personnel fill out a “dream sheet” and that is exactly what it is. . . . a dream. . . . . they will send you where they need you.