So my son was sworn into the WV Army National Guard today. He leaves for Basic (FT Sill) in October. He should graduate at FT Sam Houston in June or July, 2018. Yeah, I'm planning ahead a little. LOL

http://www.benchmade.com/auto-triage-family.html

Congrats to your son.

Inexpensive but very useful:

https://www.amazon.com/Physici...ords=titanium+shears

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Leatherman Raptor shears:

https://www.amazon.com/Leather...ds=leatherman+raptor

A high quality stethoscope. Especially in field environments, a high quality stethoscope makes the difference of being able to hear Nothing or Something.
http://www.littmann.com/3M/en_...ttmann-stethoscopes/

One of the boker or Gerber knives for cutting off clothing.
http://www.gerbergear.com/Kniv...trap-Cutter_22-01944

https://www.google.com/search?...mgrc=A8NmpTsl7D2zfM:


A good penlight. SOG has some baton style knives, one has a penlight. Many other penlight options tho.

https://www.sogknives.com/baton-q2.html

I like the benchmade in an above post.

A problem with shears are they are so common/disposable that I'd be afraid a personal pair would either get lost or stolen.

A Gerber or other utility tool would be a good idea too, but I'd expect they would be issued one good enough.

Another idea is a Rite in the Rain notepad and a couple of pens. It sounds gimmicky, but it's something that simply works, and can make all the difference in the field environment.

I second the good set of ears.

I am just a street paramedic so things are a little different for me. However my four most loved pieces of gear for the EMS side are a Littman stethoscope, leatherman raptor shears, ZT folder and a tuffwriter tactical click pen.

ETA
Tell him thanks for his service for me.

I also am a fan of the stethoscope and the Raptor.

quote:

Originally posted by P-220:
I also am a fan of the stethoscope and the Raptor.

Yeah, I like that idea too. What's a good stethoscope? Littman makes a bunch! LOL

As an old Army Medic from another time congratulations to your son.

All the suggestions are good.

I suggest a good durable watch, G-Shock makes some good ones.

Littman makes good stethoscopes, but the expensive ones (>$125 at allheart.com) will be heavier and not distinctly better. Even the cheaper Littmans will work fine and are much lighter weight. Unfortunately that may be a personal decision.

In a different direction, you could get an AliveCor heart monitor that attaches wirelessly to an iPhone, and give an excellent single-lead EKG tracing. Mostly useful for documenting heart rhythm disturbance. Now only about $85. I'm on my second one.

My older son is in his 14th year of his military service. When he enlisted the mos was 91W-changed to 68W, he spent the first 10 as a Combat Medic and is now an E6 68WF6 Flight Medic.

Upon completion of AIT at Ft. Sam I gave him a Gerber Combat Folder with his name, rank and mos engraved on the blade. As a further gift I got him a Les Baer TRS Comanche for his homecoming of his first deployment.

Congratulations to your son and to you.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Littman makes good stethoscopes, but the expensive ones (>$125 at allheart.com) will be heavier and not distinctly better. Even the cheaper Littmans will work fine and are much lighter weight. Unfortunately that may be a personal decision.

In a different direction, you could get an AliveCor heart monitor that attaches wirelessly to an iPhone, and give an excellent single-lead EKG tracing. Mostly useful for documenting heart rhythm disturbance. Now only about $85. I'm on my second one.

Another recommendation for a Littman. I've still got a Littman Cardiology III stethoscope that I've been using for well over 15 years. First one I got was in 1985. Take care of the tubing and his only needs will be to replace ear tips and diaphragms.

Congrats to your son.

Anderson Hall at joint base Sam Houston was named after my little brother, Christopher Anderson, a navy corpsman that served with the 1st Marine Infantry during the retaking of Ramadi.

When Christopher first got to Iraq, his father and I told him to let him know if there was anything that he ever needed. Between the two of us he was the most squared away corpsman with his gear in the division. Of the many things that I sent him, Christopher said he got the most use out of the Surefire flashlight and the Gerber multi-tool. The Surefire has a clip on it so it could be attached in any number of places where it was needed. The Gerber multi-tool is the type with the plier jaws that deploy vertically from the handle.

Again, congratulations to both you and your son.

As a retired army medical officer I can say good quality stethoscopes are always in short supply. They make a littman that is solid black ( next to me on my desk right now) it is not the most expensive ( about $80 if I recall) and littman has an engraving service to get his name engraved on it. Lesser chance for f walking off that way. During my deployments a decent knife is a good idea ( we were issued gerber multi tools and seat belt cutters) but a good solid simple folder is handy. Stay away from big heavy fixed blades ( ditched my issued bayonet after my first mission due to weight and bulk) also avoid auto openers. On my last deployment in Afghanistan they gave guys a hard time returning home with autos unless they got a letter from command that the t was an issued knife they we issued! I almost lost a benchmade auto I loaned to a friend this way

A gym membership,good running shoes, and note book and ruck marches. That way he can be in good shape when he gets to Sill and Sam Houston. Life is easier when you can score a 300 on your PT test and Ruck all day long. The better shape you are in, the less likely you are to get hurt and successfully pass the course. The notebook for studying, if you fail academics life gets hard.

A decent easy to read digital watch might be a good gift for AIT. IIRC they took our watches at Basic and only allowed the PLT guide to have one. But for AIT a good watch that's easy to read will be useful during pulse checks and patient assessment. G-Shocks and TIMEX are the only watches I wear. I prefer the G Shocks.

For when he graduates a good folding knife like a spyderco rescue, endura, delica, etc or something with a big thumb stud that you can open with gloves on. Not too expensive so if it gets lost or stolen it's not a big deal. One of my benchmades is still running around ASTAN and I'm in Germany. Stay away from autos, they can get you in trouble like captain 127 mentioned, also if you get one full of Iraqi moondust it may not deploy like it should I've seen it happen.

Even better than a knife is a good headlight that can take different color filters. I use a petzl TACTIKA but I am sure there are others out there that might be better. Headlamps are great for everything from treating patients, reading maps, working on a truck or digging through your ruck for something.

As a former civilian EMT, an affordable Littman like captain 127 described for aid station, sick call duty or hospital work. I rarely saw a line medic in an Infantry unit pull a scope out. But, If you need one, you want a good and clean one. The cheap scopes you usually find in the back of an ambulance, usually suck and make listening more difficult.

good luck to him and good on you. What questions and concerns do you have?

If he is a battlefield medic (my son was in US Army), some good reading material and sunscreen.

Maybe something in the way of a log book where he can log his training and actuals. With that, he'll have documentation for a civilian position and/or schooling. (My son wants to become a trauma nurse.)

I am pretty certain he'll be getting assigned to our state's "MED DET." They are the highest level medical unit in the state, so I'm not sure he'll get much field time.

That said, I'm encouraging him to seek out every training opportunity he can get. We have a pretty robust flight and SF community here, so I know there is stuff out there. And he'll be (I hope) taking a local university's PA program.

I'm thinking maybe the G-Shock after basic, then the stethoscope/Raptor after AIT.

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:

quote:

Originally posted by P-220:
I also am a fan of the stethoscope and the Raptor.

Yeah, I like that idea too. What's a good stethoscope? Littman makes a bunch! LOL

The classic II is what I have, it's a very good stethoscope. The cardiology is their top of the line one, but I'm not sure if it would make that much of a difference for a field tech. It's mostly for cardiologists to hear specific heart sounds. A field medic will likely need to just hear breath sounds.