What to Expect on Deployment

What to expect on Deployment

Every deployment is just a bit different than any other, no matter how many times you have gone out the door. You will learn to be ready for anything, and to expect nothing. You might be billeted in a tent, working nights, trying to sleep in the daytime with 100 degree and 100% humidity, and a helicopter landing or leaving every few minutes.

Or you might be holed up in a motel in North Dakota waiting out a howler of a blizzard.

You might spend two days on an ethics refresher course or a review of the National Incident Management System while living in luxury in the Atlanta Hiatt Hotel and waiting on your field assignment.

Or you might be doing good medical care in a largely typhoon-destroyed Senior Center in Agate, Guam and then sleeping in a badly damaged

 hotel in the resort town of Tumon Bay.

You might spend days on end eating military MREs,(Meals, Ready to Eat),or you might be waiting with great expectation for the Red Cross Mobile Canteen to stop by .Or, you may have an opportunity to  visit a wonderful New Orleans restaurant. By the way, OH-1 prohibits alcoholic beverages from activation until deactivation.

You will learn how to wash your clothes in a pair of garbage bags.

One thing is certain       

Nothing is certain from the moment we roll out. DMAT teams are often deployed in advance of an anticipated disaster. We shelter outside of the hot zone and wait while our Chain of Command chooses missions and allocates resources. Individual Team Members are not included in those discussions and decisions, so it can become a frustrating day or two. Usually, we fill up that down time usefully by calling on our own members to provide training opportunities. The Team Command Staff will be busy with planning. A particular event may call for teams of varied compositions, or specialty teams. Strike Teams may be driven, flown, or walk into areas to provide aid and expedite evacuation.

   What this means to you

You may spend more of your time getting there, waiting, getting out, and getting home than doing actual medicine.

Or you may be asked to extend your rotation, which is strictly voluntary, because your expertise is in short supply. NDMS will,

 except in maybe once in a lifetime, have you home 14 days after you receive your activation order.

OH-1DMAT

As a member of OH-1, you may have the opportunity to do meaningful work from the Virgin Islands to American Samoa, From The Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska. You will learn new skills, practice your own skill set in new and interesting ways, meet and interact with people just like, and different from, us on every deployment. It is a challenging and sometimes exceedingly stressful job: we rely upon each other.

And, oh yes, bring plenty of socks.

John Lewton PhD/Deputy Commander aka Dr. Sock