women NOT allowed in navy healthcare?

[Pam]

My 21 year old daughter has decided to join the Navy after realizing she can not go back to school without help. Help me, nor her family, can give her. She has done tons of research the past three weeks and talked to a recruiter yesterday. She expressed interest in being a dental assistant. He then told her right now the Navy is not allowing women to have healthcare rates because the Navy is the Marines medical aid and the USN isnt to fond of women being put on the front lines. Is there any truth to this? He did give her an option to go Nuke. She tested very high on the pre-ASVAB even with being out of a school setting for 2 years. Is he just blowing smoke at her or does this have any standing? All the research she has done has not only shown women in Navy healthcare but shows a very high percentage of them. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated!!

[Karen Gallagher]

I can tell you that the nuke program is accepting females but I would talk to another recruiter, we have several here that can assist you with the questions about the medical field.
If she is looking for advancement in the navy then the nuke program is the way to go, she would come out of boot camp as an E3 and if all goes well and she passes the PT testing after A school she would be a Petty Officer (not bad advancement in 8 months) but the nuke program is hard and requires dedication.
I am a nurse and the medical field is my life my 3 nukes talk about nuke stuff (electricity or things like that ) and I am lost! so have her go with her heart
I would suggest that you go to the recruiters here and ask them for assistance

Good Luck

[intheknow]

I can tell that is BS. There are times when all of the quotas for women are full but she should tell him she will wait until there is an opening. He wants to fill his Nuke quotas which are difficult to do - HM is easy to fill. Ice the recruiter out.

[Achseh]

Tell your daughter to find another recruiter, preferably in another station, and get a 'second opinion' so to speak. What she's been told doesn't sound quite right, but another recruiter can better answer that question.

BTW- if that other recruiter catches on that you've spoken with someone else, they may not want to talk to her, so best to keep your fact seeking on the downlow. Believe me, some recruiters are great on half the story but you never get the whole story from them---it's up to you to ferret out that whole truth.

Good luck

[Pam]

she is all alone with the recruiter thing. I am 5 hours away and her brother that was in the Army isnt too much of help. I had a feeling, as did she, that he was blowing smoke at her. I will tell her to call another Navy office and get their input. thank you for the quick response

[Hoppi aka Angie]

The enlisted medical rate is called HM. It IS correct that females are having to wait months, upon months to be able to go to HM "A" school. I am not a recruter, but have tried to get active duty females in to the HM "A" school and have been told they will have to wait almost 12 months.

So NO your recruiter is NOT blowing smoke at her. IF she really, really wants to be an HM she needs to talk to her recruiter and MEPS about when she might be able to leave for bootcamp, it may be almost a year which is the max amount of time someone can be in DEP.

As was said NUKE is a great field and I would not have her blow that off, with out looking into it.

[Pam]

She is interested. She is very smart in mathmatics, and the NUKE program gives her what she wants. an education that will help her future family. She is scared that we will flunk out. She was the top 15% of her class but it didnt come easy. she worked hard for it. She is also reading the horror stories of NUKES not having long port leaves like the rest of the carrier. She wants to get everything out of the Navy that she can.

[Karen - Proud Mom of Amber]

My daughter had to wait a year to get in HM A school. She will arrive in GL 1-27-2009 for boot camp

[intheknow]

Hoppi, the recruiter isn't tellng her the whole story. He is blowing smoke. To say that the navy isn't allowing females into the healthcare field is wrong. What would be more accuurate is that the billets for females are far fewer for the next several months.

There are plenty of E-3 and below non-front line billets for female HM's and DT's.

I get SUPER irritated when the whole picture isn't painted. Especially when it makes the Navy look like it is slipping back into the dark ages.

[Pam]

she wants to go to boot camp around august. she likes working with her hands and math. She just has a very big decission to make. thank you for all yalls help

[Achseh]

What's the worst that can happen? She goes into Nuke,works hard and passes, has an adventure, does her time, gets out with her GI Bill still young enough to go to dental school OR She goes into Nuke, flunks out, gets another rate, does her time/ has an adventure and gets out with her GI Bill still young enough to go to dental school. OR she waits for the possible dental slot, gets it, gets her training and gets to do what she wants to do. OR she does nothing.

I think the worst that could happen is do nothing. ;o) Good luck to her!

[Steve's Mom]

I love this response :)

[Hoppi aka Angie]

Intheknow:

I understand how you can get frustrated, people who have no knowledge of the Navy will not understand what billets mean. What the OP said was He then told her right now the Navy is not allowing women to have healthcare rates because the Navy is the Marines medical aid and the USN isnt to fond of women being put on the front lines... key words "right now". Which if you think about it in Navy terms would mean there are not any billets for "A" school. :~} So reallity we are all talking about the same thing.... At this time the Navy is NOT allowing females into the HM rate.

Pam:

If your child went to the recruiter stating when she wanted to leave, odds are correct she would NOT have a really big choice on what rate she wants. So what she needs to decide is going in at a certain time more important or is the rate she wants in the Navy more important.

People can give you advise all you want, but the people who will give you the correct info is the recruter. If you click on members at the top, there are a few recruiters on this forum.