Navy Sarks, Air Force PJs, two of the most elite operators in the world of special operations medicine. What sets them apart? What do they have in common? What can they do? Let’s take a dive into what you need to know about Navy Sarks and Air Force PJs.
We’ll start off the video with a brief introduction on both of these units. Let’s kick it off with the Navy Sarks. SARC stands for special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman. Navy Sarks are Navy corpsmen with extensive training and special operations medicine. Officially referred to as SoIDCs, which stands for special operations independent duty corpsman, they are practically on par with a physician’s assistant.
Plus, they are trained up to speed with whichever unit they are embedded with. Now on to the PJs. Air Force PJs, officially referred to as pararescuemen, are operators whose main mission is to save lives. They are trained and equipped to get anywhere at any time by whatever means necessary to retrieve and rescue those who need it. They are typically tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments.
Pjs also learn extensive medicine and are often embedded in soft units as the medical element due to the training they receive. All right, you just got a taste of what both of these elite warriors are. Let’s dig a little deeper and go over their capabilities, missions, and opportunities.
We’re going to kick it off with the capabilities, missions, and opportunities for Navy Sarks. If you become a Navy sark, you’d spend more time with the Marine Corps than you ever would with the Navy, because they are typically embedded with recon Marines or MARSOC. Since the Marine Corps does not have its own medical assets they pull from the Navy, and Sarks are the go to for them. That means that not only do Sarks know a wide array of medicine, they also know almost everything a recon Marine does or how to operate like a Marine raider does. They also get the opportunity to embed in dev group, otherwise known as SEAL team six, just like their PJ counterparts do.
However, due to their mass knowledge in soft medicine, they have actually started to replace the PJ billets in Devgrou as of late. So you’re probably wondering, what medical training do Sarks receive? What makes them different from PJs in that aspect? Well, Sarks get their medical training at Sockham or special operations combat medic course, which is the gold standard in soft medicine, whereas PJs do not. Not only do Sarks go to the short course at Sockham, they are now all required to go to the long course as well, which is known as sfMs.
If you have no idea what we’re talking about here, we will point you to our video about Sockham at the end of the video, so stay with us until then. Because they attend both Sockham and SFMs, they are on par with 18 deltas and become IDCs, which stands for independent duty corpsman, meaning that they are capable of prolonged field care, certain surgeries, field trauma, and a whole slew of other medical capabilities that could honestly take up its own video. Sockham gets you the advanced trauma paramedic card, or ATP card, which is the joint soft medic qualification. Bottom line, Sarks are medical professionals. Medicine is their bread and butter.
Yet despite being primarily a medical asset to their team, they get plenty of opportunities to learn other skills in the world of soft. Just keep in mind before we tell you what other training you can receive. Sarks are corpsmen first. Therefore, their medical expertise and training will always come first. It’ll be a matter of being at the right place at the right time with the right amount of funding for you to get some of these schools, you can receive training in mountaineering, breaching, foreign language schools, coxon, tactical driving.
And here’s something PJs can’t do. Sniper school. While it is on a very rare basis, some Sarks have been known to attend. Okay, let’s move on to PJs. Now, PJs are the most highly decorated Air force enlisted force.
Their motto, these things we do that others may live affirms their dedication and commitment to saving lives and self sacrifice. PJs are the only Department of Defense specialty specifically trained and equipped to conduct conventional or unconventional rescue operations. We told you that medicine was Sark’s bread and butter. Well, rescuing is the PJs. They deploy in any available manner into restricted environments to authenticate, extract, treat, stabilize, and evacuate injured personnel.
They participate in search and rescue, combat search and rescue. And here’s something pretty cool. You probably didn’t know about PJs. Did you know general discharge has an instagram? We actively post memes, video updates, and whatever else we feel like.
Join the team and follow us at general discharge. Links in the description. Now back to the video. They perform recovery support for NASA, meaning that when the astronauts land in the sea after coming back from space, they’re the ones to pick them up. That’s some pretty neat stuff.
While PJs don’t necessarily refer to themselves as medics, they are among the most highly trained emergency trauma specialists in the military. They maintain a paramedic qualification throughout their careers with this medical and rescue expertise, along with their deployment capabilities, PJs are able to perform life saving missions in the world’s most remote areas. The medical training they receive in their pipeline provides instruction in minor field surgery, pharmacology, combat trauma management, advanced airway management and military evacuation procedures. The course is called pararescue EMT paramedic training, quite the creative name we know. PJs primarily work in rescue squadrons, special tactics squadrons, and are occasionally embedded in other soft units such as the sEALs.
As needed, PJs are sought out in the soft community due to their medical expertise and act as the role of a medic if required. They also have the opportunity to work in the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, which is the Air Force’s tier one unit in JSOC. If you want to learn more about that, stick with us until the end. Okay, let’s wrap this section up. While objectively, Sarks are more medically trained than PJs, the roles that they fit require different aspects of medicine.
Since PJs are more of a search and rescue type of element, their medical capabilities align with those types of missions. Whereas Sarks are more focused on prolonged field care. PJs are about extrication and short term interventions. Thus, they each have their own specializations and expertise in their own world of medicine. Sarks might have to take care of some foreign locals on a mission for days or weeks at a time, whereas a PJ will have to treat a patient during or after a mission that goes south.
Both are great at what they do. Sarks and PJs may differ a lot, but both are capable of what a lot of soft operators are able to do. They’re both combat dive capable, jump qualified, receive extensive training and marksmanship and a whole lot of other stuff. Alright, now you know some key similarities and differences between Sarks and PJs. Let’s go over where you can be stationed in either of these communities.
After that, we will go over the training pipelines and requirements for each of them.
We’ll start off with Sarks. As a Navy SARC, you can be stationed at Second Recon Battalion, Second Marine Raider Battalion and Third Marine Raider Battalion in Camp Lejune, North Carolina First Recon Battalion and First Marine Raider battalion in Camp Pendleton, California Third Recon Battalion in Okinawa, Japan Fourth Recon Battalion in San Antonio, Texas and in Damneck, Virginia. If you so happen to be with Deathgroup as a Navy sark, you can be stationed at any of these locations. Moving on to the PJs, PJs can be stationed at Hurlbert Field, Florida Pope Field, North Carolina Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada Joy Base, Lewis McCord, Washington Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, Davis Monton Air Force Base, Arizona, Aviano Air Base, Italy, Cadena Air Base, Japan and RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom. As a PJ, you can be stationed at any of these locations.
Alright, now you know where you might be stationed if you become a SARC or PJ. Now, you’re probably wondering what kind of training is required for both of these. Let’s get into it.
We’re going to start off with the Navy Sarks training pipeline and then go over the Air Force PJs pipeline. Both of these pipelines are intense and lengthy. To become a Navy sark, you will have to do the following. Navy boot camp, eight weeks hospital corpsman, a school, 14 weeks field medical training battalion, FMTB, eight weeks RTAP recon training and assessment program, formerly known as BRPC, five weeks Basic Reconnaissance Course, BRC, 13 weeks Sockham and SFMs, roughly twelve months. Marine Combatant Dive school, eight weeks dive medicine course, five weeks.
US Army Airborne jump school, three weeks. You’ll also go to Sear school at some point, which is three weeks long. Depending on how slots line up, this pipeline can take anywhere from two to three years. The attrition rate for the Navy Stark pipeline is decently high, with most occurring during RTAP, BRC, and Sockham due to its academic difficulty. While we gave it to you in that order, it’s not guaranteed that’s how you will complete it.
Some people go to jump and dive before Sockham, some people go after Sockham. It just depends. Don’t think too much into it. Okay, now onto the PJ’s pipeline. In order to become a PJ, you will have to do the following.
Air Force basic military training BMT, eight weeks. Special warfare preparatory course, eight weeks. Special warfare assessment and selection, four weeks. Special warfare predive course, four weeks. Special warfare combat dive course, eight weeks.
US Army Airborne School, three weeks. Military freefall school, four weeks. Sear training, three weeks. Pararescue EMTB course, seven weeks Pararescue EMTP course, 30 weeks Pararescue apprentice course, 22 weeks. That was a lot.
The PJ pipeline has a very high attrition rate as well, at about roughly 75% to 80%. That means about one in five people make it through the pipeline. That should speak for itself. Okay, so now you know what schools you’ll be expected to attend if you decide to embark on either of these journeys. But do you even qualify to give it a shot?
Let’s see, before we dive into the requirements we got to tell you something important first. Sarks are enlisted only, meaning that you cannot be a SARC and be an officer. Pjs, however, have an officer counterpart which are combat rescue officers or CROs for short. CROs will have slightly different requirements than them listed pjs, so keep that in mind as we talk about the requirements. If you want to know more about CROs, we have some resources for you to check out at the end of the video.
Okay, let’s go over the requirements for sarcs first and then pjs. These are the basic requirements to become a SARc with an HMATF contract. On top of that, you have to pass the PST, which stands for physical screening test. SARC PST standards are the Navy SEALs PST standards, which are these. Those are the minimums though, so shoot for much higher than that if you want a contract.
There’s multiple routes to becoming a SARC. So if you want to know how to become a Navy stark, wait until the end of the video. Okay, now onto the PJ’s requirements. These are the requirements you’ll need to meet in order to become a PJ. On top of that, you’ll have to pass the past, which stands for physical ability and stamina test.
Here are the past minimums for PJ candidates. Pause the screen to take a longer look. Remember, as always, these are just the minimums. Shoot for much higher if you want to get a contract and have a higher chance of success in training. Alright, now you know the basic requirements for both Navy Sarks and Air Force PJs.
But don’t go just yet. Remember all those resources we said we were going to give you? We’re about to wrap up the video and leave you with them to go check out about both of these communities as we can’t cover everything in detail in just this video.
During this video, you learn that the Navy Sarks and Air Force PJs are quite similar, yet very different. They’re both trained in soft medicine, but both executed for different purposes and missions. They both have highly skilled operators with Sarks having a focus on prolonged field care and learned skills with whichever unit they embed with, and PJs having a focus on rescue operations. But at the end of the day, they’re both awesome. If you made it this far with us, which do you prefer, Sarks or PJs?
Leave us a comment on what you think. Okay, now onto the valuable resources for both of these communities. We’re going to leave you with a couple YouTube channels that cover PJs and sarks more in detail for PJs how to be a PJ and ones ready are excellent resources for you to go check out. If you’re interested in them or any other career field in Asok, their links will be in the description. As for Sarks, general discharge is the way to go.
If you ask for our unbiased opinion, it is probably one of the best channels out there. Apparently these guys disguise their voices though, which is kind of weird. All jokes aside, we’ve got plenty of videos on sarks for you to go check out. On screen are all of the videos we’ve done on Navy Sarks. Not only that, we’ve done a video on the PJs as well, including the CROs and on other AFSOC entities too.
You’ve just hit a gold mine. The playlist is in the description. Lastly, if you like the versus video format, we’ve done other videos like this. The thumbnails on screen are the versus videos we’ve done so far. The playlist to these will be in the description below.
Well, that is the down and dirty of the navy Sarks and Air Force PJs. If you learned something from this video, make sure to give us a like and subscribe to our channel. As always, thank you for watching. Do you even want to be here? A big shout out to all of our patrons over at our patreon.
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