I am prior service applicant seeking enlistment into the U.S. Navy. Would I be able to get a HM "C" school in my initial contract?

The only people that can answer that question are the good folks at the recruiting office.

It is possible, but usually initial contracts are only written through "A" school. Once you are nearly done, you will negotiate for orders which would include any applicable "C" school en route to your first command. If you get a school on your initial contract, it would limit where the navy could send you and cause a lot of order modifications if you were late to graduate "A" school for any reason.

My experience has been that "C" school was always given based on your follow-on orders that matched an NEC with a billet. The Navy doesn't want to spend money on school only to have you sit around with no job waiting for one to open up.

Yes. You can get an initial HM FMF contract. This is NEC L03A, and the title is “Field Medical Service Technician”. This is also more commonly known as a “green-side doc”, where you are attached to or embedded with Marine units. Depending on what is available at MEPS and if you are going Reserve or Active (seating varies), you can get HM FMF as an initial contract. The C School is located at either Camp Lejeune, NC (East) or Camp Pendleton, CA (West) and is about 54 days long.

The only other initial “C” school contract I have seen is HMDA. The is NEC L33A, and the title is “Dental Assistant”. After “A” School, this course is located at Fort Sam Houston, TX and is about 40 days long.

I do know that you can initially contract as an HM ATF (Advanced Technical Field). This program comes with a $19,000 bonus, and is a pipeline feeder into the L00A (Search and Rescue Medical Technician), L02A (Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance Independent Duty Corpsman), and L27A (Medical Deep Sea Diving Technician) NEC “C” School programs. It is ONLY available to Active Duty HM’s. If you do not initially contract as an HM-ATF and you meet the requirements attached below, you have an opportunity to “try out” for the Strength and Conditioning Program while at HM “A” School. Make sure that as soon as you get to Fort Sam, you let your NMTI know what your goal is so that you are tracking the dates and times of when you can try out. The S&C Program at A School is rigorous, and if you are contracted as ATF, failing any one part of the Program (ex. Failing pull-ups, failing 1 test of A School program) will get you dismissed from the entire HM rating. This means that you will be re designated in another job and sent to a different A School or aboard a ship as an undesignated seaman. The reason why this happens is because it is very selective, and if you are a contracted HM-ATF, failing any part of the program warrants failure to perform contract obligations. So… my recommendation if you’re eligible for HM-ATF and are interested is to “try-out”. If you fail the try-out, there’s no harm done because it’s not in your contract, just don’t fail “A” School.

If you’re going Active, I recommend snagging up an HM FMF or HMDA initial contract if you’re interested in those fields, because everyone and their mother wants HM FMF, and if you’re active, you will not get a choice. Towards the end of “A” School, available C School quotas are disseminated and you will either get randomly assigned a C School or you will go straight to your first duty station as a Basic NEC 0000 Corpsman.
If you’re going Reserve, snagging an initial HM FMF or HMDA contract isn’t going to affect you one way or another, so if you’re interested, grab it, or don’t. You’ll be fine either way. If you’re a reservist, you don’t get chosen for C School quotas like the Active side, but when you report to your drilling NOSC, you will apply to a billet. If that billet has a C School requirement, you’re within your right to attend that C School and secure that NEC. Essentially, apply for billets with C School’s you’re interested in (ex. FMF, Surg Tech, Respiratory, DA, etc.), then go to C School.

If you have questions, let me know.

HM-ATF PROGRAM
“If you go the Hospital Corpsman Technical Field route, you must have U.S. citizenship, a high school diploma or equivalent, normal color perception, vision correctable to 20/20 and meet eligibility requirements for a security clearance.

Additionally, you should:

- Be 28 years or younger
- Agree to a minimum 6-year enlistment obligation
- Undergo a Physical Screening Test (PST) and meet the following minimum standards:

Swim: 12:30 (1.5 miles)
Sit-ups: 50
Push-ups: 50
Pull-ups: 10
Run: 10:30 (500 yd / 450m)
- Meet standards for Student Naval Aviator (SNA)
- Have the intelligence, maturity and ability to carry out the physical demands of combat while simultaneously learning medical procedures and methodologies
- Have good communication skills, writing and arithmetic ability, manual dexterity and a good memory
- Have a sincere interest in providing general health care
- Be resourceful, dependable and trustworthy”

- HM2