Hello,

(Please forgive me if I posted this in the wrong forum)
I am a married HM2 with 6 years active duty service. I am in the process of finishing the last little details for my IDC package. I’ve been green side my entire career and I never really had a solid career counselor - most of the time I get my information directly from the IDC over me. He has helped me a great deal, I know I am ready for IDC School but here’s the punch line: I do not meet the TIR requirements.

When I made up my mind to become an IDC, my HM1 told me that I was eligible on my 6th year of Active Duty service and that I just needed to be an E5… upon reviewing the cantrac once more, I saw they don’t give waivers for TIR… “Attention to detail” ha-ha.

I am wondering if they might still give me a waiver if I submitted my package, I will not meet the requirements for TIR till August 2010. Furthermore; I am up for orders, and in December I should be out of my current unit. I wanted to go straight to school, but it looks like I will have to wait it out for a year at another command if I can’t get this waiver.

I know the cantrac says you cannot waive it, however, there are some inaccuracies in the prereqs such as the NAVLEAD courses: the ones in the prereqs don’t exist anymore (the new courses don't reflect on the cantrac). I was thinking maybe they might have changed it. I don’t know.
Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

HM2(FMF) Neese
Marine Barracks 8th & I

Look into the clairemont area its cheaper, quiet, and only a 8 min dive down the 5 to school.

I class up next month, I'm a single E5... anyone know of some good areas to live at by the school house in san diego?

If it's anything like when I went through, it may not be all the doom and gloom that is posted above. The first week of school is all admin time anyway and we had plenty of time to dip into the LRC and knock out any courses that weren't satisfied.

The flip side to this issue is "Welcome to the NEC". What I mean to say is that instructions are constantly changing and the AMALs on CRUDES update pretty regularly as well. No precept or assessor wants to hear that you didn't do something, because you didn't know. If it has to do with your job you should try your hardest to stay on top of it.

For those prospective 25's, get into the CANTRAC and knock out anything that you may be lacking secondary to an update. You will need your mind focused on other things when you report into the schoolhouse.

Study hard, do well, and enjoy your time at school, you won't think it while you're there, but in hindsight you will quickly realize that's the easy life.

Cam
DDG98

I was an instructor at NSHS, let me give you the school houses take on this problem.
1) It's not just an IDC problem but a Navy problem and the bigger issue is outside commands sending sailors to these schools that shouldn't be sent due to thier inability to be successful as they can't even meet the minimum CANTRAC requirements. This causes two problems, it costs the Navy money and they get nothing in return i.e. a trained sailor from that program, and it takes a billit from someone who did meet the minimum requirements and had a better chance of making it through the school.

2) Let me also tell you that there is nothing worse as an instructor than having to get up at 5am to instruct "fat bodies" that are mid to senior enlisted E5 and E6 because they are too lazy or too stupid to keep thier own bodies in shape and yet they now expect to be Independant duty Corpsman. The title alone should tell you that if you can't "Independantly" keep your fat body in shape, then you have no business taking care of the health and well being of our Sailors and Marines, nor should the navy spend good money to train you to do so!

ok... I'm set for the Oct08 class.... Not a big "Runner" and a product of the HM/DT merger..... should I be scared? I am leaving my family here in Lejeune, and I KNOW I can do my best to stay up with the "homework"

I was in the class behind the class where these problems occured. Believe me the school house is looking after the best interests of you. It might seem harsh, but compared to being an IDC who is one in name only and treated worse than a junior corpmen, it is worth it. I have met the indiviual and it is not a good scenario all the way around. If you come out to Camp LeJeune with your orders, let me know. It's not bad here as one, deployments abound!! Good luck to ya.

For my sick call hours, my HMCS wrote me a letter stating how many sickcall hours and how I performed them. They want to know what type of setting (ship, clinic, etc) and how many hours you performed. The letter doesn't have to be on official letterhead. It's really a simple letter, you could even draft it up yourself and have your IDC verify and sign the letter. Let me know if you have any more questions.

I work in the military med/sick call dept of my clinic. I got a boat-load of patient contact hours. I know I'm probably NUC'in this a bit, but what exactly does "documented sick-call hours" mean? Exactly how official of a document does this have to be? Can the IDC or Senior FS sign it off? Does it have to be from the CO as an Official Letter?

Thanks,

HM2 (FMF) BERNARD DENSON

For those of us attending IDC school later this year... I just called and spoke with HMC Frausto. The new CANTRAC will be updated and available for viewing hopefully within the week. This should give us time to prepare prior to checking on board in San Diego. The biggest change will be when you received the sick call hours or took the sick call screeners course. It must now be done within a year of coming to IDC school. Otherwise, the NKO info on courses will be on the cantrac very soon.

DocTex (AW/SW)

They are getting strict at the schoolhouse, but for very good reasons. The philosophy at the schoolhouse is to get the best IDCs out into the fleet. Recently, there have been problems with IDCs in the fleet, resulting in some being relieved. The schoolhouse is using the CANTRAC as one of the many ways to ensure that the Sailors they training are the best of the best. Just because your slotted for school and the detailer said your "good to go," doesn't mean you are. All I can say HM2, is to double check your CANTRAC requirements and get all the NKO courses done and the sickcall screener course. If you have any questions or concerns about what's on the CANTRAC, give the schoolhouse a call and talk to an IDC instructor. If you show up squared away, then you won't have anything to worry about. I'm not saying that I'm happy about the requirements, as I was one of those guys that almost found myself booted from school, but, there is a CANTRAC and that is what they have out to let the students know the prerequ's for school. If it's not on the CANTRAC, then you don't need to worry about it. See you in August.

HM1(SW/AW)Howell

Yuck! That is very unpleasent (cold) impression of the IDC school house. My orders were recently cut to attend in SFIDC School in August. It's hard to believe that after waiting a significant portion of my Navy Career just for the oppertunity to attend this course and packing all my belongings in my truck and traveling cross-country,that I will be greeted by shipmates that will boot me in a seconds notice. I mailed my package and the detailer accepted it! They have me now. If they boot me for anything other than academic (not gonna happen), diciplinary (not gonna happen), or physical readiness(definitely not gonna happen) reasons, their going to have to drag me out by my feet. Thanks for the heads-up though HM1. If they are going to be that strict about it, I hope that they would atleast mail out some type of notice stating that you must report with following items in hand or stand-by to be booted back to the fleet.

HM2(FMF) Denson

Ron,
Pulled the words out of my mouth. HM1, thanks for the gouge and to play it "safe", I have passed this on to prospective students here in Camp Pen....not so much the BF but the new CANTRAC items.

HMCS(FMF) Insigne

P.S. Ever since I was an HM3, I have dreamed of getting orders to Europe. My PRD is OCT'08, keep me in mind in case you have a "hard" time finding a replacement

I don't understand how they can hold new students to brand new CANTRAC requirements that started 01 JAN 2007 when the student applied and was ACCEPTED to IDC school under the old CANTRAC requirements of 2006. I completely agree with the new requirements of having a minimum of 60 hours of patient sick-call time and being in bodyfat/weight standards but to hold students to new standards which were not in force when they applied and accepted and expecting them to get letters and documentation and do NKO courses AFTER they have reported to IDC school is not in the best interests of the student

Ron Rutherford
HMCS(SW) IDC
SFIDC Class-15 JAN 1995