LTC Vito Imbasciani. LTC Imbasciani, a surgeon and urologist, has been appointed as state surgeon for the California Army National Guard. While COL Albertson will remain medical director for our 91W training, with LTC Salinas as assistant, our 91W program falls under the purview of the State Surgeon’s Office, and we look forward to a good relationship with LTC Imbasciani. He served a tour in Iraq in OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM, and has also done a tour in the present conflict. In his civilian job, he’s the chief of staff at a Kaiser hospital in Southern California, in addition to his urology/surgery practice.

At this point, we have lost funding for our administrative help. This leaves me, well, unsupervised. (Paramedics save lives; EMTs save paramedics.)While we continue the struggle to get that funding restored, please be patient with me as I juggle the administrative requirements with the academics.

Major Change in Class Schedule!

We’ve had to reshuffle our class schedule to make sure we can accommodate all of you whose NREMT cards expire this coming March. Please see the attached roster, broken down alphabetically by unit, as well as the updated course list/registration form. If your card expires this coming March, I need to hear from you and make sure you’re taken care of. I apologize to those of you who signed up for EMT-Basic classes between now and 31 March, but I’m sure you understand.

According to the MODS 91W tracking system, there are some of you who have done everything you need to do to reregister, except for filling out the reregistration package and sending it in. There are some of you who just need a CPR recertification, or maybe a few specific continuing education hours. Some of you need everything: CPR recert, EMT recert, the additional continuing education, and skills validation.

Remember that Army and NREMT policy is that reregistration is an individual responsibility, not a command responsibility. We provide the training opportunities. The consequences of not getting this taken care of include having to retake the NREMT exam(!), and possible reclassification to another MOS. Please help me with this. I’ll be working the list from the top down, calling the units of those whose cards expire this coming March. If your name is on the list, get in touch with me. Help me take this hill. If you recognize a name on the list, including soldiers who are mobilized, get them in touch with me. The cost is too high to you and to the Guard if we allow your certs to expire.

Hey! I’m mobilized! Isn’t there a waiver of some kind?

Potentially, on a case-by-case basis. The rule of thumb is that you’re still required to complete and submit your reregistration on time. If you can’t, here are the questions that need to be answered in your request for waiver:

1. How much time was there prior to your deployment for you to work on your continuing education requirements? And what did you accomplish in that time?

2. Where were you deployed? What continuing education was available to you there, or would it have been necessary for you to travel to get continuing education? You did training for before and during your deployment, right? Did you document it?

If a waiver is granted, you have 90 days after REFRAD to get all your continuing education caught up, or you will be subject to the standard NREMT “lapsed registration” policies.

My hard drive was completely wiped out. Completely. Melt-down. As in go to the Safeway, get a stick of butter, and put it all over the computer, because it’s toast. Included in this wipe out are all my class records, training pictures, course schedules, syllabi, briefings, instructional slides, as well as whom I have registered for which class in the future.

And to make matters more interesting, it’s been awhile since I did a back-up. (Please see above, with reference to my not having a trusty sidekick to keep me policed up.) The instructional materials will be fairly easy to reload from the masters. All the prior course records have been printed and are stored as hard-copy, so not a major problem.

Here’s where I need your help:

If you’re registered for the December class, call me immediately at 805-594-6493. Everything is still on, but at this point I’m not sure who is supposed to be here.
If you’ve sent me an application for a future class, I probably still have your registration form, but considering the change in the schedule for the next several months, as well as the wipe-out of all my records for future courses, I would really appreciate it if you would resend me your application for future classes. Best method is to fill it out electronically and send it back to me by e-mail. If you can’t do that, please fax it to 805-594-6572.
Along with everything else, my contact lists have been wiped out. I’d like to hear from you, preferably by e-mail, so I can start rebuilding that information. Good times.
I have pictures from many of our prior classes, but probably not all. Those pictures have tremendous PR value as we continue to sell what we’re doing both within the CalGuard and throughout the Army. And really, now that we’ve had an Air Force student, throughout our entire customer population. If you have digital pictures from your time here at CSLO, I would really appreciate if you’d put them on a CD and mail them to me at: JFHQ-CA, ATTN: CAMP-SS (SFC BERNAY), PO BOX 269101, SACRAMENTO CA 95826-9101

This section is addressed to those of you who’ve taken our EMT-Basic course.

We’ve been in the EMT-Basic business for about 18 months now. We’ve had a pretty good pass rate on the NREMT-B exam—consistent with the national average, including a couple of classes where we had 100% pass. On the other hand, a consistent AAR comment has been that our EMT course is too compressed, that adding a day or two would be helpful.

I’m conducting an informal survey of our former EMT-Basic students. Please let me know by

e-mail what you think of the below options. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I’ll submit your input to COL Albertson for a decision. The choices for adding one day to the EMT-B schedule seem to include:

1. Leave it the way it is at 17 days, including travel.

2. Add a day up front, and do the CPR course as part of the time at Camp SLO, rather than trying to get it in on your own time, before you come to Camp SLO.

3. Add a day at the end, as sort of an all-day study hall to get ready for NREMT exam.

Let me know what you think. Your opinions matter.

91W Program Office

SFC Brian Bernay

916-854-3203

brian.bernay@us.army.mil

Office fax: 916-854-4200

Camp San Luis Obispo classroom (Bldg 1402)

(The classroom is only manned when we have classes on the ground, for now. We check the voice mail there regularly, though.)

805-594-6493

DSN 630-6493

Fax: 805-594-6572

We are fully accredited by the AMEDD C&S to teach these courses, but we are not completely loaded in ATRRS yet. We’re doing the enrollments and student tracking with stubby pencils and spreadsheets for now. Currently our funding, unless you want to send your soldier here on AT status, is in addition to AT. We cut the orders here, and you do the payroll at home station. We house them in non-chargeable quarters at Camp SLO. Since the con mess is closed for now, students are on per diem for the duration of their stay.

NREMT-B EXPIRATIONS—31 MARCH 2006

Generally, our medics fit into one of four categories of training needed, based on data in MODS. These codes appear in the spreadsheet below. Please contact SFC Bernay by e-mail to brian.bernay@us.army.mil, or by phone at 805-594-6493, to get your training set up. Remember it is the obligation of the individual to ensure that the necessary training is completed and that the reregistration application is completed and submitted to NREMT by 31 March. The reregistration application and requirements are available at www.nremt.org.

1. CPR and skills sign-off.

2. CPR, skills sign-off, and a few additional continuing education hours, usually in the “OB/peds/children” category.

3. Needs everything, including CPR, EMT-refresher, additional 48 hours of continuing education, and skills sign-off.

4. Skills sign-off only.

UNIT/NAME TNG CATEGORY NOTES

Personnel information deleted

CALIFORNIA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

91W TRANSITION AND SUSTAINMENT PROGRAM

The CAARNG is sponsoring training to help you complete your 91W transition and NREMT reregistration requirements. Dates are, of course, subject to change.

This form must be completed and faxed to 805-594-6572 NLT 30 days prior to the scheduled class date. Please mark the line next to the class in which you want to enroll.

NREMT-B sustainment, including PHTLS/TC3. Remember: You must have all your reregistration requirements completed prior to your expiration date. Failure to maintain your NREMT-B certification may result in involuntary reclassification (AR 40-68).

Prerequisite: Current NREMT-B certification.

___8 Dec 05 – 18 Dec 05 ___5 Jan 05 – 15 Jan 06 ___2 Feb 06 – 12 Feb 06

___2 Mar 06 – 12 Mar 06 ___3 Aug 06 – 13 Aug 06 ___7 Sep 06 – 17 Sep 06

EMT-Basic (includes full EMT-B curriculum, clinical rotations, and NREMT testing).

Prerequisite: Must have PMOS 91W w/Y2 ASI. Must have current CPR certification at the healthcare provider level.

___14 Apr 06 – 30 Apr 06 ___5 May 06 – 21 May 06 ___9 Jun 06 – 25 Jun 06

___7 Jul 06 – 23 Jul 06

Soldier’s name________________________________________

Soldier’s rank________ Soldier’s unit____________________

Soldier’s SSN___________________________

Soldier’s phone number____________________________

Soldier’s e-mail address______________________________

Soldier’s mailing address________________________________________

________________________________________

Soldier’s signature__________________________________________

/////////////////////////////////////////////////For unit leadership only//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

____ I request ADT orders, in addition to AT, for this soldier.

____ I approve this soldier going to this training in lieu of AT.

Company CO/1SG printed name___________________________________

Company CO/1SG signature___________________