There's an overseas screening to go to...Fallon, Nevada?
Yep, at least there was a few years ago. Something about the distance required to get to the right level of medical care. Doc can probably weigh in with the details.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Stupid Questions about Naval Aviation (Part 3)
- Thread starter Top_Gun_1_0_1
- Start date
Yep, at least there was a few years ago. Something about the distance required to get to the right level of medical care. Doc can probably weigh in with the details.
Judge Q
Judging You
I guess that makes sense I was just amused by the classification of Churchill County, NV as "overseas."
The whole cancer thing might have had something to do with that too I imagine, as in the Navy covering itself if future issues come up.
“Overseas” is bureaucratic shorthand. It’s more about the local military medical facilities available. NAS Fallon just has a small clinic that mostly handles Flight physicals and routine shit like that, and there’s not much better in town. Reno’s a 45+ minute ride. So if you - or your family members - have medical conditions that require a no-shit major hospital nearby, the Navy doesn’t want to send you there, as is the case if you were going overseas.
So yeah, I too am surprised that the Lake doesn’t have that requirement.
That is kind of surprising. The Lake/Inyokern/Ridgecrest is probably the closest you could get to Mos Eisley in CONUS, just replace “scum and villainy” with “nerds and energetics.”
I think Pax in pre-NAVAIR HQ days used to have some sort of “remote” stamp. A peer of mine was a navy brat and was born on NAS Pax. Not in Leonardtown though like my kids mind you, but on Pax. Apparently the Base Clinic used to be a no-kidding base hospital with delivery rooms and what not.
Nowadays it’s pretty amusing that 7th Fleet FDNFers have to go through overseas screening. Sure the base hospitals are terrible over there but you’re living in a first world country with exceptional Medicare. The only hang up is that Navy Medicine doesn’t want to go through the trouble of going out in town. There is a process for it but USN would rather medevac you from Sasebo to Yoko then go to the hospital that’s literally just outside the fence.
Last edited:
I should have clarified. It's technically called a "remote duty screening", but per our squadron flight doc, the requirements are 100% the same as an overseas screening, so the clinic uses that as the common term.
Sorry, what cancer thing?
There was a cancer cluster that made national news a little over 15 years ago, more than a few folks pointed fingers at the Navy. Given that other bases have had issues with contamination and subsequent related diseases/cancers I would not be surprised if the cluster was a factor in the Navy deciding to have extra medial screening for folks stationed in the area. Just speculating.
It’s still a thing for Fallon. My orders actually had “overseas screening required for duty in a remote location.”
Not surprising that residents pointed fingers at USN; several instances of contamination on bases. Lejeune and Beaufort come to mind.
Yeah, that’s no shit. My Pops is dealing with MDS - a form of leukemia - that has been pretty definitely linked to the Lejeune water contamination. He was there in the 60’s. It’s to the point where the VA didn’t even blink; all he had to do was document that he’d been stationed there and they processed the claim for treatment.
This cancer cluster was sort of an odd one though, a rare type and among a pretty specific population, and there is plenty of other things to include mining and agriculture in the area that could be factors. All that said, when I was last there ages ago it was definitely high interest and we were warned repeatedly not to dump any fuel unless it was an actual emergency.
Yeah, there is a high level of arsenic in the ground water out there, plus pesticide runoff. There’s also evidently a JP fuel pipeline that runs through town out to NAS as well. Anyway, there was a cancer cluster about 20 years ago and all of the above were suspected as the cause, and the treatment plant was part of the settlement. I remember my first air wing trip out there in ‘04 or so seeing these notices all over the BOQ that the tap water was totally fine to drink now.