Hi everyone,
Sorry Jason, but you are not correct. PA's are absolutely assigned the title of Battalion Surgeons in the Army. I am a former Army PA. I am now a Do student like you though. In either heavy or light infantry units, PA's and physicians both are assigned often together but separate their own team of combat medics, and they fill the role of co-battalion surgeons. There is no difference in the role, except that PA's get a slightly more advanced team than the doc because it is expected the doc can do more with less. But this is rarely true. Most Army PA's are former military medics or corpsmen who know how to function under pressure when rounds start comind down range. And usually these physician battalion surgeons are nothing more then FP docs who have less true trauma experience than the PA who likely saw combat medical stuff as a medic. The reality is that since Army PA's don't have to follow as rigidly the rules of having a supervising physician as their civilian counterparts, they are given much more autonomy. I hate to even use that word because in reality autonomy is used in the context of having been deprived of some degree of responsibility. Most of the high speed PA's I met in the service were all ex- SF or rangers, and they were excellent. So yes Jason, it is doctrine.
And for you that are not wanting to take on an awesome responsibility of training and mentoring the entire medical enlisted community, do not become an Army PA. I am sorry to say it, but the worst PA's I ever met in the Army were the ones who did not go through the service school. It was not that they were not good PA's, but it was that they had no idea what military medicine entailed. That is why traditionally that USUHS and IPAP soldiers are the best medical providers in the service.
