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68VE1-E3

Respiratory Specialist

E-1 to E-3 (Junior Enlisted) · Army

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

Your AIT at the AMEDDC&S, Fort Sam Houston gives you the clinical foundation to sit for the NBRC Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) exam immediately upon graduation. Take it before you PCS. The credential travels with you to every MTF and is the single strongest civilian-transferable asset any Army enlisted MOS produces. If you let the exam window slip, you are leaving the most valuable part of your training on the table.

The Honest MOS Read
You enlisted 68V — Respiratory Specialist — and you are heading to or just graduated from the respiratory therapy program at the Army Medical Department Center and School (AMEDDC&S) at Fort Sam Houston, TX, part of the Medical Education and Training Campus (METC). The program is joint-service and clinically rigorous: you learn mechanical ventilation, arterial blood gas sampling and interpretation, pulmonary function testing, oxygen therapy, aerosolized medication administration, and airway management. This is not a field MOS. This is a clinical MOS, and your workspace is the ICU, the ER, the OR, and the pulmonary function lab inside an Army Medical Treatment Facility. Your first duty station will be one of the Army's medical centers or community hospitals: Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) at Fort Sam Houston, Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Liberty, Madigan Army Medical Center at JBLM, Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, or one of the smaller community hospitals in the MEDDAC system. Assignment is needs-of-the-Army, and the larger MEDCENs offer more clinical variety — NICU, burn unit, trauma ICU, pulmonary rehab — while the smaller MEDDACs give you broader scope earlier because the department is smaller and every RT covers more ground. Day-to-day garrison life is shift work. You will rotate through three shifts — day, evening, night — covering the ICU ventilator census, the ER respiratory emergencies, OR anesthesia support, the PFT lab referrals, and the med-surg floor treatments. Night shift is where you learn the most and have the least supervision: the 0300 ABG draw, the ventilator alarm that the nurse calls you for, the post-surgical patient whose oxygen saturation is dropping. Your senior RT is on call but not always in the building. You are expected to assess, intervene within your scope, and escalate to the physician when the situation exceeds your training. The field component is real but different from combat-arms field time. When the MTF deploys a Role 2 or Role 3 capability — a Combat Support Hospital (CSH) or a Field Hospital — the respiratory therapists deploy with it. Your job in the field is ventilator management in an austere environment: portable ventilators, limited oxygen supply, transport ventilation for MEDEVAC patients, and airway management under conditions that do not look like the ICU at BAMC. Field exercises (Warrior Medic, Global Medic, or MTF-specific deployment readiness exercises) train you for this. The civilian credential is the headline. The NBRC CRT exam is available immediately after AIT graduation. The RRT (Registered Respiratory Therapist) exam — the full credential — requires additional clinical hours and the Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) exam plus the Clinical Simulation Exam (CSE). Most states require the RRT for independent practice. The Army's AIT program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC), which means your military training counts toward civilian licensure without repeating coursework. This is one of the strongest direct-credential pipelines in the entire Army enlisted inventory — stronger than 68W's NREMT, comparable to 68P's ARRT(R). Do not waste it.
Career Arc
  • 01AIT at AMEDDC&S / METC, Fort Sam Houston — respiratory therapy program, CoARC-accredited.
  • 02NBRC CRT exam eligibility upon graduation — take it before PCS.
  • 03PCS to gaining MTF (MEDCEN or MEDDAC) — assignment based on Army needs.
  • 04First clinical rotation cycle: ICU, ER, OR, PFT lab, med-surg — all shifts.
  • 05Month ~6 TIS: E-2 (automatic per AR 600-8-19).
  • 06Month ~12 TIS: E-3 / PFC. Begin RRT study plan and clinical-hour accumulation.
  • 07First annual SVT (Sustainment Skills Verification) — ventilator management, ABG, PFT, airway management.
Common Screwups
  • ×Not sitting the NBRC CRT exam before your first PCS. The exam is available at Pearson VUE testing centers near Fort Sam Houston. Once you leave, the logistics get harder and the urgency fades. Take it while the material is fresh.
  • ×DUI or drug pop — separation under AR 635-200 ch.14, loss of clinical privileges, and a re-enlistment code that follows you into the civilian RT job market where background checks are standard.
  • ×ACFT failures — repeated failures trigger flagging; flagged soldiers lose school slots, promotion eligibility, and the clinical credibility that matters in a medical unit.
  • ×Letting BLS/ACLS lapse. The ICU will pull you from the ventilator rotation until you recertify. Clinical currency gaps are tracked in the MTF credentialing system and visible to every supervisor.
  • ×Treating the clinical setting like the barracks. HIPAA violations, patient-safety events, and medication errors follow you through the Army and into your civilian career. One documentation-fraud finding can cost you the NBRC credential.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500Wake. Shower, shave, uniform check. If you are on day shift (0600-1800), you are out the door by 0530.
  • 0545Arrive at the respiratory therapy department. Check the shift report board — how many ventilated patients, pending ABGs, PFTs scheduled, treatments due. Get your assignment from the outgoing shift lead.
  • 0600Shift change. Bedside handoff on your ventilated patients — mode, settings, last ABG, overnight events, weaning status. Check each vent against the current physician order.
  • 0630-0800Morning ventilator rounds. Assess each patient — breath sounds, SpO2 trend, ventilator graphics, cuff pressures. Draw any pending morning ABGs. Run the results to the ICU team before morning rounds.
  • 0800-0900ICU multidisciplinary rounds (if your MTF does them). Stand at the bedside with the ICU team — nurse, physician, pharmacist, RT. Brief the ventilator status and the latest ABG. Listen for changes to the vent plan.
  • 0900-1130Floor treatments — scheduled nebulizer treatments on med-surg and step-down patients. PFT lab referrals if the lab is running. New oxygen setups for admissions. Equipment checks on portable ventilators.
  • 1130-1230Lunch. The shift lead covers your patients. You eat in the cafeteria or the break room — this is not a field MOS, but the shift does not stop for you.
  • 1230-1500Afternoon treatments, follow-up ABGs, ventilator weaning trials if ordered. New admissions from the ER — oxygen setup, initial assessment, treatment plan.
  • 1500-1700Late-afternoon rounds. Chart review on all your patients. Update the shift report board. Restock treatment supplies — MDIs, SVN setups, suction kits, ABG kits. Calibration check on the ABG analyzer if you are assigned to it.
  • 1730-1800Shift change. Bedside handoff to the incoming shift. Brief each ventilated patient, pending orders, outstanding ABGs. Sign out.
  • 1800-2000Personal time. Gym, study (NBRC CRT/RRT prep, college coursework if enrolled), errands. The clinical shift is over but the credential study is not.
  • 2000-2200Study, phone calls, downtime. If you are studying for the NBRC exam, this is where the work happens — review questions, clinical simulations, acid-base practice problems.
  • Night shift rotationWhen you rotate to nights (1800-0600), the rhythm inverts. The ICU census is the same; the supervision is less. Night shift is where you learn to make clinical decisions independently — the attending is on call, not at the bedside. The 0300 ABG draw and the post-op ventilator alarm are yours.

Weekly Cadence

The weekly rhythm for a junior 68V is dictated by the clinical shift schedule, not the company training calendar. Most MTF respiratory therapy departments run 12-hour shifts (0600-1800, 1800-0600) on a rotating schedule — three days on, four days off, then four days on, three days off. The shift rotation means your 'week' does not align with the rest of the Army's Monday-Friday rhythm, and you will miss some company-level formations and mandatory training because you are working the night shift or sleeping after one. On shift days, the work is clinical: ventilator rounds, ABG draws, PFT lab, floor treatments, ER coverage, code-blue response. The weight of the day falls on the morning — ICU rounds, morning ABGs, and the first wave of scheduled treatments happen between 0600 and 1000. Afternoons are follow-up treatments, new admissions, and weaning trials. Night shift is lower volume but higher acuity — the patients who deteriorate do it at night. On off days, you have mandatory Army requirements: PT with the company or the medical unit, mandatory training (SHARP, EO, ATFP, OPSEC), weapons qualification cycles, and the administrative tasks that the clinical schedule does not make time for (ACFT, dental, MEDPROS). The department schedules these around the shift calendar, but the fit is never perfect — you will sometimes PT after a night shift or attend a mandatory briefing on a day you planned to sleep. The junior 68V who manages the calendar proactively survives; the one who lets deadlines stack up becomes the soldier the first sergeant has to chase.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Set up, calibrate, and manage mechanical ventilators — volume-control, pressure-control, SIMV, CPAP/BiPAP — and troubleshoot alarms before the ICU nurse calls you.
    Spend time with each ventilator model in your department after shift. Learn the menu tree, the alarm hierarchy, and the self-test procedure. The ventilator that alarms at 0300 does not care that you are new — the ICU nurse expects you to silence it and know why it alarmed. Run through the setup checklist on a test lung at least once a week until the sequence is automatic.
  2. 02
    Draw arterial blood gases from the radial artery using a modified Allen's test and a heparinized syringe — and interpret the results before handing them to the physician.
    Practice the modified Allen's test until you can assess collateral circulation in under 30 seconds. The arterial stick itself is a fine-motor skill that improves only with repetition — volunteer for every ABG draw the shift offers. After the draw, interpret pH/PaCO2/PaO2/HCO3/base excess using the four-step acid-base algorithm before you call the physician. The RT who calls with the result AND the interpretation gets trusted faster.
  3. 03
    Perform pulmonary function tests to ATS/ERS standards — spirometry, lung volumes, DLCO — and recognize when a test is unacceptable.
    The PFT lab is where precision matters more than speed. Learn the ATS/ERS acceptability and repeatability criteria cold: start-of-test (back-extrapolated volume), end-of-test (plateau or 15-second exhalation), and repeatability (two best FVC and FEV1 within 150 mL). Coach the patient through the maneuver — most unacceptable tests are coaching failures, not equipment failures.
  4. 04
    Administer aerosolized medications via SVN, MDI with spacer, or DPI — and document the response.
    Know the drug, the dose, the route, and the expected response before you walk into the room. Assess breath sounds and peak flow (if applicable) before and after treatment. Document the pre/post assessment in the EMR. The RT who charts 'treatment given, tolerated well' without a pre/post assessment is the RT the QA review catches.
  5. 05
    Assist with endotracheal intubation and manage the secured airway — cuff pressures, tube positioning, suctioning, capnography.
    Set up the intubation tray before the physician arrives: laryngoscope with blade and light checked, ETT with stylet and cuff-tested, 10cc syringe, tape or commercial holder, suction, capnography, and bag-valve-mask with oxygen flowing. During the intubation, your job is to hand equipment in sequence, confirm tube placement with capnography and bilateral breath sounds, inflate the cuff to 20-30 cmH2O, and secure the tube. Practice the setup sequence until you can do it in under 90 seconds.
  6. 06
    Set up and manage oxygen delivery systems and titrate FiO2 to physician orders and SpO2 targets.
    Know the FiO2 delivery range for each device: nasal cannula (24-44% at 1-6 LPM), simple mask (35-50% at 5-10 LPM), non-rebreather (60-90%+ at 10-15 LPM), Venturi mask (24-50% precise), high-flow nasal cannula (21-100% at flows up to 60 LPM). Match the device to the clinical need. The RT who puts every patient on a non-rebreather because it is easy is the RT who wastes oxygen supply and misses the diagnosis.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • STP 8-68V13-SM-TG — Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide for MOS 68V, skill levels 1-3.
    This is the Army's validation document for every clinical skill you are expected to perform. The SVT (annual skills check) runs directly from this manual. Read the task conditions and standards for ventilator management, ABG, and PFT before your first SVT — the evaluator grades you against this document, not against what your preceptor taught you.
  • TC 8-800 — Medical Education and Demonstration of Individual Competence.
    The overarching Army medical training regulation. It governs how your AIT credentials translate to MTF clinical privileges and how your SVT is structured. Read the 68V-specific section before your first credentialing review at your gaining MTF.
  • AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management.
    The regulation behind every QA review, patient-safety event investigation, and credentialing action in the MTF. When a ventilator-associated event happens on your shift, this is the regulation that governs the review process. Read the patient-safety reporting chapter before your first ICU rotation.
  • NBRC CRT/RRT Exam Content Outlines — available at nbrc.org.
    The CRT exam tests patient assessment, therapeutic procedures, and equipment management. The RRT adds the Clinical Simulation Exam (CSE), which tests clinical decision-making under time pressure. Download both content outlines and map your AIT coursework against them — the gaps are where you focus your study.
  • AARC Clinical Practice Guidelines — evidence-based respiratory care standards.
    The MTF's respiratory therapy SOPs are built on these guidelines. Oxygen therapy, mechanical ventilation, bronchial hygiene, PFT standardization — the AARC CPGs are the evidence your department chief cites when defending a protocol to the medical staff. Read the ventilator weaning and oxygen therapy CPGs first.
  • FM 4-02 — Army Health System; ATP 4-02.2 — Medical Evacuation.
    The doctrinal framework for how the Army deploys medical capability. When your MTF exercises a Role 2/3 deployment, this is the doctrine behind the exercise. Read the Role 2/3 capability description so you understand where the respiratory therapist fits in the deployed medical architecture.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • NBRC CRT exam passed before first PCS — the credential that makes the rest of your career possible.
    Schedule the exam through Pearson VUE within 30 days of AIT graduation. Study using the NBRC content outline and a commercial review course (Kettering, Lindsey Jones, or the Sander textbook). The pass rate for CoARC-accredited military programs is historically above the national average — you have the training; do not let logistics or procrastination be the reason you miss it.
  • SVT passed annually on the first attempt — ventilator management, ABG draws, PFT procedures, airway management.
    The SVT runs from the STP 8-68V13-SM-TG task list. Review the task conditions and standards 30 days before your SVT window. Practice the hands-on skills (ventilator setup, ABG draw on a simulation arm, PFT coaching) with a buddy or your preceptor. First-attempt pass is the standard; a remediation loop delays your clinical rotation schedule.
  • BLS/ACLS currency maintained without gaps.
    BLS and ACLS are renewed on a 2-year cycle through the American Heart Association. Your MTF runs renewal courses regularly — get on the schedule 60 days before expiration. A lapsed ACLS pulls you from ICU and code-blue coverage until you recertify, which costs the department a body on the shift schedule.
  • ACFT 500+ — the physical standard that keeps clinical credibility in the formation.
    The clinical MOS trap is neglecting PT because your workspace is indoors. The formation still runs, and the medical unit's PT standards are still Army standards. Build the score with consistent training — the 68V who scores 500+ gets left alone; the 68V who fails gets flagged, loses school slots, and becomes the department chief's problem instead of the department chief's asset.
  • Zero medication errors on aerosolized drug administration — wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong patient, wrong route.
    Use the five rights (right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right time) on every treatment. Scan the patient's wristband. Verify the order in the EMR. Assess before and after. Document. The shortcut that skips verification is the shortcut that produces the AR 40-68 reportable event.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Failing to verify ventilator settings against the physician order before leaving the bedside.
    The vent runs on what you set. If the tidal volume is 600 mL and the order says 400 mL, the patient is being over-ventilated and may develop ventilator-induced lung injury. The QA investigation starts with the RT who last touched the vent. The ICU physician's trust in you — and in the department — resets.
  • Drawing an ABG from the wrong site or without performing the modified Allen's test.
    Radial artery damage from a draw without collateral circulation check can cause hand ischemia. It is rare but documented, and the QA review will ask whether you performed the Allen's test. If the chart does not show it, the finding is yours.
  • Running a PFT on a patient who did not meet pre-test criteria.
    A PFT on a patient with a recent MI, unstable angina, or active hemoptysis is contraindicated per ATS/ERS guidelines. The result is clinically useless and the risk is real. The referring physician assumes you screened the patient — if you did not, the department's credibility takes the hit.
  • Leaving a tracheostomy patient without a spare inner cannula and obturator at the bedside.
    The tracheostomy that occludes without backup equipment at the bedside becomes a code blue. The ICU's post-event review will document who set up the tracheostomy care and whether the emergency supplies were present. This is the kind of event that stays in the department's safety record for years.
  • Charting a treatment as given when it was not — documentation fraud.
    Clinical documentation fraud is an AR 40-68 violation, a potential UCMJ offense, and grounds for loss of NBRC credentials. The EMR audit trail is time-stamped and location-tagged. If the chart says you gave a treatment at 1400 and the badge-access log shows you were on a different floor, the investigation is straightforward and the outcome is career-ending.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • NBRC CRT immediately vs. wait for the RRT.
    Take the CRT immediately upon AIT graduation — it is available, you are prepared, and the credential travels with you. The RRT requires additional clinical hours and the Clinical Simulation Exam (CSE) on top of the TMC exam; most 68Vs complete the RRT requirement within 12-18 months at their first MTF. Do not wait for the RRT to take the CRT. The CRT is the floor; the RRT is the ceiling you build toward. Some states accept CRT for entry-level practice; most prefer RRT for independent clinical work.
  • First re-enlistment: stay 68V vs. reclass.
    The 68V MOS has one of the strongest civilian credential pipelines in the Army. If you have your RRT and you like clinical respiratory care, staying 68V and building toward the NICU/PICU specialty, the RRT-ACCS (adult critical care specialty), or the RRT-NPS (neonatal/pediatric specialty) makes career sense — both inside the Army and for the civilian market. If you want out of the clinical setting, common reclass paths include 68W (combat medic — broader scope, more field time), 68C (practical nursing), or the IPAP (Interservice Physician Assistant Program) track if your GPA and clinical hours support it. The reclass decision should be driven by what you want to do for the next 10 years, not what the retention NCO offers this quarter.
  • TSP enrollment under the Blended Retirement System (BRS).
    Same math as every MOS: the government matches 1% automatically and up to 4% more if you contribute 5% of base pay. At E-1/E-2 pay, the 5% contribution is a modest amount — but the compound growth from starting at 19 versus 26 is genuinely life-altering. Talk to the unit financial counselor in your first week at the MTF.
  • College degree completion while serving — the respiratory therapy BS path.
    Many accredited respiratory therapy programs offer degree-completion tracks for credentialed RTs. The Army's Tuition Assistance program covers up to $250 per semester hour (FY2026 cap). A BS in Respiratory Therapy, combined with your RRT credential and your Army clinical experience, positions you for supervisor and management roles in the civilian market. Start the degree early; the credits accumulate over a 4-year enlistment if you take one course per term.
  • IPAP (Interservice Physician Assistant Program) — the long-term clinical escalation play.
    IPAP is the Army's physician assistant program, open to enlisted soldiers with sufficient college credits (typically 60+ semester hours including anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and microbiology) and clinical experience. 68V clinical hours count toward the application. The program is competitive — acceptance rates are published by AMEDD — but a 68V with an RRT, strong GPA, and ICU experience is a strong candidate. The commitment is long (2+ years of school plus an ADSO), but the career change is permanent and the civilian PA market is robust.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Major Medical Center (MEDCEN) — BAMC, Madigan, Tripler, Womack, Beaumont
    The large MEDCENs have full respiratory therapy departments with 15-30 RTs, dedicated PFT labs, sleep labs, pulmonary rehab programs, and specialty ICUs (NICU, burn, trauma, cardiac). You rotate through all of them. The clinical variety is the best in the Army — you will see complex ventilator cases, rare pulmonary diseases, and neonatal respiratory failure. The trade-off: you are one of many, and the competition for specialty rotations and preceptor time is real.
  • Community Hospital (MEDDAC) — Blanchfield, Irwin, Weed, others
    The smaller MEDDAC community hospitals have 5-10 RTs covering the same clinical ground with fewer bodies. You get more scope earlier because you have to — the night shift may be you alone covering the entire hospital's respiratory needs. The clinical variety is narrower (fewer specialty ICUs, no NICU at most), but the independence is real. The RT who thrives at a MEDDAC is the one who is comfortable making clinical decisions with the physician on call, not at the bedside.
  • Deployed Role 2/3 (CSH or Field Hospital)
    Deployed respiratory therapy is ventilator management in an austere environment. Portable ventilators with limited modes. Oxygen from concentrators, not wall piping. Transport ventilation for MEDEVAC patients. The clinical skills are the same; the environment strips away everything that makes them easy. Field exercises (Warrior Medic, Global Medic, MTF deployment readiness exercises) prepare you for this, but the first real deployment teaches you what the exercise could not.
  • METC / AMEDDC&S Instructor Cadre (Fort Sam Houston)
    Some senior junior-enlisted 68Vs are retained as AIT instructor cadre at METC after demonstrating strong clinical skills. This is a training billet, not a clinical one — you teach the next generation of 68Vs in the lab and the classroom. The clinical hours may be limited compared to an MTF assignment, but the teaching experience and the instructor identification are career-enhancing. Not a common E-3 assignment, but it exists.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good cherry 68V is the RT the ICU charge nurse asks for by name at shift change — not because she is the most experienced, but because she is the most reliable. Her ABG draws are clean on the first stick. Her ventilator setups match the physician order exactly. Her PFT reports are reproducible on the first session because she coached the patient through the maneuver instead of rushing through it. She charts every treatment with a pre/post assessment, not just a completion note. She took the NBRC CRT exam within 60 days of AIT graduation and passed. She is studying for the RRT on her own time, using a commercial review course and the clinical cases from her ICU rotations. She volunteers for the night shift because that is where the difficult cases and the unsupervised decision-making happen. When the 0300 ventilator alarm goes off, she assesses, intervenes, and calls the physician with the result — not the question. By her first re-enlistment window, the department chief has her on the NICU rotation list. Her BLS and ACLS are current without reminders. Her SVT passes on the first attempt every year. The senior RT on her shift trusts her with the complex vent patient because she has earned it one correct setting, one clean ABG, one reproducible PFT at a time. The bad cherry 68V is the one who passed AIT but never sat the CRT exam, who charts treatments without pre/post assessments, and who treats the ventilator alarm as someone else's problem. The difference is not talent — it is discipline.

Preview — The Next Rank

E-4 Specialist is the rank where the clinical expectations shift from supervised to trusted. As an SPC you are expected to manage ventilated patients without someone checking your settings, draw ABGs without someone standing behind you, and run PFTs that the referring physician does not have to repeat. You are the shift RT the charge nurse calls first — not the senior RT. The RRT credential should be earned or in final preparation. BLC (Basic Leader Course) should be on the schedule. The department chief is evaluating whether you can supervise junior RTs and whether you can function as the RT on the code-blue team without prompting. The NCOER feeder counseling sessions begin to matter — your clinical outcomes (ABG success rate, ventilator weaning participation, PFT reproducibility) become the bullets that move you toward E-5. The career fork at E-4 is real: stay clinical 68V and pursue the RRT-ACCS/NPS specialty path, or pivot toward the IPAP (PA) track, or explore the flight medic (F1) path, or consider the 670A (Health Services Maintenance Technician) warrant officer route. Each path requires different preparation — the SPC who waits until E-5 to start the conversation has already missed the optimal window.
FAQ

68V E1-E3 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E1-E3 68V (Respiratory Specialist) actually do?
You come out of AIT at the AMEDDC&S, Fort Sam Houston with a clinical skill set most Army MOS never touch: ventilator management, arterial blood gas draws, pulmonary function testing, oxygen therapy, aerosolized medication delivery, and airway management support.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E1-E3 68V?
Your AIT at the AMEDDC&S, Fort Sam Houston gives you the clinical foundation to sit for the NBRC Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) exam immediately upon graduation.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E1-E3 68V?
Time-blocked day at the E1-E3 68V rank tier: 0500 Wake. Shower, shave, uniform check. If you are on day shift (0600-1800), you are out the door by 0530, 0545 Arrive at the respiratory therapy department. Check the shift report board — how many ventilated patients, pending ABGs, PFTs scheduled, treatments due. Get your assignment from the outgoing shift lead, 0600 Shift change. Bedside handoff on your ventilated patients — mode, settings, last ABG, overnight events, weaning status. Check each vent against the current physician order, 0630-0800 Morning ventilator rounds.…
Q04What mistakes get E1-E3 68V soldiers fired or relieved?
Not sitting the NBRC CRT exam before your first PCS. The exam is available at Pearson VUE testing centers near Fort Sam Houston. Once you leave, the logistics get harder and the urgency fades. Take it while the material is fresh; DUI or drug pop — separation under AR 635-200 ch.14, loss of clinical privileges, and a re-enlistment code that follows you into the civilian RT job market where background checks are standard; ACFT failures — repeated failures trigger flagging;…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E1-E3 68V rank tier?
NBRC CRT immediately vs. wait for the RRT — Take the CRT immediately upon AIT graduation — it is available, you are prepared, and the credential travels with you. The RRT requires additional clinical hours and the Clinical Simulation Exam (CSE) on top of the TMC exam; most 68Vs complete the RRT requirement within 12-18 months at their first MTF. Do not wait for the RRT to take the CRT. The CRT is the floor; the RRT is the ceiling you build toward. Some states accept CRT for entry-level practice; most prefer RRT for independent clinical work; First re-enlistment: stay 68V vs.…
Q06What's next after E1-E3 for a 68V (Respiratory Specialist) in the Army?
E-4 Specialist is the rank where the clinical expectations shift from supervised to trusted.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E1-E3 68V need to know cold?
STP 8-68V13-SM-TG — Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide for MOS 68V (skill levels 1-3).; TC 8-800 — Medical Education and Demonstration of Individual Competence.; AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management.

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Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards