pilot-physician program

Anyone have any experience with this program or any of the pilot-physicians? Anyone have any opinions or thoughts about it?

island doc said:

Pilot-Physicians are primarily assigned to an operational flying squadron in their respective aircraft. Primary assignment is that of a pilot, but they also spend time in the clinic seeing patients, usually the flight medicine clinic, but again that depends upon the medical specialty.

Pilot-Physicians are members of one of the most elite, exclusive groups in the military and are on the "fast track" for command, promotions, etc., akin to an assignment to the White House Medical Office. The current Physician to the President, Col. (Dr.) Richard Tubb is an Air Force FP.

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Is it a trade-off, though? Does the program boost your military career while basically narrowing your career options down to administrative or command positions very quickly? Can you do this and still have a strong clinical focus or is that pretty much out of the question?

island doc said:

Even though one does "serve two masters", I wouldn't exactly say that there is a "trade off", but more of a balance between the two. One is simply actively involved in both (military) aviation as a pilot and medicine, similar to civilian physician-pilots. Combines the best of both worlds.

IMO, such individuals are prepared to apply to the NASA Astronaut program (if there is still going to be one). I think I suggested this to you before.

Example of one USAF pilot-physician I know: Bronze Star Recepient, BTZ promotion to O-5, RAM graduate, active flyer assigned to an operational squadron and practices aerospace medicine, USAF NASA astronaut candidate.

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See, it's that sort of thing that I want to grab. What I don't want to do is be a half-assed doc and pilot. I want to go big, but I definitely need to research the program more. I'm going to keep an open mind until I've gotten through third year rotations, but this program is really attractive. You say NASA and I start salivating, it's pretty sad, really.

PalmettoGuy said:

Well I was specifically talking about getting into the program before your 10 year UPT commitment is up. For example, get qualified on your weapons system, finish a 3 year operational assignment, then get sent to med school. How difficult is that?

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It depends on how critical the manning in your airframe is. I tried to get out after 7 years while I was a C-17 IP and they refused. Getting out after 8 (my committment) was approved. So right now, with manning like it was for me, they're not approving early releases, even to stay in the military and go medical.

bbawco1 said:

I was exposed to a few physician-pilots and the concensus for becoming one was pretty straightforward...become a pilot first then go to med school. The docs said that it was hard to impossible to jump the hurdles needed to become a physician-pilot using the reverse track, that is med school then pilot. Just an add.

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I spoke with a current pilot-physician and his feeling is the reverse track may become more prevalent. The 10 year committment means pilots are starting to push the age limit when they're done, but the 4 year HPSP commitment (plus time for residency or whatever) is starting to become more attractive to finish and then go to UPT. I doubt it, myself, but that was his thought.

dpill said:

Read this bio- I believe he is still at Andrews. Interesting career!

http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7834

The AFI governing the program is AFI 11-405- if you haven't looked at it before.

I called many years ago and talked to someone in the program office about the program. Slots are limited- basically there has to be an opening in your field (airlift, fighter, helo) for you to join the program. I think the competitiveness is based a lot on the fact there aren't many positions available in the first place, and people in the program stick around a long time. I would try to track down someone in the program now to find out about current prospects.

If you check the site: http://www.iamfsp.net -you will see Col Travis (bio above) listed under "Members". Maj Wood is also listed under "Members" as a C-17 Pilot-Physician at Charleston, in case you are interested in trying to track him down. Otherwise, I think I personally called around at Brooks (USAFSAM) until someone could give me a number for the Pilot-Physician program office (I don't have it anymore). Good luck!

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I've spoken to Maj Wood. He's moved, but he's a really good dude. I've read the AFI. I spoke with some of the more senior pilot-physicians. They said to talk to them during my MS-4 year.

Col Hepburn is the commander of Travis AFB. Well, apparently the program doesn't hurt your career if Andrews and Travis are both under the command of a pilot-physician simulataneously.

I just want to get other impressions. I was speaking with one of my pilot buddies and he said he didn't respect pilot-physicians because each of those jobs was big enough to deserve full devotion and someone who tried to balance both ended up doing both halfway. I don't want to be seen as "that guy", not respected for my flying ability or my clinical skills. Yuck.

Heeed! said:

There's actaully someone with that name??? How lucky can you get?! I met a girl in high school whose name was Candy Barr...but I digress. Back to your originally scheduled programming....

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Yes, but I read he's been selected for Lt Col, so he's about to lose that joke. It's probably old to him now, anyway

I won't complain about the off topic posts, because they're funny and they bump the thread, but seriously, if anyone else has anything on topic to say, please chime in. I think this is going to be the major decision of my career. Maybe not, I mean there are several years before it really even comes up, but I think there's going to be a fork at some point and I want to see what people know/think about this program.

Big Dick Steehle