hey you pre-meds out there thinking about military medicine:
Please don't get discouraged from the comments above. Look, life is all about how you frame things. Nothing is all that great . . .and nothing is all that bad.
If you really wanna know what military med is like, get off this forum and go talk to some actual military docs (in person!).
The ones who have positive things to say are probably not on this forum, b/c they're off doing great things. Unfortunatley, the disgruntled ones tend to b!tch the loudest (and that goes for all walks of life).
My bet is that most of the people complaining here have always been complainers . . you know the type . . .they're the ones who complained through high school, complained through college, complained through med school, complained through training . . . .
Now having said that, there are some valid reasons NOT to join the military (deploying, being in harms way, moving). Other than that, the rest of the complaints you see here are not unique to the military: military medicine is too bureaucratic (a civilian hospitla, HMO or PPO can also be a bureaucratic mess), skills atrophy (not necessarily true if you're at a large MTF, and may also be the case in a civilian hospital, especially if you're not practicing in a metropolitan part of the country), you get bossed around by non-physician officers b/c they outrank you (could also happen in the civilian world, where MBAs and JDs are taking over hospital operations!).
Anyway, in making your decision, focus on the military-specific qualities of life, that differentiate it from the civilian world. AND GET OFF THIS FORUM and talk to some real military docs in person . . . you'll be pleasantly surprised to find better experiences