Bump.
I am a May 2015 graduate of Auburn University and I am considering joining the Army Veterinary Corps. I am in private practice currently and I am looking to do something more challenging and fulfilling (not a knock on GP at all). I was wondering if there was anyone out there currently active duty that I could contact to gather more information. I have been doing a lot of research on what the corps entails, but I would like to get some personal experiences from veterinarians that graduated first, then joined the corps. Here are a few of my questions just off the top of my head:
If I were to apply, what is the time-line from acceptance into the corp and beginning training?
What is the minimum requirement for time of service if I join?
Is the application competitive for veterinarians that have already graduated? Would it be more difficult for me to get into a First Year Graduate Veterinary Education Program since I did not do the HPSP scholarship while in vet school?
What alternatives are there to clinical residencies provided by the Army?
If there are any current active duty veterinarians out there willing to share their stories/advice/do's/don'ts please email me at
[email protected]
Any information is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, guys!
While it's not unheard of for a private practice vet to come on active duty, it is unusual. It's really a numbers game. If they fill the numbers with HPSP grads, they don't need others. An AMEDD recruiter would be the best person to answer the accessions questions. As far as training, you'll have to go through the Basic Officer Leadership Course, which is divided into several phases. I'm being vague here because they recently changed things. Based on RUMINT (RUMor INTelligence) there is a prep phase that teaches you some of the stuff one would learn in ROTC or OCS. There is the long phase (surely it has a real name, but I did the Signal Officer Basic Course, so I don't know) where you learn about being an officer, how to show up on time, some really, really, really basic soldiering stuff, etc. Finally, there is Vet Track, which is 5 weeks of some fun and a bunch of boredom. You'll get "Vet School in a Week" where you will go through surgical techniques and do a terminal surgery that starts around 6 AM and ends around 6PM. The next day, you'll do a necropsy. That's the fun week. The rest of the time is focused on the stuff you didn't get in vet school - everything you ever wanted to know about food inspections. If they offer you the caffeine fortified gum, take it. It'll come in handy.
Your minimum service obligation is 8 years. I'm not certain what the Active Duty Service Obligation is for a direct accession. If you do FYGVE, the first year doesn't count toward your ADSO, but it does for retirement and pay. Personally, I wouldn't want to do FYGVE, but I've also got a decade of active duty experience. If you aren't good with time management (i.e. able to be your own boss and complete tasks on time that were assigned months ago) FYGVE might be good for you. To me, it's like vet school year 5. If I wanted to do an internship in academia, I would have applied for one. We do journal club weekly, we have something like 10 presentations covering animal medicine, preventive medicine, and leadership. We also have 3 45 minute presentations to give in each of those areas. You'll also have to do a presentation in grand rounds with a pathology resident from the Joint Pathology Center with the audience being the rest of the FYGVE sites. Training days suck (at least for us).
I'm not sure what you are asking regarding alternatives to clinical residencies. There is the public health option, if that's what you mean. If you mean what varieties are available, the answer is, "it depends". Traditionally, surgery and internal medicine are the main specialties for a 64F. There is a lab animal medicine residency and a pathology residency available at US Army institutions. Sometimes, radiology is available for a 64F. A lot of it depends on what year it is. People claim you have to do Long Term Health Education (LTHET). I'm not completely convinced of this, at least to some extent. It depends on your career goals. I know a guy who made Lieutenant Colonel with no LTHET - he just took the Preventive Med boards instead. I'm so close to retirement that incurring a 6 year ADSO by going to LTHET is stupid, unless I get a residency that I want. We are eligible to take the PM boards after 5 years, and there is a program available to help you study for them.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. The pay isn't bad. You can look up the base pay, BAH, and BAS for an O-3 under 2 years online. You'll also get about $208/month in special pay. Sounds great, until you consider that guys who went to school for 3 weeks and jump out of an aircraft a minimum of 4 times a year get $150/month.