I am a little ignorant on how things work in the Navy as a dentist. I have been searching the forum, and i'll keep doing do, but i was wondering how things work for dentists regarding time. After graduation when you start work as a dentist, do you get assigned to a ship? If so, how long do you spend on the ship at a time? Are the deployments mentioned here the same as being deployed on a ship, or is this referring to being sent to a war zone? Do you spend 2 yrs of your time on a ship and 2 years on land? Just trying to sort out some of this. Thanks for your help.
You will graduate and you can choose to do 1 year AEGD or 1 year GPR. Those years are called neutral years meaning they do not count towards payback. Now if you rather go straight to active duty. They usually send you to big clinic (San Diego, Norfolk, Okinawa, etc) to get credentialed meaning you will work under an experienced dentist who will oversee your dental work and clear you to work on patients on your own.
After this first year, you will usually take 2 years orders to either a ship
or with the Marines. Both are considered operational meaning you will deploy to the Persian Gulf sometime during those two years.
If you choose ship, you will only work on the ship and go home if the ship is docked in the US. Normal hours on a ship is 7-4pm. The ship usually goes to the Persian Gulf about once every 2-3 years or so where you have no choice but to live on the ship while it is on its way to the Persian Gulf.
During the rest of the time, you will probably go out to sea with the ship at around one week out of the month.
The main advantage of a ship is that if the ship goes to sea, they may make a port call where it will visit a port city such as the Florida Keys, New York, San Diego. If you are on an EAST COAST SHIP and you are heading or already in the Persian Gulf, you ship will go to Bahrain, Malta, Barcelona, Naples, Athens, Dubai. WEST COAST ships may make port calls to Honolulu, Sydney, Hong Kong, Bangkok.
You will be more away from your home but if you are single and you like to see different countries and cities then ship life might be for you. It is no luxury liner so be prepared to share a room with up to 7 other people with 4 sets of bunk beds.
You can choose to go be stationed with the Marines. This is basically a 7-4pm job where 75% of the time you will be on shore duty. The only time that you may leave your home is when the Marines get activated to go to the Persian Gulf area which is usually 7 months. With the Marines, you will most likely end up in the combat zone on land with them but most of the other time you are basically on shore.
The other choice is overseas. If you would like to work in Japan, you will be stationed there for 3 years if you want to move your family with you or 2 years unaccompanied meaning you move by yourself. You can also be on a ship and with the Marines as well in Japan.
You can try to get other countries like England, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Guam but they may be harder to get due to seniority.
After your 2-3 year operational tour, you will then negotiate to go back the US on a shore duty tour which can last 3 years BUT if you only owe one more year to the Navy, you should just extend at your last command.
ALL change of duty stations require usually a two year commitment.
So a sample duty tour, if you want to do an AEGD and owe 4 years for HPSP, the first year does not count towards payback.
Year 1 AEGD
Year 2 Ship
Year 3 Ship
Year 4 Norfolk
Year 5 Norfolk
If you want to only do 4 years, you would do this
Year 1 Norfolk for credentialing
Year 2 Marines
Year 3 Marines
Year 4 Marines (Extend by one year)
So remember do not take change of duty orders to a new command if you only owe one more year left to the Navy, just extend at your last command unless you are happy and want to stay an extra year.
You do have some negotiation powers. You will fill out a dream sheet to a detailer and you will list your top three choices. The detailer will then based on the needs of the Navy will call you to decide where to send you.