A Brigade Surgeon position for me was not a GMO position. As an operational assignment I learned a lot from it with respect to leadership, system planning, mentorship, etc. A quality professional must have Knowledge, Skills, Attitude. The last point many people need to work on...
just to clarify, that's not directed here is it? more toward the general AMEDD? the "leadership, planning, professional" line of BS has been the "selling point" of BDE surgeon tours for years. if that's the case why aren't people volunteering left and right for these amazing opportunities? it's all spin. to argue a BDE surgeon assignment makes you a better physician (not officer) unless you are prev med is spurious at best. i've yet to run across someone who was medically better off. more likely to get promoted, have good things happen to you-- i'd damn well expect that to be the case. and if they are so great, why is there so much mystery and smoke filled room shenanigans going on when they are assigned?
that being said, my attitude when deployed or at my 2 recent NTC rotations could not have been better. i don't blame the medics, the BDE staff, or the commanders for the failings of the AMEDD. you do what you can with what you have, and in those cases i agree attitude makes or breaks it. but sometimes "you need to have the right attitude" is a thinly veiled "just accept it and move on." like a recent article i read stated-- we don't need more training in resiliency, we need training on how to be resistant to abuse.
HighPriest,
Who are you and where do you work? Would love to provide you some far less bitter mentorship. Bottom-line to everyone, come into the military with a plan, modify your plan along the way as fit, and if it tips towards getting out then get out and move on. A decade or fifteen years is professionally not that horrible in my mind.
like
@HighPriest mentioned, there is no plan. i have tried to "plan" for the last 12 years and other than when i been in training status during residency or fellowship, can't plan. at our captain's career course one of the instructors talked about a "career map"-- making it sound so simple. the problem is the original "career map" we signed up for (pre 9/11) had at least 4 career tracks that were all ways to have a satisfying career. those have all been pruned to a single doublewide track of clinical/operational. if you are allowed to do clinical it is with operational hovering over your head until you retire or ETS. to be able to plan you have to have some transparency and trust the people running the show-- which currently doesn't exist.
not to say i haven't had mentors. i've had great mentors-- mentors not only in medicine but in their family life as well, ones i that i will have relationships with until we die. the problem i have is my mentors have a totally different set of experiences to draw from. they have not been BDE surgeons, or had to worry about being forced to an unaccompanied tour to korea as a flight surgeon for no real reason other than they needed a body. they may have deployed, but only for 4-6 months. the current senior O4/O5 group is in uncharted territory, and we are the ones breaking ground in how to navigate the "new" AMEDD, and are relying on each other to figure out the system because no one really knows what the system is. look at promotions. everyone knows someone passed over for no reason, and people who get "rewarded" with promotions and choice assignments who have never deployed, are non-deployable, haven't PCSd in a decade, are lazy clinicians, etc. look at assignments. i make the best of it because the alternative is i go crazy, lol.
lastly-- 10-15 years of arguable the *prime* of your life to me is a big deal. 10-15 years "professionally" in some cases is 30+% of your career. sure, it can be overcome, but it's not an excuse for the abuse.
sorry for the mini cathartic spewage. i'm really a pretty easy going guy, and all in all am ok with my situation. but occasionally i get riled up. plus it's friday.
--your friendly neighborhood pizza and beer time caveman