What about serving in the National Guard?

[acrunchyfrog]

I'm curious about Docs who decide to serve in the National Guard or another reserve component of the military. Has anyone had experience with this sort of thing?
I'd like to serve my country in the military, but it seems that the situation with military medicine is not the greatest right now. Serving part-time seems like an option(not including the inevitable deployment). Seems that you'd get to serve some, but not have to deal with the negatives of the poor admin and other frustrations day in/day out for several years.

I would think that for a primary care doc that deployment would kill a practice. Just for this instance let's assume that I ended up as an ER doc who did not actually have an assigned patient load.

I'm purely speculating on all points here. Any information given from those who are in the know would be appreciated.

Thanks to all who have served their country, and thanks again to everyone here who is sharing their insights for those of use who have yet to go down those paths.

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[jonb12997]

I'm a 2nd year at UNE and in the maine army guard,

I'm studying for boards, which are a week from this coming tuesday, so for now i'm going to refer you to...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=368104

 

[Tiger26]

Been in for 5 years-Probably the most f$cked up organization I've ever seen.

Like a car accident on the side of the road--you can't help but look, but it's better just to drive by.

 

[acrunchyfrog]

I'm a 2nd year at UNE and in the maine army guard,

I'm studying for boards, which are a week from this coming tuesday, so for now i'm going to refer you to...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=368104

Thanks for this thread. I looked thru the forum but missed this one somehow.

 

[SoonerBJJ]

Been in for 5 years-Probably the most f$cked up organization I've ever seen.

Like a car accident on the side of the road--you can't help but look, but it's better just to drive by.

Care to elaborate?

 

[MaxAnn]

I have heard similar complaints about the Air National Guard where people are promoted from within. You could be qualified and motivated to move up, but if they don't like you, it is a no go. The ironic thing is that Air National Guard and Air Force recruiters alike readily spouted similar things about advancement. It seems that since both the air national and army national guard are under the control of the state, there is a greater propensity for the "good ol boy" mentality.

On top of all that, there are a great many "ghosts" in the guards, or people who haven't shown up for drills consistency or not at all.