My Boss was am Army Microbiologist at Fort Detrick for 20 years, he has many friends in Vet command and put me in touch with one. Here is what I found out.
1. HPSP is only 3 years for Veterinarians. If you choose to serve longer as an active duty Vet you can receive an additional 110K to payoff your first year (this is payable over a three year period)
EVERYONE who joins the military who does not have prior military service accrues a military service obligation (MSO) of eight (8) years. If you don't do eight years on active duty, you will do them in the Reserves or the IRR. The only way out altogether is if you're chaptered out for the appropriate reason. Depending on the reason, HPSPers can be held to repaying any monies Uncle Sam lent them.
If you Commission, you are obligating yourself to an active duty service obligation (ADSO) of three (3) years. If you choose to resign your AD commisision after completing that time, you still have five years to complete in the Reserves or the IRR.
I cannot emphasize the "can" of that "can receive an additional..." hard enough. It is not guaranteed. That amount, I assume, is through taking advantage of the SLRP/federal act that was passed. Even if you are active duty, you have to apply and there are a limited number of awards. If there is a new retention bonus I haven't heard about for AD, then I stand corrected and someone needs to point me to the memorandum. The only retention bonus I am aware of is the one for Reservists right now.
2. Most positions in the Army for the Vet Corps is food-animal/public health, animal care, and research.
Most positions are
food/public health, a little animal care, and research if you do longterm health education training (LTHET) in the appropriate MOS. There are a few Captains that fall into duty assignments at research facilities, but they are few and far between and usually reserved for those lifers interested in being a Charlie/Echo to begin with.
As a shiny new Alpha, in general, 66-75% of your time will be devoted to the public health/food safety and security missions and crap that goes along with them even though the 25-33% you devote to animal care will try to take up 80% of your time. That is assuming you're slotted into an OIC/Section Chief assignment. If you're slotted into a Branch Chief assignment, 100% of your time will be devoted to being the boss to the other Captains in your AO as well as your Romeo's if there is a large TISA component to your Branch and our share of the sanitary audits/food inspection. Animal care will come as you have the opportunity to squeeze it in once your other duties are filled first.
Understand there is wide variablity in these generalities. Why? Because it all depends on where you are and what your supervisors feel the Vet Corps METL should be. Obviously, your specific split will be skewed if you have 40 sanitary audits or 300 government owned horses or 200+ military working dogs in your AO.
3. If you are thinking about an advanced degree program after the DVM you must wait until you have completed your active duty requirements.
Not quite. You must complete one OCONUS duty assignment, have completed both phases of C3, submitted your LTHET packet and been selected and as a rule are newly promoted or within spitting distance of promotion (on the list) to Major.
For a brand new year 0 Captain straight out of OBLC and veterinary school, that is around the year 5-7 mark and highly dependent on how high speed you are.
If you come into the VC with the enough constructive credit from being in private practice, you can and are fast-tracked through the lifecycle. There are a couple from my OBC class who met all these criteria inside our first three years on Active Duty.
If anyone wants a copy of the average VC Officer lifecycle, IM me your email and I'll see if I can dredge it up for you.
4. You are a non-combatant and do not have to enter basic training. You do have to complete the officer's training course and a special course for army health professions.
This is not entirely accurate, either.
We, even though "part" of AMEDD, are not afforded the classification as non-combatants like other medical personnel (MDs/ODs/Nurses/etc). If push came to shove, you are expected to pick up a weapon and start firing like the Soldier you are. Sorry.
No Officer does "basic training". At least not like the 18 yo with the GED does. There is Officer Basic Course (OBC) - although as I understand it they've changed its name to something silly like Officer Basic Leadership Course (OBLC) and then promptly shortened it by a couple weeks when it wasn't long enough to begin with.
The "special course", I am assuming, is the 5-week (or shorter if your HPSP?) Corps-specific track tacked on at the end.
My boss retired as a full Col. from the Army and for the most part enjoyed his career, but hated the bureaucracy.
I think the Army vet corps is a good way to go if you are interested in Food-animal/public health (i.e. meat inspections) or research. From what I was told those small animal and equine jobs are few and far between, which is something you should know if that is your end career goal.
For those of us OOS in huge debt there are other options besides the Army...
The Army is a good way to go if you are looking at what you can do beyond being an "animal doctor". Particularly in public health, pathology or R&D. Not sure where you got "meat inspection" from.
There are a lot of companion animal residencies awarded in the LTHET program. Granted the bulk of the awards are for MPHs/PhDs, but there's more than a couple foxtrot slots awarded every cycle. However, nobody stays "clinical" their entire career. You do your utilization tour and then start climbing the ladder of Leadership.
Somebody has to be the next Corps Chief... You will usually get further (i.e., COL and up versus LTC) if you stay in the public health (Bravo) and R&D (Charlie/Echo) side of the Corps versus the clinical (Foxtrot) side. Although the current VETCOM Commander (named after COL Walker died) is a Foxtrot, so sometimes it does happen.
I've said it elsewhere but will continue to say it until I am dead. If your only reason for being interested in the Vet Corps is because of money and educational debt, you are doing it for the wrong reason. Do yourself and the Corps a favor; look into APHIS or USDA. Everyone, including yourself, will thank you.
i get in somewhere, I will probabaly apply. Besides, applying is no promise that you will be accepted! (although, it seems like most people here are very smart, and have the stats to get in!)
I thought it was kinda cute that I was defending a post I made over a year ago
