Sorry, noob here. I have no family background in the US military, so I was wondering how everyone was picking the branch they want to pursue (besides location, family). I know an HPSP critical care fellow and she told me that air force life style is more comfortable while they get the worst locations etc. I want to get more perspectives on the different branches.
For USUHS in general (my first choice, so don't look at this from a discouragement standpoint, I just want to make sure it's clear) is not for people whose main goal isn't military service. By the time you are done with obligations incurred form USUHS itself and from any residency, you are likely going to be at, near, or over 10 years. 10 years is typically the make or break point, in that once you pass that, most feel that staying 20 makes sense.
So if your goal is a free medical education and then transition to civilian life, you will be on hold for a time. So keeping that in mind, I recommend researching the different branches to see which one you want to spend your time in, and choose based on that. If you are solely trying to get in, want to serve in the military, and don't care what branch, Army is the easiest to get into. I don't mean that negatively either, there are some amazing opportunities in the Army for doctors. The reason it is typically a bit easier to get into is that the Army has more doctors in than the other services, and as a result more seats at USUHS. They also have some of the more exotic, nice locals (like Tripler in Hawaii) but also some of the less nice ones. They are the biggest service and thus the most diverse.
I can tell you why I chose the Navy in the first place but I also don't want you to think I'm trying to tell you it's the best service. At least as of now, the Navy does a GMO tour VERY often after USUHS, which could be viewed as good or bad, depending on your perspective. It's immediate experience, fleet time to get used to the Navy, but also a delay in residency. I have heard rumblings of this going away, but who knows. There will always be a need for the GMO tour-type doctors in the fleet, so if it goes away, those spots will still have to be filled, it will just be after residency.
I got extremely sidetracked in this post, but anyways if you have questions about the Navy specifically or the military in general I can help try to answer them. Feel free to PM me.
