8 Year Commitment (4 Active & 4 IRR)

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w4nt2baDDS

Full Member
10+ Year Member
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From what I have read, the commitment for the 4-year HPSP is 8 years. Without any specialty residency that is 4 years active and 4 years ready reserve. However, if you were to specialize does that mean you could ultimately have zero years of ready reserve commitment?

Hypothetically:

4 years active + 4 years military OS residency + 0 years IRR??

Or is there always 4 years of IRR irrespective of how many years you are active duty?

Also, a friend recently told me that commissioned officers are IRR for life. My father-in-law was a pilot in the AF for 20 years and I believe he indeed could be re-activated if crazy enough circumstances ever arose. Are HPSP officers different?

The probability of a dentist going from IRR back to active is small (very small) but I just want to know what I'm signing up for so I can mitigate the number of surprises down the road.

Appreciate the help!
 
From what I have read, the commitment for the 4-year HPSP is 8 years. Without any specialty residency that is 4 years active and 4 years ready reserve. However, if you were to specialize does that mean you could ultimately have zero years of ready reserve commitment?

Hypothetically:

4 years active + 4 years military OS residency + 0 years IRR??

Or is there always 4 years of IRR irrespective of how many years you are active duty?

Also, a friend recently told me that commissioned officers are IRR for life. My father-in-law was a pilot in the AF for 20 years and I believe he indeed could be re-activated if crazy enough circumstances ever arose. Are HPSP officers different?

The probability of a dentist going from IRR back to active is small (very small) but I just want to know what I'm signing up for so I can mitigate the number of surprises down the road.

Appreciate the help!

Minimum commitment is 8 years total. I got out in 2004 (3 years AD) and finished my IRR in 2009 (5 yrs IRR). No more commitments. I don't think they've called up an IRR dentist since WWII.
 
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Minimum commitment is 8 years total. I got out in 2004 (3 years AD) and finished my IRR in 2009 (5 yrs IRR). No more commitments. I don't think they've called up an IRR dentist since WWII.

What did you do in IRR? I heard some people say you do nothing, while others say you report one day a year.
 
What did you do in IRR? I heard some people say you do nothing, while others say you report one day a year.

You do nothing. From what I heard, your name is kept on a list in case of a major national emergency and there is a dental need - they would rather use you then someone who has zero military experience