AF HPSP med student married to F-16 pilot.

[rikaram26]

I am an Air Force HPSP medical student married to an F-16 pilot. I wanted to get some input as to if I should do an Air Force or civilian residency? Also, what do you think are the chances of us being stationed together? How long do we have to be married before we can ask to be stationed together?

Thank you!

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[The White Coat Investor]

I am an Air Force HPSP medical student married to an F-16 pilot. I wanted to get some input as to if I should do an Air Force or civilian residency? Also, what do you think are the chances of us being stationed together? How long do we have to be married before we can ask to be stationed together?

Thank you!

You can ask anytime you want. It doesn't mean you'll get it. Has your spouse thought about getting out while you're in residency? Otherwise, the chances of you being able to be together during those years are pretty low. Although I had a fellow resident married to a non-deployable A-10 pilot (she wasn't HPSP though.) She managed to get residency in a town that had an A-10 base. Chances of being together are probably better after residency though. If you're not going to be together, I'd try to get the best training possible, which probably means civilian, depending on your specialty. Good luck.

 

[BomberDoc]

Best of luck with the joint spouse assignment. During my years on active duty, I know exactly zero mil-mil couples where one of the people is a physician that live together. One of my buddies got a "joint spouse" assignment with his wife... they are assigned to two different bases 200 miles apart, but the AF calls this joint. Mostly, however, they don't give a damn about your family. You are just a number filling a box.

I wouldn't get my hopes up, but would get a frequent flyer plan. Hopefully you or your spouse lives near an airline hub and GTFO ASAP.

 

[rikaram26]

I heard that if I specialized in something like family med or peds, I could follow him around to the bases he gets stationed. Is that a bunch of crap?

 

[orbitsurgMD]

I am an Air Force HPSP medical student married to an F-16 pilot. I wanted to get some input as to if I should do an Air Force or civilian residency? Also, what do you think are the chances of us being stationed together? How long do we have to be married before we can ask to be stationed together?

Thank you!

If you can cross-deck to a Navy facility for training, you could both co-locate in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There is Langley AFB and Naval Hospital Portsmouth nearby. There might be a similar work-around possible in the San Antonio area also.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

If you can cross-deck to a Navy facility for training, you could both co-locate in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There is Langley AFB and Naval Hospital Portsmouth nearby. There might be a similar work-around possible in the San Antonio area also.

FYI they don't fly F-16s at Langley, they fly F-22s.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I heard that if I specialized in something like family med or peds, I could follow him around to the bases he gets stationed. Is that a bunch of crap?

If you do family med you probably could follow him around. But that doesn't apply for residency. You'd just have to get lucky to be able to be with him during residency, whether you do civilian or military. Not that I would choose a specialty based on that.

 

[megadon]

I had very little luck when my wife and I were both active duty, and we were both line, Navy and Marines (she was the Marine). She did get moved up to Norfolk for her last two years though. My advice is talk about how much time you are willing to spend apart, your training civilian or military may be very difficult to do in the same place as your husband. You are much more flexible, in my naive med student view, of being able to follow him around either as a civilian, if he wants to make the Air Force a career.

 

[dpill]

You should be able to work a join spouse assignment once you finish your training- and you shouldn't have to limit yourself to family practice or peds to make that happen. For example, Luke has a reasonable sized hospital with many specialties and you know it should be easy for your husband to get assigned there. Other F-16 bases have clinics or hospitals that vary in size and again, you should be able to work something out as long as you don't specialize in something they only have a Wilford Hall . Military training for you is going to be more difficult simply because there aren't any AF training hospitals near active duty F-16 bases. Your best bet is probably civilian training. My husband and I are in the same boat and I am not exactly sure what I am going to do. Worse case I can do an intern year then serve as a flight doc at his base until we can work something out for my training. It will be easier to work a join spouse assignment once you are on active duty and have someone in your leadership chain advocating for you- when my husband and I were on active duty (before med school) we had no problem getting stationed together. In fact, I had an assignment curtailed so I could move with him. The best advice I can offer is to try to work your assignments far in advance, get your leadership involved, and try to be flexible. Good luck!