Air vs Army National Guard

[Smalls02]

I know there are a lot of threads already on this topic, but I was hoping to clarify some things and get the most up-to-date info. For context, I am a pre-med student planning on specializing in EM (also thinking General Surgery or Critical Care). I have always wanted to serve so while I appreciate any info on the benefits, please know I’m not in this for money and I hope to have a long career in the military. So here are the questions I have:

RECRUITERS: Is the AMEDD the Army’s specific recruiters for medical professionals? Does the Air Guard have an equivalent to this?

EARLY COMMISSIONING: I’ve learned from this very helpful article (Joining The Army National Guard For Medical School | White Coat Investor) that with the ARNG you can commission as soon as you have a letter of acceptance for med school. I saw in other threads that the ANG was trying to do something like this. Has anything happened with this? Also, I am in a 3+4 for medical school so I will have a letter of acceptance to med school after junior year but not a bachelor's degree (that will come a year later). Can I commission before med school even though I won’t have a degree? How difficult is it to go to drills during this time (I think the base locations are going to be 3-4 hours from my med school.) Does time during med school and residency count towards retirement with either of the branches?

MED SCHOOL STIPEND: If the ANG does have early commissioning, do they offer any stipends while in med school? More a curiosity question, but any ideas of what this is up to a month in ARNG? (The article above said $2,100 but that’s from 2013.) If I would decide to take this one year, can I change my mind and not take it the next?

RESIDENCY STIPEND: Is the STRAP program only ARNG or does ANG have it too? In your opinions is this stipend worth it/needed in residency?

HPLRP: Do both branches have this program and is the same amount offered? Referencing the article, it says medical loans are repayable up to $240K. I think when I searched for ANG, I was seeing only an $80K cap but the articles were outdated. Does anyone know the current numbers or where I could find them? Do the medical loans have to be government loans, or can they be personal loans from a bank?

"JOBS": As I said above I want to serve and be as useful as I can. I know they don’t risk having doctors on the front lines but what is the closest they have physicians to “point of impact” and how would any of the specialties I’m interested in (EM specifically but also Gen Surgery or Crit Care) fit into that? This may seem silly, but could you explain it in reference to M*A*S*H; like would what you are describing be care that is provided before a patient was brought to a field hospital, care provided at the equivalent of MASHs today, or care provided after they left a field hospital. I’m trying to keep my mind from forming misconceptions about military medicine, so I apologize if I am way off base on this. Also, how do I know what units in my state have specific “jobs” like ANG’s CCATT? Even if you are part of a group like this, what do you do during a weekend drill compared to deployment?

DEPLOYMENTS/LIFESTYLE: How do the length and frequency of deployments compare between the two? Does it vary by specialty? I saw somewhere that ANG deployments are voluntary and ARNG are not; is this true? And lastly, how does the overall lifestyle of the two compare?

Sorry for the book of questions. I appreciate the time you took to read this and any help/advice/info that can be provided. I hope this can be helpful for others in the future.

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[DMBandFan86]

Have you talked to a recruiter? Go talk to an AMEDD recruiter. They will answer most of these questions for you.

Do you want to be in the Army or the Air Force? That’s the big difference. Army is generally ground and land forces. Air Force is generally air and land. Why do you want to be in the guard and not considering the reserves?

If you want to have a long career in the military and the money doesn’t matter why aren’t you looking at active duty? People always say something like the money doesn’t matter and then ask 3 paragraphs of questions about the money. Of course the money matters. Your commitment time also matters. And since you haven’t actually experienced what the military is like I would recommend not stacking up a huge commitment at the front.

You can volunteer for missions or deployments in the guard. You may get those or you may not. You may also be deployed on short notice. Your civilian job has to follow certain laws, but may not be military friendly.

what do you do during a weekend drill compared to deployment? - I’m not sure what you are reading. Weekend drill is to prepare for deployments. Deployments are to do the work. Deployments vary on the mission. You could do absolutely nothing for 3-12 months or you could be near the heat of the battle. I have never seen MASH, but given that was out when my grandfather was alive I would say not accurate. Search ‘military medicine roles of care’ in google for idea of structure and care.

Deployments can be 3 months ideally for physicians. That doesn’t mean it works out that way. Your replacement might go AWOL or get sick. You may not have a replacement due to war shortages. Your command might decide you are needed longer. If you decide to do command then you are looking at 1 year for deployments.

Driving 3-4 hours each way to drill once a month during medical school sounds not ideal to me. Your school / clinicals may not be flexible with you, especially for Friday or Thursday drill start times. Your goal should be to focus on doing the best you can in school to get a competitive residency. If you have a big exam on Monday after a 3 day drill weekend, just realize you will have a disadvantage over everyone else. Especially the active duty or reserve component soldiers. Your medical school is most familiar dealing with the active duty component. That being said, NG is dependent on your command and you may get a good commander.

 

[Smalls02]

Have you talked to a recruiter? Go talk to an AMEDD recruiter. They will answer most of these questions for you.

Do you want to be in the Army or the Air Force? That’s the big difference. Army is generally ground and land forces. Air Force is generally air and land. Why do you want to be in the guard and not considering the reserves?

If you want to have a long career in the military and the money doesn’t matter why aren’t you looking at active duty? People always say something like the money doesn’t matter and then ask 3 paragraphs of questions about the money. Of course the money matters. Your commitment time also matters. And since you haven’t actually experienced what the military is like I would recommend not stacking up a huge commitment at the front.

You can volunteer for missions or deployments in the guard. You may get those or you may not. You may also be deployed on short notice. Your civilian job has to follow certain laws, but may not be military friendly.

what do you do during a weekend drill compared to deployment? - I’m not sure what you are reading. Weekend drill is to prepare for deployments. Deployments are to do the work. Deployments vary on the mission. You could do absolutely nothing for 3-12 months or you could be near the heat of the battle. I have never seen MASH, but given that was out when my grandfather was alive I would say not accurate. Search ‘military medicine roles of care’ in google for idea of structure and care.

Deployments can be 3 months ideally for physicians. That doesn’t mean it works out that way. Your replacement might go AWOL or get sick. You may not have a replacement due to war shortages. Your command might decide you are needed longer. If you decide to do command then you are looking at 1 year for deployments.

Driving 3-4 hours each way to drill once a month during medical school sounds not ideal to me. Your school / clinicals may not be flexible with you, especially for Friday or Thursday drill start times. Your goal should be to focus on doing the best you can in school to get a competitive residency. If you have a big exam on Monday after a 3 day drill weekend, just realize you will have a disadvantage over everyone else. Especially the active duty or reserve component soldiers. Your medical school is most familiar dealing with the active duty component. That being said, NG is dependent on your command and you may get a good commander.

Thanks for the reply!
I haven’t talked to any recruiters yet but I did recently go to the AMEDD website and put my email and phone number in to get in contact with a recruiter. I take it the Air Force doesn’t have specific recruiters for the med field?

I’ve always been interested in aviation so I was leaning more ANG but I have family members that were in the Army/ARNG so I wanted to keep that door open and evaluate my options. I have a family member who just finished his 20 years in the guard and he told me not to do reserve, so that was my biggest reason for not looking into the reserve. I also liked the idea of being able to help in local emergencies/disasters.

My plan since early high school was actually to go active duty and I researched a lot on HPSP. But I started to realize I wanted to be close to my family and hometown as much as I can. We don’t have any active duty bases close to us so I started looking into the guard.

I definitely could have worded my question about drill better, so my bad there. I guess a better question would be “what does drill look like for physicians?” And also “what does deployment look like for physicians?” The roles of care google search was very helpful! I knew there had to be a certain term/phrase used to describe what I was thinking.

I appreciate the advice about joining during med school and I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again!

 

[T687]

MED SCHOOL STIPEND: If the ANG does have early commissioning, do they offer any stipends while in med school? More a curiosity question, but any ideas of what this is up to a month in ARNG? (The article above said $2,100 but that’s from 2013.) If I would decide to take this one year, can I change my mind and not take it the next?

I believe that the MDSSP stipend and HPSP stipend are the same (MDSSP doesn't pay anything to your school, though), but I'm not 100% on that. If so, it's typically 75% of O-1 base pay and can be found here:

Armed Forces Health Professions Stipend and Financial Assistance Program Grant