Army Operational medicine & Career Mgmt.

[Dr. Robb Bassett]

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Greetings to all old friends,

As I begin to choose rotation sites, I remember that poignant OBC advice: "You must manage your own career, cause nobody else will!"
Regardless of specialty, one of my future goals includes operational medicine. "That's why we joined the Arm-ay, hoooah?" Anyway, I have a Family practice rotation to book at a military site and I was wondering if anyone could comment on the most advantageous place to complete it. Obviously I am a med. student first and my clinical education is my top priority. However, I want to be in an environment to advance my pursuit of specialty training such as: airborne, ranger school, S.F. Q course, etc.
It seems like the obvious choices would be either Martin (home of Airborne/Ranger schooling) or WOMAC (Home of Airborne and Special Force units). Any thoughts on the best way to position myself and network are greatly appreciated (especially unorthodox or novel approaches as there seems to be no predetermined path). Thanks,

Robb Bassett

 

[Spectre33]

Hey D.O.nysus, I found this old thread on a google search. If you every managed to find an answer to this question I'd really like to hear it. Any advice on getting into operational medicine while still effectively training for a specialty would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DocRGR]

Go where ever you feel you will get the best training. I'm out of Bragg and have a little bias, but simply being a great Family Physician is the first priority. Operational medicine is a small community. Toward the end of intern year start talking with folks at the USASOC Surgeon's Office. At the moment the surgeon is COL Peter Benson. In other words, don't think you have to go to a certain residency to pursue operational medicine.