Hey guys, currently on the fence about HPSP. I think that if I sign, I'd like to do a flight surgeon tour and just extend to complete my payback and go on to civilian residency. My question is, how competitive are these billets, and what branch is best to go into? I searched and found some really old threads saying that Navy flight surgery is/was competitive, but with them not even making HPSP quota anymore is this still true? Thanks
Flight billet
- Thread starter bnm126
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I would think no. I have a couple of friends who did FS a few years ago and they told me that in their classes there were about 76-78 FS applicants for 75 spots, and that was when it was more competetive. My class is struggling to make 50% and I'm not sure recruiting has done much better the last couple of years. If you do the math, FS should really be hurting for warm bodies here in a couple of years.Hey guys, currently on the fence about HPSP. I think that if I sign, I'd like to do a flight surgeon tour and just extend to complete my payback and go on to civilian residency. My question is, how competitive are these billets, and what branch is best to go into? I searched and found some really old threads saying that Navy flight surgery is/was competitive, but with them not even making HPSP quota anymore is this still true? Thanks
- Dec 12, 2003
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Hey guys, currently on the fence about HPSP. I think that if I sign, I'd like to do a flight surgeon tour and just extend to complete my payback and go on to civilian residency. My question is, how competitive are these billets, and what branch is best to go into? I searched and found some really old threads saying that Navy flight surgery is/was competitive, but with them not even making HPSP quota anymore is this still true? Thanks
As a current Human Weapons Expert for the Air Force, it is my estimation that Flight Surgery in the Navy is competitive, while it is non-competitive in the Air Force. If you want to be a flight surgeon in the air force (and you are physically qualified) iit is easy to get a spot. Just don't apply for residency during your 4th year of med school. Can't speak for the Navy, though. Not sure how much quota has anything to do with it though. They are trying to make the GMO/FS billets manned by residency-trained docs. However, if you don't want to do residency, I don't see how they can force into GME beyond your internship year
Another thing to keep in mind is that the minimum FS tour for the Navy is 3 years, while it is only 2 years for the AF (Just in case you change your mind and want to go back into residency early)
For the past several years, Flight Surgery has had more applications than positions. This is a bit misleading as many apply for GME2 positions as well as flight surgery and undersea medicine (some do all three). In the end, there is very close to a one to one applicant to position after people accepted for GME2 decline FS.