Joining the military after medical school...

[akestler]

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Most of the posts in this forum revolve around having the gov't finance your medical education and the subsequent service that follows. Are there any threads/posters who attended medical school on their own and then chose to join up? I'd be curious to hear stories. Thanks.

 

[st0rmin]

Most of the posts in this forum revolve around having the gov't finance your medical education and the subsequent service that follows. Are there any threads/posters who attended medical school on their own and then chose to join up? I'd be curious to hear stories. Thanks.

It's called the Financial Assistance Program (FAP). There is a sticky on it above.

 

[akestler]

It's called the Financial Assistance Program (FAP). There is a sticky on it above.

Nono, I'm not talking about financial assistance for medical school or residency. I am talking about doctors who finished medical school, did a residency and woke up one day and realized they wanted to serve their country. I am looking for these stories. Curious to see if they exist in this forum.

 

[GMO_52]

Nono, I'm not talking about financial assistance for medical school or residency. I am talking about doctors who finished medical school, did a residency and woke up one day and realized they wanted to serve their country. I am looking for these stories. Curious to see if they exist in this forum.

I'm aware of three such cases here in San Diego, 2 private practice physicians and an academic, one wanted to be a DMO (ED/IM guy) and one was a trauma surgeon who had worked the prior 20 years at Harborview. 2 are still in, one just got out.

 

[usnavdoc]

The only one Ive met was a civilian colorectal surgeon for 30 years. He retired from his civilian practice and joined to be a flight surgeon. Did that for 3 years and they brought him to portsmouth for the last few months before he got out. He was in his 60s. Kinda a strange case if you ask me.

 

[kaikai128]

There were two or three physicians at COT last summer that fell into this category. Each had a different story or a different reason, but it does happen.

 

[st0rmin]

Nono, I'm not talking about financial assistance for medical school or residency. I am talking about doctors who finished medical school, did a residency and woke up one day and realized they wanted to serve their country. I am looking for these stories. Curious to see if they exist in this forum.

Oh, well then, I know of two cases. One was an O-5 in my OBC class and the other is a Cardiology doc at WRAMC. I worked with the doc at WRAMC and he seemed happy... 🙂

 

[kingcer0x]

I know of 2 family medicine docs who were in civilian practice for 15-20 years before leaving to become AF flight surgeons. One is at Nellis and the other is at Randolph... the latter has been deployed 6 times already in his relatively short career.

 

[akestler]

I know of 2 family medicine docs who were in civilian practice for 15-20 years before leaving to become AF flight surgeons. One is at Nellis and the other is at Randolph... the latter has been deployed 6 times already in his relatively short career.

Where can I find more information about things like this? What's involved? How man years you commit? What the training is like, etc...

I plan on pursuing a medical degree and a residency, I'm not quite set on what I want to do yet but lately I've been thinking about possibly serving my country afterwards. IF anyone has any links/info. they could send that would be great.

Thank you.

 

[MDbefore30]

1. Where can we find out which specialties are in demand (in either the army or navy)?
2. If we do the FAP, can we choose where we practice after residency now? Has that changed at all since 2006? I for one would like to go to another country like Japan or Italy.

 

[HighPriest]

Lots of people want to go to another country. Whether or not that is an option, at least in the Army, depends heavily upon what kind of doc you are. For example, I could get stationed in Germany. All I have to do is stick around until O-6, and then if I'm lucky and my consultant loves me, it's a done deal.
That being said, I have friends in other specialties who went to Germany on their first PCS.
I think the important point is that if being stationed at one or a few places is of primary importance, the military is probably not a good idea. Maybe you'll end up there. Maybe you'll end up someplace God has forgotten.

 

[sonofva]

We actually had a faculty member from the family med/omm department at my med school join the reserves. I think he was just trying to make a little extra dough on the side. They brought him in as a major. Weirdly he was doing BOLC the same time I was. The difference was that after we were finished, I went back to school and he went of to Afghanistan...

 

[Cooperd0g]

I know of a ortho surgeon from Truckee, CA who joined at like 62 years old or something after his son, a Marine, died in Iraq. The news made it out like he had to get a presidential wavier to join at that age. The Navy wouldn't take him so he got his congressman involved. I also had a flight doc who was civilian ophthalmologist and just got fed up with insurance and running a business and decided that since he always wanted to fly he should join the Navy to become a flight doc. He seems pretty happy.