Well, ok. I guess that's my cue.
Where to begin. I was born at a young age...
Let me try again.
After graduating college, I signed up for the HPSP program prior to starting medical school. For me, the money was a big part (but I'll get to that later). I was also interested in deployment medicine; getting to work in interesting environments, and have experiences that other people in my same field wouldn't have.
The military was fairly unintrusive during medical school. Between the first and second year I had a 30 day course at the School of Aerospace Medicine, but that was fun and interesting in it's own right (I now know how many G-forces I can handle and at what point I pass out). During the 4th year, two of my electives were done at military hospitals, but since I was applying to military residencies anyways it didn't make much of a difference.
During school they paid for all of my books and required supplies, and they gave me a living stipend (now, I went to school in south florida and the stipend didn't even cover all of my rent, so there were still loans involved but they were much much smaller than my co-students).
When it came time to apply to residency (emergency medicine for me) I went through the military match hoping for a civilian deferral (meaning, approval from the military to do my residency at a non-military facility). I didn't get it and I spent a year as a general surgery intern. It was interesting, but not the specialty for me in the long run. At the end of that year I had the option of re-applying to the match or working out the remainder of my 4 year commitment as a general medical officer (working at a flight medicine clinic treating the coughs/colds of otherwise generally healthy soldiers/airmen). I opted to reapply to the match and because of my time in the internship I was able to beat out the medical students for a civilian deferral spot. For 3 years I was back in civilian life at an emergency medicine residency program in Illinois.
But alas, all good things come to an end. When residency finished I got reaccessioned into the military. Because of my interest in research and academic medicine, I applied for, and got a position as a staff physician at the military's largest medical center (and only Level 1 trauma center in the continental United States). Working here is much the same as working at any civilian academic center so the impact on my life (relative to my civilian counterparts) hasn't been much to speak of. Their salaries are higher but only about 2-2.5x
In a month and a half I'm being deployed. It's actually an exciting proposition. I don't want to spend my life working in a war zone, but I do want to have the experience of doing it. Yes, much of it will be drudgery, but so is much of the day to day work in the civilian world. It will be much of the same but in a unique environment, and something that will hopefully make a good story for time to come.
As for the money... whether or not it makes sense from a fiscal standpoint depends on how you manage your money and what your priorities are (which is why it drives me crazy to see people arguing the financial benefit/detraction as an absolute). For me, I am more comfortable having time-debt than money-debt. I know, based on how I manage my money, that it would take me a lot more than 4 years to pay off a medical school loan even with a civilian salary. During residency, even though my student loans were nearly 10 times less than some of my compatriots, they all continued to defer their loans (and accrue interest), and I paid my monthly balance (which gave me a bit less discretionary spending). With my military service I can apply to have my entire student loan debt discharged after 10 years of on-time payments (which would be a $20,000 savings). The gamble is that at the time it comes up for discharge, the program is still available.
(what program you ask?
http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service)
So, financially it makes sense for me. I don't need 200k, 300k, etc per year. I am plenty happy with my 90k. If I wanted I could moonlight a few times a month and significantly increase that amount, but I'd rather have my time off. So whether or not it makes sense for you depends on your lifestyle, your preferences for debt type, and a slew of other variables.
And I think that's enough freestyle explanations. Questions? Clarifications? Vitriolic diatribes?
10 years from now
