Military and Medicine

[tijames]

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i'm a premed biochem major. I'm starting to think that I would like to enter the military after undergrad and enter the special forces (SEALS or Rangers, etc), then enter medical school after 6 years in the special forces or so. Have any of you heard about people doing this? what are your general thoughts?

 

[neuroprotector]

i'm a premed biochem major. I'm starting to think that I would like to enter the military after undergrad and enter the special forces (SEALS or rangers, etc), then enter medical school after 6 years in the special forces or so. Have any of you heard about people doing this? what are your general thoughts?

It might be hard to convince schools that you're interested in the health and wellness of your fellow human being after spending six years learning new and interesting ways to kill them.

 

[BlackSails]

It might be hard to convince schools that you're interested in the health and wellness of your fellow human being after spending six years learning new and interesting ways to kill them.

Not at all. It would be very easy.

To the OP: Getting into one of those units is much harder than getting into med school.

 

[TheNextMD]

Do it. They'll even pay for you to go.

 

[midn]

It might be hard to convince schools that you're interested in the health and wellness of your fellow human being after spending six years learning new and interesting ways to kill them.

Ignore this comment.

If the military is your passion, then go for it. Medical school will be more than happy to take you after your time in the military. It maybe a tad bit difficult having to take the MCAT after 6 years of no formal schooling, but if you're able to get into the special forces, I think you'll have enough discipline to relearn the relevant material.

 

[neuroprotector]

So while my comment may have been a bit too sardonic to be useful, there's still quite a bit of things you'll have to consider in your application. A simple SDN search for military backgrounds could be helpful.

So why are you interested in special forces? More importantly, why do you want to go into medicine afterward? If you're looking for adventure and medicine, it's not hard to combine them in military medicine.

 

[Kthanksbye]

It might be hard to convince schools that you're interested in the health and wellness of your fellow human being after spending six years learning new and interesting ways to kill them.

I'll assume this is just a poorly executed joke, because if it's not, it's pretty stupid on John Kerry levels. (If you'll remember he accidentally revealed his low opinion of the US armed forces when he said the following: [FONT=Verdana,Sans-serif]“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”).

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. 😉

 

[neuroprotector]

I'll assume this is just a poorly executed joke, because if it's not, it's pretty stupid on John Kerry levels. (If you'll remember he accidentally revealed his low opinion of the US armed forces when he said the following: [FONT=Verdana,Sans-serif]“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”).

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. 😉

I thought I already made that clear.

In any case, there's still quite a bit of different work that needs to be done from a military perspective. My impression is that it'll help, but both careers are pretty ambitious. Not counting residency, that's ten years, assuming you go directly from one to the other. If you're interested in medicine and the military, there's lots of military scholarships for medical school. Have you looked at those?

 

[armybound]

yes it's possible, yes it's happened.

 

[OCallag]

Dude, if it's something you're passionate about then go for it. It's been done. Check out the military medicine forum page; they'll be able to offer advice and experiences on similar routes to medical school. Ignore the geniuses that hold the military in such high regard here in pre-allo.

 

[169817]

to the OP: my plan is to go into the military after coming out of medical school and serving as a doctor. In the special forces especially, you're trained as a soldier first and foremost, whatever your specialty is later. Honestly I don't know if I would be able to handle it from a moral standpoint to be trained to kill. Before going further, ask yourself why specifically you want to try for special forces. Is it to serve? Is it for the honor to be the best among the best? Is it just badass? Do you want to be on the front lines?

Maybe you could make that mental transition from soldier to doctor, but I know I would never be able to do so.

 

[AirForceK10001]

OP: If you have an interest in both medicine and a desire to serve in the Special Forces, look into the Pararescue or Combat Rescue Officer career fields in the USAF.

 

[Old Grunt]

It might be hard to convince schools that you're interested in the health and wellness of your fellow human being after spending six years learning new and interesting ways to kill them.

What an idiotic comment.

I've known several people who have gone from SF into med school at places like Tulane, etc. ADCOMs generally find those sort of applicants a little more interesting than the "I've wanted to be a doctor since I was three" crowd, and they generally have no trouble getting into places.

To the OP: If you want to do it, you can. I was an Infantry Officer who completed Ranger School and spent a year in combat and, though I wouldn't want to do it again, I am glad for the experiences I had in the military. I've had multiple interviews and acceptances and have never once been asked a stupid question like "why do you want to be a doctor after learning new and unique ways to kill people?". If I do per chance get it in any of my next three interviews, I will most likely look at the questioner as if they had a stump growing out of their head.

The only advice I give to people who are thinking about serving is to do it for the right reasons. Money is not a good reason to serve in the military.

If you are dead set on doing it and are ambivalent towards the different options you have, join ROTC, try to commision as an Infantry Officer, and then fight for a slot in the 75th Ranger Regiment. That way you will only have a four year active duty obligation (make sure you research the IRR too, all military obligations are for eight years, not four) and then transition to Med School.

If you do SF, SEALs, Delta, or whatever, you are going to incur more time. By the time you get done with all of that, you will be pushing thirty when you start Med school. Furthermore, as you move up the elite ladder the selection process becomes ridiculously hard and you stand the chance of not making it and spending you time in the military doing something you don't want to do.

BTW, the Army recruiter might tell you that you can go to a SF team as a Doc, but I wouldn't believe anything they tell you. Those slots are generally filled by doctors who were SF qualified before they went to medical school. There are plenty of them (reference my first paragraph).

 

[AmoryBlaine]

It would probably be a pretty cool life although I do have several thoughts.

1. Med school would probably suck after being in special forces. The first two years can be both time consuming and mind-numbingly boring. If your interests lie in forward combat operations your psych clerkship is not going to get your pulse going.

2. If you do a military committment before going to med school you will be older, not a huge deal but if you want to raise a family you have to think about the bottom line a little bit.

3. This is not, not, not, not, not a deraugatory comment against soldiers, but if you have the intellectual chops to cut it in med school the military is probably not going to want you to be the first person in harms way. I am guess that the Army needs doctors more than it needs Rangers right now.

 

[Old Grunt]

3. This is not, not, not, not, not a deraugatory comment against soldiers, but if you have the intellectual chops to cut it in med school the military is probably not going to want you to be the first person in harms way. I am guess that the Army needs doctors more than it needs Rangers right now.

The whole "knuckledragger soldier stereotype" is pretty common, but soldiers on a whole are pretty smart. Career progression in the military is tied to your degree of education. When I served, I was continually impressed with how intelligent and sharp the West Pointers were. At any rate, all officers have a bachelor's degree, and to move up you have to get a masters degree and even a Ph.D. In SF, the soldiers are, as a rule, required to be multi-lingual and cultural experts.

You certainly have to be smart to get through medical school, but a lot of it is just hard work as well. If you had to be Einstein to get an M.D. or a D.O., there wouldn't be any doctors.

At any rate, I've known a lot of guys who were enlisted or officers who transitioned to medicine and did well.

The real issue, that you pointed out, is time. I should know, I am pushing thirty and about to start. As you wisely noted, if throws a kink in the plans if you want to have a family.

 

[littlealex]

When I served, I was continually impressed with how intelligent and sharp the West Pointers were. At any rate, all officers have a bachelor's degree, and to move up you have to get a masters degree and even a Ph.D. In SF, the soldiers are, as a rule, required to be multi-lingual and cultural experts.

West Pointers are not the average soldiers. A close friend of mine, a graduate of UChicago, continually complains that majority of the people on the ship are dumb as rocks (he serves on a carrier).

 

[colbgw02]

West Pointers are not the average soldiers. A close friend of mine, a graduate of UChicago, continually complains that majority of the people on the ship are dumb as rocks (he serves on a carrier).

That's because most people on the planet are dumb as rocks. I doubt that the average sailor on your friends carrier is any less intelligent than Joe Sixpack.

 

[BlackSails]

A cardiothoracic surgeon I worked with at NYU did a stint in special forces for some NATO country. He says his training there made him a much better doctor.

 

[Old Grunt]

Sailors are pretty bright. Soldiers, I'm not so sure. 😉

From my short time in, I generally agree with your assessment. Although, what constitutes a bachelors/masters/PhD in the military can be a little . . . flimsy. (No, I'm not talking about the service academies.)

If sailors are so bright, why do they wear their white dunce caps with pride?

j/k

I don't think there is any difference in a bachelor's degree between military and non-military. Everyone in ROTC get's their degree in whatever pleases them from every university in the country just as civilians do. The masters and Ph.D at CGSC and the War College probably are flimsey when compared to getting a Ph.D in genetics or organic chemistry, but I'd put themon par with any of the soft sciences or humanities.

At any rate, a 19 year old infantryman in Iraq or Afghanistan is at the very tippy point of the spear that is U.S. foreign policy. I certainly had some rock farmers in my platoon, but war now is a thinking man's game and it takes smart soldiers to make it work.

Which is one reason I was dismayed that they lowered enlistment standards.