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Okay, I'm starting internship at Portsmouth in a few months, so this question of which GMO tour to pick has been surfacing a lot.
I'm a former Marine (1989-1995) and so it goes without saying that I would love to do a GMO tour with the Corps. However, my wife is vehemently opposed to that (something to do with not wanting me to come home in a wooden box). Chances are, a USMC billet = Iraq, right? If I could convince her of otherwise she'd probably support my decision, however, from what I've heard a tour with the Marines is a veritable guaranteed ticket to Iraq.
So, my (probably irrational) thinking is, if I can't do what I want, then I just want to chill for a few years. Like many non-trads, I worked full-time through college - med school wasn't exactly easy - and I'm pretty certain internship isn't going to be a walk in the park. So, my wife and I are thinking: Maybe it's time for a break!
Although the lifestyle of FS sounds wonderful, I'm not exactly all that interested in flying. Most of the folks I've me who are planning on doing FS are all jazzed up about flight school, etc. Personally, I could take it or leave it. (And I'll admit here that I'm deathly afraid of the prospect of having to do that helo-dunk thing - something about compounding my claustrophobia with the absence of air/fear of drowning).
For reasons I've just described, I've pretty much ruled out the DMO option.
So, that leaves me with ship billets and branch clinic doc-in-a-box tours, right? (Or am I forgetting another option?)
My wife was a Corpsman for 11.5 years, and spent a majority of her time working in clinics side-by-side with GMOs. In her last tour at BMC Mayport, we had a few GMO friend/acquaintances, and most of them seemed pretty happy (there were some whiners, but overall most of them admitted that they "had it made.") Now, on SDN I've read some conflicting info on these clinic billets. I've read more than a handful times that these billets were awful and to be avoided at all costs. Navy Dive Doc stated on a previos thread:
"Those who received clinic billets as first GMO tours were, quite honestly, people who needed to be supervised so they wouldn't kill anyone. I think that is why those billets are never advertised widely, because the internship directors save them for the ****bags. Competence gets rewarded with deployments and independent duty."
This kinda scares me. For starters, does this mean that the majority of my colleagues are going to be ****bags? Also, will the stigma associated with a clinic tour hurt my chances in the Navy match? (or at least, be less impressive than an operational tour?) Also, is it true that the majority of these billets are reserved for females?
And finally, what about the ship-board billets? You don't hear much about them on this forum. An OB resident I spent some time with at Portsmouth really enjoyed his tour on ship (it was a smaller ship, so he was a Dept Head - he said he would have hated being on a bigger ship where he would have been relegated to doc-in-a-box status - he thourougly enjoyed his admin and other non-clinical responsiblities associated w/ being a dept head). Although, his take on things may be skewed as he was a former Line Officer (a have noticed that prior-service folks seem to have more positive outlooks on their GMO experiences). I actually didn't mind ship life. I spent 8 mos 23 days on the USS Gunston Hall during Desert Storm and, believe it or not, look back on in as a good time in my life (unparalleled camaraderie, lots of free time to PT and read). I know it's not as "sexy" as FS or DMO, but its still operational, right? I know deployement schedule probably varies from ship to ship, but what am I looking at? How many months out of the year will I be underway?
I'm a former Marine (1989-1995) and so it goes without saying that I would love to do a GMO tour with the Corps. However, my wife is vehemently opposed to that (something to do with not wanting me to come home in a wooden box). Chances are, a USMC billet = Iraq, right? If I could convince her of otherwise she'd probably support my decision, however, from what I've heard a tour with the Marines is a veritable guaranteed ticket to Iraq.
So, my (probably irrational) thinking is, if I can't do what I want, then I just want to chill for a few years. Like many non-trads, I worked full-time through college - med school wasn't exactly easy - and I'm pretty certain internship isn't going to be a walk in the park. So, my wife and I are thinking: Maybe it's time for a break!
Although the lifestyle of FS sounds wonderful, I'm not exactly all that interested in flying. Most of the folks I've me who are planning on doing FS are all jazzed up about flight school, etc. Personally, I could take it or leave it. (And I'll admit here that I'm deathly afraid of the prospect of having to do that helo-dunk thing - something about compounding my claustrophobia with the absence of air/fear of drowning).
For reasons I've just described, I've pretty much ruled out the DMO option.
So, that leaves me with ship billets and branch clinic doc-in-a-box tours, right? (Or am I forgetting another option?)
My wife was a Corpsman for 11.5 years, and spent a majority of her time working in clinics side-by-side with GMOs. In her last tour at BMC Mayport, we had a few GMO friend/acquaintances, and most of them seemed pretty happy (there were some whiners, but overall most of them admitted that they "had it made.") Now, on SDN I've read some conflicting info on these clinic billets. I've read more than a handful times that these billets were awful and to be avoided at all costs. Navy Dive Doc stated on a previos thread:
"Those who received clinic billets as first GMO tours were, quite honestly, people who needed to be supervised so they wouldn't kill anyone. I think that is why those billets are never advertised widely, because the internship directors save them for the ****bags. Competence gets rewarded with deployments and independent duty."
This kinda scares me. For starters, does this mean that the majority of my colleagues are going to be ****bags? Also, will the stigma associated with a clinic tour hurt my chances in the Navy match? (or at least, be less impressive than an operational tour?) Also, is it true that the majority of these billets are reserved for females?
And finally, what about the ship-board billets? You don't hear much about them on this forum. An OB resident I spent some time with at Portsmouth really enjoyed his tour on ship (it was a smaller ship, so he was a Dept Head - he said he would have hated being on a bigger ship where he would have been relegated to doc-in-a-box status - he thourougly enjoyed his admin and other non-clinical responsiblities associated w/ being a dept head). Although, his take on things may be skewed as he was a former Line Officer (a have noticed that prior-service folks seem to have more positive outlooks on their GMO experiences). I actually didn't mind ship life. I spent 8 mos 23 days on the USS Gunston Hall during Desert Storm and, believe it or not, look back on in as a good time in my life (unparalleled camaraderie, lots of free time to PT and read). I know it's not as "sexy" as FS or DMO, but its still operational, right? I know deployement schedule probably varies from ship to ship, but what am I looking at? How many months out of the year will I be underway?
