I am submitting this in hopes that it will answer some questions being asked about the Navy and the HPSP program. Forgive the length of this entry, but I wanted to be thorough and make sure that people understood my reasoning behind my opinions
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I enlisted in the Navy in 1994 as a Hospital Corpsman. After boot camp I attended a 3 month long Corpsman training in Great Lakes. IL. I graduated at the top of my class and elected to attend one year of Advance Laboratory School in San Antonio, TX. My first actual duty location was Navy Medical Center, San Diego. I spent the first 6 months working as a phlebotomist and then spent my final 1.5 years there working in Clinical Microbiology Department (my favorite job to date). I was then transferred to Naval Hospital, Lemoore were I finished my 5 year obligation working as both a Laboratory Technician and a Hospital Corpsman. I was discharged in July 1999, where I told myself I would never again volunteer myself.
However, after spending 5 years on active duty and then separating from the military lifestyle, I was like many people, who after discharge, found themselves missing many aspects of the military. Approximately a year after separation, I was raising my right hand for the Air National Guard. Furthermore, after a year in the Guard, my wife had graduated from college and was working as a social worker. We had bought a home, and to make very long story short, circumstances led me to forgo my dream of becoming a physician and I switch to the Civil Engineering Program at California State University, Fresno. Again, I came face to face with a Navy recruiter. This time it was for a Civil Engineer Corps Scholarship, which placed me on active duty. My only job was to attend school, and the pay back was only four years
.what a deal!
I am currently a Lieutenant, finishing up the last three months of that commitment and will resign my commission in May 2008. I will then take a couple of months off before heading to VCOM in July.
Now that I have given some of my history I would like to share my opinions about the Navy to those who are trying to determine whether or not Navy HPSP is for them. I believe there is more aspects of the Navy, or any other branch of service, that must be taken into consider before taking the oath.
The first thing I think must be addressed is that you will be in the military and you loose some control over your life. You will be an doctor and a military officer, but that doesnt mean you are exempt from military rules or customs. In a post I recently read, a person was upset that in the military they were considered and officer first and then a doctor. The person whom posted strongly disagreed with this quote because he/she thought the 7 years of training received as a doctor far out weighed the 6 weeks of OIS. I could see the logic, but this is the military and they strongly believe in their slogans and they dont really care what you think about it. I see this everyday as a Civil Engineer Corps Officer. We are required to stand Command Duty Officer (CDO), which is a 24 hour watch where you are in charge of the base while the Commanding Officer (CO) is away. This watch (I could debate whether it is truly needed) severely impacts our abilities to manage our construction contracts efficiently. We address this issue often, and are told our Navy duties come before our actually engineering duties. We also have Wardroom events (which we call mandatory fun) and Physical Training, which also impact our daily jobs, but again it doesnt matter. I could go on and on with examples, but I am already getting wordy.
This being said, I can say that I would not change a thing about my past 12 years in the Navy. The Navy, from day one (boot camp) and still today, continues to provide the tools necessary to grow as a person, both professionally and personally. The Navy has taught me most of the things I know about medicine and engineering, but most of all it has taught me how to be a leader. At the age of 19, I had responsibilities that I never dreamed of. Every week in the microbiology department I was placed in charge of a microbiology bench (respiratory, urinalysis, ext). Here I was responsible for not only every report generated at the bench, but responsible for teaching new laboratory students all about clinical microbiology. It did not stop there. After graduating from college and OCS, I was immediately place in charge of 20 personnel and a $30 million Base Operating Support Contract. Then after only 2 years of experience I was placed in charge of a four man team and over $110 million dollars in construction contracts. As I finish up my time and reflect on the leadership experiences which have been presented to me, I realize that no where in the civilian sector would I have been given this amount of responsibility or the opportunity to lead so quickly. The Navy does not dink around with you. They not only give you immediate and serious responsibilities, they have a steep learning curve for almost any job, and you are expected to adapt to the curve, learn quickly and perform immediately.
The most enjoyable aspect of military life is not the job or places you live, it is the comradeship that you encounter. In my opinion, there is no other profession organization in which you can encounter such camaraderie the instant you check into a command and begin working. I met my best friend in 1997 when I was transferred to Lemoore, he now lives in Indiana and I am in Bremerton, WA. We dont get to see each other as often as we would like, but our families are very close and we talk to each other several times a month. I have continued to establish valuable relationship every where I go and now have friends all over the United States
what a great feeling!
With all this said, am I signing up for HPSP and staying in the Navy? No. The reason are simple for me. I am not making this decision based on the direction of Navy Medicine or the amount of money I will make. In fact, if I was concerned about money the smart thing for me to do is stay in the Navy. If I were to do a military residency, I will be making O-3E pay with 12 years of active duty with 18 years for pay purposes. That is approximately $100K and possibly more depending on duty location and BAH. In fact, I even get criticism for not completing my 20 years of service. However, with a wife and two kids I am unable to make another 13 year commitment to the Navy , plus with the added possibility of 6-15 month deployments. Yes, 13 years, not 4, and yes, 15 month deployments. Here is where some of my best advice comes in. When making the decision whether or not to join the military you may want to do all your research and determine all of the worst case scenarios and then count on those being part of your duties. If you do not take this advice, you will be like many others who have signed on the dotted line, and only listened to what they wanted to here from the recruiter, and now complain of how they got screwed. I have taken my own advice and applied it in order to make this very difficult decision.
In my worst case scenario I calculated a 13 year commitment; 4 years medical school, 1 year internship (doesnt count for pay back) 2 years GMO tour, 2 -3 years residency (at least) and 3-4 year pay back. Also, you have to, no matter if there is a war going on or not, be ready to deploy for as long as the government asks. When I signed up for the Civil Engineer Corps, I was told that a one time 6 month deployment to the Seabees would be it. However, we soon learned that there was this little hidden thing called Individual Augmentations (IA) which had many Civil Engineer Corps officers heading to Iraq or Afghanistan. At first it was 6 months volunteer deployments, but soon became anywhere from 6-15 month non-volunteer deployments. Timing prevented me from going, but most of my colleagues have spent at least a year in Iraq or Afghanistan. There is one thing that is certain in the military, they have control and they can pretty much make you do anything they want. I have been willing in the past to serve the Navy and their needs, but now as my commitment comes to an end, I have the opportunity to make that choice once again. My family and I have decided that moving every 2-3 years, pulling children out of school, along with possible deployments, no longer fits our lifestyle. If you have researched the military and the sacrifices you will be making fits into your life, which it does for a lot of people, then I think HPSP is right for you.
The last thing I would like to address, which I see all over these post, is that I agree 110% with the people who say, DO NOT DO IT FOR THE MONEY. I have seen this first hand with a current colleague of mine. He literally joined the Civil Engineer Corps Scholarship program so he could have more money while in college. He never thought about the sacrifices and what the job actually entailed. He had no clue of what he was getting into, he just saw $$$. Now he is miserable. Everyday he is severely depressed and complains about his job and the military more than he actually performs. He not only makes himself miserable, but he brings down moral for the entire command. So chose thoughtfully and think long term and outside of the monetary benefits.
Overall, I believe the military in general and the Navy specifically are a great thing. I am grateful for the time I have served and the opportunities the Navy has provided. We are serving our country, and because of our service and our armed forces of the past and present, the citizens of the United States enjoys the freedoms of today. I have also seen the extraordinary things our military forces are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the majority of people in those two countries are grateful for our presence. I will miss being on active duty, but I am not leaving the military completely. I will be attending medical school op the Army National Guard STRAP program. The Guard scholarship allows my family and I to settle down and establish some stability, while also allowing me to continue to serve my country and build on my 12 years of service.
I hope this has provide insight for a least one person and if any one has any questions, please send me a message.
