Picking where you get stationed

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xmsr3

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So I just read the thread about getting posted to serve in Europe and I got to thinking about the ability to pick were you get posted in general. A search found no existing threads so I thought I would start one.

So lets discuss every aspect to being able to pick one's posting in order that one would come across the situations.

1. Right after graduating medical school, for both HPSP and USUHS you have to try to match military residency, which offers you a pretty good chance to go where you want, (assuming your service has a major medical center somewhere you want to go).

2. After residency when you get stationed or deployed, do you get to fill out a dream sheet or something similar? I have heard that the Navy has that for incoming officers but does that apply to all services as well? And does the fact that we just finished residency and have been officers for several years chance that?

3. When your comitmment is up and you can pick your post, (I may be wrong about that) does that mostly apply to overseas postings?(Which are apparently highly sought after) Or do they apply to US postings as well?

Personally, I love Hawaii and plan to retire there and so any chance to get posted to Ft. Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center for residency and regular stationing is one I'll take.

Of course I imagine Tripler is the most sought after posting in the Army Medical Department because of the prime location.

4. Does seniority and rank have much to do with whether or not you get your pick when you resign up? If so how much effect?

Specifically, does achieving the rank of 0-6 and re-signing after 20+ years pretty much guarantee you can pick your posting? Is there a rule of thumb for the probability of getting to pick your post based on rank and time in service?

5. Let us say that you wanted to go to a certain post, get there and hate it. Can a person who is 2-3 years away from their commitment being up apply to get reassigned elsewhere? I imagine this is rare but does anyone have specifics on this?

6. Homesteading, ie getting stationed at the same location for consecutive stationings, (what is the proper terminology for that?) Does anyone have any info on that topic?

I have heard that AF heavily frowns upon it while Army is more likely to allow it. Is that correct?

Any other information or topics for discussion are, of course, greatly appreciated.

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One of my med school colleagues went to Tripler for her IM residency. She was happy about it.

But where you go depends on the needs of the Army first. They might need you within range of enemy rifles and mortars. You never know.
 
Of course I will go where ever the Army sends me and try to make the most of it. After all happiness is a state of mind, but there are some oppertunties to pick your posting and I wanted to create a thread where we could aggregate that info.
 
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How much does your specialty influence where you get stationed? I would imagine that a trauma surgeon, or EM doc would have to be closer to the action (tent hospital) while a orthopedist could be stationed a little further away from the action. Does anyone know how the military deploys their specialists? Regarding casualties, I know that some soldiers are flown to Germany. Do the trauma surgeons and EM docs stabilize the patient enough to be flown to Germany for the Orthopedists to work on them or would the ortho guys be in tent operating as well?
 
How much does your specialty influence where you get stationed? I would imagine that a trauma surgeon, or EM doc would have to be closer to the action (tent hospital) while a orthopedist could be stationed a little further away from the action. Does anyone know how the military deploys their specialists? Regarding casualties, I know that some soldiers are flown to Germany. Do the trauma surgeons and EM docs stabilize the patient enough to be flown to Germany for the Orthopedists to work on them or would the ortho guys be in tent operating as well?

There are often Orthopedic surgeons at a level II+ facility in theatre, which is usually a medium-sized base that is basically an ER with a surgeon attached. They will usually only be doing urgent prodecures to stabilize patients, anything definitive is usually done out of theatre, as in Germany.

There is also the MASH model of forward surgical capability but we did not have that in Iraq. All the in-country, significant surgical capability, was at Level III facilities, in large bases.
 
So I just read the thread about getting posted to serve in Europe and I got to thinking about the ability to pick were you get posted in general. A search found no existing threads so I thought I would start one.

So lets discuss every aspect to being able to pick one's posting in order that one would come across the situations.

1. Right after graduating medical school, for both HPSP and USUHS you have to try to match military residency, which offers you a pretty good chance to go where you want, (assuming your service has a major medical center somewhere you want to go).

2. After residency when you get stationed or deployed, do you get to fill out a dream sheet or something similar? I have heard that the Navy has that for incoming officers but does that apply to all services as well? And does the fact that we just finished residency and have been officers for several years chance that?

3. When your comitmment is up and you can pick your post, (I may be wrong about that) does that mostly apply to overseas postings?(Which are apparently highly sought after) Or do they apply to US postings as well?

Personally, I love Hawaii and plan to retire there and so any chance to get posted to Ft. Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center for residency and regular stationing is one I'll take.

Of course I imagine Tripler is the most sought after posting in the Army Medical Department because of the prime location.

4. Does seniority and rank have much to do with whether or not you get your pick when you resign up? If so how much effect?

Specifically, does achieving the rank of 0-6 and re-signing after 20+ years pretty much guarantee you can pick your posting? Is there a rule of thumb for the probability of getting to pick your post based on rank and time in service?

5. Let us say that you wanted to go to a certain post, get there and hate it. Can a person who is 2-3 years away from their commitment being up apply to get reassigned elsewhere? I imagine this is rare but does anyone have specifics on this?

6. Homesteading, ie getting stationed at the same location for consecutive stationings, (what is the proper terminology for that?) Does anyone have any info on that topic?

I have heard that AF heavily frowns upon it while Army is more likely to allow it. Is that correct?

Any other information or topics for discussion are, of course, greatly appreciated.

Some posters are confused about the difference between being stationed at a location (usually meaning a 3-4 year tour) and a being deployed to a location (meaning 4-12 months in a war zone.)

1) Pretty good? That's awfully debatable. I suppose if you want what they're offering then yes, it's pretty good. For me, I was offered Ohio and Texas, neither of which I'd ever live in if I had the option.

2) Yes, you can fill out a dream sheet. Many of my friends got something in their top 5 picks. I got somewhere that wasn't even on my sheet (and I was made to put EVERY base that had my specialty at it on the sheet.) They came up with another base and sent me there. I was offered a choice between that and my last pick (#13). I took the new base.

3) When you are eligible to separate, they will bend over backwards to give you an assignment you want in order to keep you in. Amazing how in 2 years I went from being bottom of the barrel to top of the heap.

4) Yes, but not so much as whether or not you are eligible to separate.

5) Nope. Give up on that kind of flexibility. You can move overseas after 2 years on station, and move stateside after 3 years on station, but for someone with a 3-4 year commitment, that will almost surely add time to it (see #3)

6) Yes, you can homestead. It was recently offered to me. (See #3).
 
Some posters are confused about the difference between being stationed at a location (usually meaning a 3-4 year tour) and a being deployed to a location (meaning 4-12 months in a war zone.)

1) Pretty good? That's awfully debatable. I suppose if you want what they're offering then yes, it's pretty good. For me, I was offered Ohio and Texas, neither of which I'd ever live in if I had the option.

2) Yes, you can fill out a dream sheet. Many of my friends got something in their top 5 picks. I got somewhere that wasn't even on my sheet (and I was made to put EVERY base that had my specialty at it on the sheet.) They came up with another base and sent me there. I was offered a choice between that and my last pick (#13). I took the new base.

3) When you are eligible to separate, they will bend over backwards to give you an assignment you want in order to keep you in. Amazing how in 2 years I went from being bottom of the barrel to top of the heap.

4) Yes, but not so much as whether or not you are eligible to separate.

5) Nope. Give up on that kind of flexibility. You can move overseas after 2 years on station, and move stateside after 3 years on station, but for someone with a 3-4 year commitment, that will almost surely add time to it (see #3)

6) Yes, you can homestead. It was recently offered to me. (See #3).

Agree with all of the above.

Choice of duty station is a myth, especially if you are right out of internship/residency. The only exception is when you are about to separate. I was not given a single base of the 20 on my rank list and my experience is not uncommon (especially when it is your first duty base)
 
Your choice of duty station coming out of training is very dependent upon what specialty you go into, that specialty advisor, and luck. For example, as a family practitioner there are a lot more places you can go, both good and bad, than if you are a neurosurgeon. From talking to people in other services and specialties, it seems the way that it works for the most part is you communicate with your specialty advisor/consultant to SG about what is available or where you want to go. That person then works with human resources (HRC, AFPC etc) about where people will get sent.

Also, you'd be surprised about Tripler. It is more desirable than, say, Fort Polk, but there are also a lot of people who refuse to go there.
 
You don't get a choice in locations. You get input but its an entirely subjective, political and crisis driven process. I think to thrive in the military you have to give up any expectation of stability on the home front.
 
Can you volunteer for a tour of duty in a specific place? Say, Afganistan or on a ship? How does that whole process work?
 
Anyone ever spend any time at the naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan, Okinawa, or Rota, Spain?
 
Can you volunteer for a tour of duty in a specific place? Say, Afganistan or on a ship? How does that whole process work?

Yes, but that's a deployment, not a stationing. A tour of duty usually refers to a stationing. You are stationed in Norfolk and deployed on a ship to the Persian Gulf from that station. Or you are stationed in San Antonio, and deployed to Afghanistan from that station.
 
Yes, but that's a deployment, not a stationing. A tour of duty usually refers to a stationing. You are stationed in Norfolk and deployed on a ship to the Persian Gulf from that station. Or you are stationed in San Antonio, and deployed to Afghanistan from that station.

I see. do different stations have different deployment options available?
 
I see. do different stations have different deployment options available?

Yes. But there are no hard or fixed rules. It's station/theater specific, and subject to change for many reasons.
 
1. Right after graduating medical school, for both HPSP and USUHS you have to try to match military residency, which offers you a pretty good chance to go where you want, (assuming your service has a major medical center somewhere you want to go).

A better description would be a "decent, but highly variable" chance to go where you want (assuming there is a major med cen where you want to go). Many many people near the top of their med school class don't get their first choice in location, and that's just out of the locations that are available for your residency choice (usually a few in the whole country).

Location is probably one of the major drawbacks of military medicine.

2. After residency when you get stationed or deployed, do you get to fill out a dream sheet or something similar? I have heard that the Navy has that for incoming officers but does that apply to all services as well? And does the fact that we just finished residency and have been officers for several years chance that?

Yes and no. In the Army you'll get an unofficial list of the slots available. These are the slots that all the other physicians with more seniority (i.e., graduated from residency before you) did not want. And you will get to rank them, but they're not usually the best slots and some people always get screwed in one way or the other.

Other factors can be taken into account as well. You may need to do a fellowship if you want to be considered to be stationed at a teaching hospital depending on you specialty.

3. When your comitmment is up and you can pick your post, (I may be wrong about that) does that mostly apply to overseas postings?(Which are apparently highly sought after) Or do they apply to US postings as well?

Overseas posts aren't always highly sought after. If your spouse works, they probably can't do their job in Germany. Regardless, you can use the threat of retiring for leverage to get a better post in the US or overseas.
 
I'm assuming it would be best to talk to someone in the field to get an idea of what posts are available for the different medical fields.

But, does anyone know if this information is available online from HRC or elsewhere? After residency, how does the dream sheet process work for the Army?
 
This is true from what I have seen. You really don't get to choose where you get stationed. Some specialties do these long rank lists after residency, and some just hand out slots. You may get lucky ie you want to go to Korea and that slot is available and not wanted by anyone else, but if you are banking on this you will likely be very disappointed. But everyone's situation is unique so we only have our own stories to tell. I for one asked for a less desirable post, thinking if I asked for it I would get it and not get sent overseas. Instead, I ended up with a (slightly) more desirable location. So I was probably lucky and choice certainly had nothing to do with it.
 
This is true from what I have seen. You really don't get to choose where you get stationed. Some specialties do these long rank lists after residency, and some just hand out slots. You may get lucky ie you want to go to Korea and that slot is available and not wanted by anyone else, but if you are banking on this you will likely be very disappointed. But everyone's situation is unique so we only have our own stories to tell. I for one asked for a less desirable post, thinking if I asked for it I would get it and not get sent overseas. Instead, I ended up with a (slightly) more desirable location. So I was probably lucky and choice certainly had nothing to do with it.


You also have to factor in your career. Whether you like it or not, the detailer is looking to progress your career, and will try to make it well rounded. That means a you get a post you don't want purely because some detailer thinks that is for your own good.
 
You also have to factor in your career. Whether you like it or not, the detailer is looking to progress your career, and will try to make it well rounded. That means a you get a post you don't want purely because some detailer thinks that is for your own good.


bull fu cki ng sh it....detailers dont' give a sh it about anything except their own fit rep...

There are 2 right now who are on my LIST for what they did to my wife and I....
 
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