Question about Service Commitment

[brentunc]

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I am a fourth year Air Force HPSP student with no former military experience. I was just selected for a Psychiatry residency at Wilford Hall which is 4 years (2005-2009). I received an "Active Duty Service Commitment Statement" today which kind of confused me.

From my previous understanding, I will pay back my school commitment during residency, which will mean after residency I will no longer owe any time for the school portion of the HPSP contract.

However, I will also incur a 4 year commitment because of my 4 year residency. Because of this, I would assume that I will be committed to the Air Force until 2013.

The confusing part comes in the ADSC statment that I received which states "I understand that no portion of any previously incurred active duty service commitment for education and training may be satisfied during the period of training specified above. Based on my current commitments and projected training completion date of 30JUN09, my ADSC date will extend to 29JUN16."

The way that I read that statement is that my school commitment is not paid off until after residency, which means that I owe 4 years for residency and 4 years for school which is a total of 8 years post-training (although the statement shows 7 years). Why do I not simply owe 4 years post-training after a military residency?

 

[militarymd]

I am a fourth year Air Force HPSP student with no former military experience. I was just selected for a Psychiatry residency at Wilford Hall which is 4 years (2005-2009). I received a "Active Duty Service Commitment Statement" today which kind of confused me.

From my previous understanding, I will pay back my school commitment during residency, which will mean after residency I will no longer owe any time for the school portion of the HPSP contract.

However, I will also incur a 4 year commitment because of my 4 year residency. Because of this, I would assume that I will be committed to the Air Force until 2013.

The confusing part comes in the ADSC statment that I received which states "I understand that no portion of any previously incurred active duty service commitment for education and training may be satisfied during the period of training specified above. Based on my current commitments and projected training completion date of 30JUN09, my ADSC date will extend to 29JUN16."

The way that I read that statement is that my school commitment is not paid off until after residency, which means that I owe 4 years for residency and 4 years for school which is a total of 8 years post-training (although the statment shows 7 years). Why do I not simply owe 4 years post-training after a military residency?

You may have signed a different committment contract than what most of us have signed.......sometimes internship is treated differently from residency...that's how you get the 7 years.

or this is a mistake

I would sort it out before you start that residency.

 

[Heeed!]

Another factor that might be a player in your situation is many times commitments are served concurrently = the date you can separate is the date of the longest commitment. It doesn't seem to apply in the case you've described but it's something to look into.

 

[passin'gas]

"Summary of Active Duty Obligation (ADO) for
Graduate Medical Education

In a Military Facility (FTIS/OFI). A member shall incur an ADO of ½ year for each ½ year, or portion thereof, but the minimum ADO at the completion of the GME period shall not be less than 2 years. The ADO for GME may be served concurrently with obligations incurred for DOD Sponsored pre-professional (undergraduate) or medical school education.

No active duty obligation for GME can be served concurrent with an ADO for a second period of GME, i.e., obligation for fellowship cannot be served concurrent with an obligation incurred for residency training."

I think that the key word here is "may"

 

[brentunc]

Thanks for all of your help. I have sent an email to AFIT. Am I the only one who looks to have gotten royally screwed? I really hope that the letter is a mistake; or maybe they are hoping that I sign it and return it so that I will be forced to serve for a longer time period.

 

[edmadison]

Relax, they didn't come up with a whole new set of rules just for you. Talk to the folks who run AF GME. It will be OK.

Ed

 

[militarymd]

Am I the only one who looks to have gotten royally screwed?

I can't help myself.....but, the screwing is just getting started.

 

[brentunc]

Militarymd - I suspected that you would respond that way. I guess I should have worded my frustration differently. I understand that for many there are problems like this. I just just hoped that mine would not involve my commitment time.

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

Ha ha I had the same confusion with my letter because it said something about incurring two years of active duty service - which is wierd because my residency is THREE years and my payback is FOUR years, so where is this two years thing coming from? But the service date says 2012 which is exactly right... 😕

I figure I'll phone the little number tomorrow before I send it out...

 

[brentunc]

FYI - I found out today that it was a computer mistake, although it was overlooked by the human quality-control element...

 

[militarymd]

FYI - I found out today that it was a computer mistake, although it was overlooked by the human quality-control element...

I graduated CWRU SOM in 1993