Army/Air Force

MY husband is thinking about signing on for Army/Air Force after graduation (and therefore after Match) this coming May. I was curious to get some insight as to how you feel about the military life. We are having a hard time because the benefits are definitely there through Residency and he would owe 6.5 or 7.5 years. The deployment is the only thing that we are struggling with right now. So any insight you all can share. He would have the benefit of matching in his preferred residency before joining, so he would do a civilian residency. Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated!

[MarissaNicole]

Just wanted to say glad you made it over here

[mommax3]

What specialty is he hoping to match in?

[DCJenn]

Specialty and service can make or break his decision.

Deployment sucks. It really is as bad as you think it is.

Jenn

[seaside*bliss]

Deployment sucks. It really is as bad as you think it is.

Jenn

That's terrible

[Rapunzel]

Specialty and service can make or break his decision.

I don't have personal experience with the deployments yet. But, I can absolutely attest to the above being true.

Ask your dh if he has an idea of which mlitary branch he's interested in and which specialties most attract him. That information really does make a difference in the experiences any of us can relate.

Specialty-Army/Air Force

Justin is hoping to match in Orthopedics. He has really good qualifications, so hopefully that is where he gets.

What specialty is he hoping to match in?

He is most interested in the Army and Air Force. More so Army. He is a surgeon at heart, Orthopedics is his specialty of choice.

I know that deployments will suck. We have 3 kids, right now they are 6, 4, and 14 months. By the time he finishes residency, they will be 12, 10, and 7. They will all be in school. I know how hard it will be being myself. I hate when he is gone on call right now. So I am curious how everyone deals with deployments. How you feel about the military aside from the deployment. Do you like what he does the rest of the time? Do you like the people you are surrounded by. Does anyone have any experiences they could share abt deployment. Are the benefits as good as they say there are?

Sorry for all the questions, this is just a difficult decision to make. When the benefits are so numerous, and the disadvantage is so HUGE!

I don't have personal experience with the deployments yet. But, I can absolutely attest to the above being true.

Ask your dh if he has an idea of which mlitary branch he's interested in and which specialties most attract him. That information really does make a difference in the experiences any of us can relate.

Deployments are the risk for the awesome benefit - it's as simple as that. People who did it during peace time were truly lucky (and we considered it then, but I told my dh at the time that I didn't trust our world and I wasn't willing to take that risk). Deployments are more than being alone -- your spouse is also halfway across the world in a place where the likelihood of something awful happening is much higher than it is stateside. (We're not military, but a good friend of mine's spouse has been deployed 10 times since 9/11).

If you do match into ortho (and don't get me started on the match process no matter one's qualifications), you need to realize that while the immediate benefit of the military stipend will be great, you will lose big $ during your payback. Ortho makes big money right out of the gate (after training), and even with the ortho "bonus" in the military, you won't come anywhere near that.

We decided that the money wasn't worth the risk, but we're also just coming out from the debt that we accumulated through training. It's one devil or the other, really.

[Deebs]

Full disclosure - I am NOT a military spouse, and most of our MD military friends are in emergency medicine (so they have had multiple deployments to war zones), so I probably have a really slanted point of view. BUT, for what one can make in ortho surg once training is over, you can pay for the benefits that the military offers, and then some. Does your DH feel a really strong desire to serve or is it really just for military benefits?

[madeintaiwan]

My husband is a PGY3 ortho resident and we turned down the Air Force HPSP and decided not to do the residency enlistment as well for the reasons that others have stated. All of the medical military families that we know have been deployed, some have faced multiple deployments. My friend's husband was deployed when her mother passed away. They have 3 children. Even when there aren't tragedies, deployments are long and hard for everyone. We have 3 children. Had 2 during medical school. My husband has well over 250k in student loans. His loans are either still in grace or in economic hardship deferment and when those run out they will be placed into forbearance. We will not be making payments until he is out. I am unbelievable grateful for the sacrifices that our military and medical military families make [my father was in the AF]. After growing up in a military family, it was not the life that I wanted for my children or myself. Like others said, ortho is a very lucrative profession. Depending on where you're at, you can get well over 600k on your first contract, plus a signing bonus. And some practices/hospitals give stipends while you're still in residency. Good luck with your decision. It was a very hard one for us. Military is a life of sacrifice. Medicine is a life of sacrifice. I have done them both separately, I can't imagine doing them at the same time. If you're doing it to save the money, I don't think it's worth it. If you're doing it because you want to serve our country, that is wonderful and you have my endless gratitude.

[DCJenn]

Ortho is one of those specialties where the military has some unique capabilities but money DEFINITELY isn't one of them. In the Army, you will face a very real chance for deployment. Deployment is awful and my husband was in a very protected area. (The Iraqi "High Value Detainee" jail) It's not like call, because when they're on-call you know they're coming home. Deployment is months and months of managing everything. By. Your Self. I got through it relatively unscathed and I truly appreciate that my husband was only gone fro seven months. 15 months was the original length of his orders- but the Army realized that having a subspecialized pediatrician dispensing Sudafed to Iraqi prisoners probably wasn't the greatest use of their resources.

So, the one benefit- of the Army in particular is that anything that's related to war injuries is getting all of the innovations. There are lots of toys that the military docs get to play with that are hard to get for smaller hospitals or programs. They have a nice expense account. He'll have much different experiences than a civilian ortho doc- and he'll never be bored.

The other thing to consider is where they go- besides the obvious war zones. Specialty trained surgeons in the Army tend to only go to the larger medical centers- Germany, DC, San Antonio, Seattle and Hawaii. (it's nice to only have good places to go!)

The Air Force (as Fair Queen [one of our members] can attest) sends their surgeons to not quite as fun locales- Ohio and Mississippi being two off the top of my head.

He needs to think about the hows and whys he wants to do this. Money can't be a factor one way or the other- because if he goes the military route he has to be OK with the fact that all of his buddies will be making 2 or 3 times as much as he is. But he'll have all of the toys that he didn't have to pay for.

Jenn

If you're doing it to save the money, I don't think it's worth it. If you're doing it because you want to serve our country, that is wonderful and you have my endless gratitude.

Very well said, Davita.

[peggyfromwastate]

In the Army, you will face a very real chance for deployment. Deployment is awful and my husband was in a very protected area.

Surgeons deploy for the Army in blocks of 6 months in the field, plus one month on both ends for training/debriefing.

So, the one benefit- of the Army in particular is that anything that's related to war injuries is getting all of the innovations. There are lots of toys that the military docs get to play with that are hard to get for smaller hospitals or programs. They have a nice expense account. He'll have much different experiences than a civilian ortho doc- and he'll never be bored.

This is very true-- but probably only if you are stationed at a major center. If your husband does not do a fellowship, he won't necessarily be stationed at the big places. He'll be doing more run-of-the-mill ortho work.


One thing that gets overlooked often in the whole military value debate is the cost of malpractice-- Uncle Sam pays the malpractice for my DH. Another thing is the value of the health care we get while in the military- not to mention free meds, no copays for dr visits, easy access to specialty care, etc. For our family, this adds at least $20K in value to DH's salary per year.

A lot of military docs will moonlight once done with training. As an attending at a maj med center in my husband's area (ENT), he will have a lot of *spare time* to moonlight. Of course, he'll have to pick up some malpractice on his own for that, I imagine, but it will help soften the blow of the discrepency between our pay and what civilians make.

Ultimately, we decided to go with the military from medical school because we felt that with 3 kids already, we needed the security of the health insurance and we didn't want to rack up all the debt that we would have. We are happy with that decision, ultimately. I think at the end of the day, we may have come out ahead financially to have gone civilian the whole way, but I'm not certain of that. And the added stress to our marriage of the debt would've been huge. Plus we wouldn't have had my 2 youngest kids b/c of the debt... So... for us we're happy with the decision we made.

For DH, though, it really is about serving-- he wanted to join the military as a medic when he was a kid, so he's always had that desire in him.

[DCJenn]

True, Peggy- I always overlook the malpractice thing and I shouldn't because neurologists get sued A LOT on the 'outside'.

The Health benefits are great- especially for covering your kids. There's no such thing as a co-pay (except for fertility treatments and boob jobs and they're way lower than the civilian world) and meds are free. Now, most of the pharmacies don't do compounding so if you have a specialty med, you'll have to pay a co-pay to go to a local drug store.

Military docs can moonlight. It's a serious no-no during training but afterwards, the sky is the limit if they've got the time and energy.

We're in for the long haul as well. My husband has been in the Army since he was 18 except for his undergrad years (GI bill) and two years of working at a lab while applying to medical schools. The long term retirement benefit is pretty awesome, too- especially if he's young enough to serve for 20+ years and still work in the civilian side. My husband's boss is retiring with 24 years in and is going to work for the medical school and the children's hospital. He's in his mid-50s. He's going to have a pension (at more than 50% of his current salary) and health care for him and his wife until he drops dead. (and she'll keep hers until she drops dead, too!)

There are financially compelling reasons to do it but cold hard cash isn't one.

Jenn