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I don't even know what to make of this story

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  • #1

    I don't even know what to make of this story

    So, FH is talking to another M3 at the hospital and it comes up that the guy is a reservist. So FH is like Hey, me too! So they're chatting about their respective experiences and FH asks the guy if he's ever been activated. The guy looks really bitter and says yeah, as a matter of fact he just got back. FH is like Huh? What do you mean you just got back? The guy explains that he's actually supposed to be an M4, but he got activated for six months and had to take a year off of school. FH is kind of taken aback and asks the guy why he didn't take the medical student exemption. The guy has no idea what he's talking about. FH tells him that there's a pentagon directive that medical students and interns not be activated. The guy quickly insists "No there's not!" So FH kind of lets it go and asks the guy where they sent him. They had him loading trucks or something in New Jersey. AND when the guy got back, he took the HPSP, not because he wants the HPSP (he not too enamored with being part of the military at this point) but to keep himself from getting reactivated.

    Whew! Does this story make anyone else grasp their forehead with both hands?

    So a soon as he could FH went and double checked the rule to make sure they hadn't changed it since the last time he looked. Nope still in place. And he talked to this other med student he knows who's in the air force, and the AF guy is also horrified and agrees that the guy got totally hosed.

    I'm still hoping there was some kind of miscommunication involved here. FH says no, he thought he must be misunderstanding the guy at first, too, but he asked him several times. Wouldn't the school tell the guy he's expempt when he asked for a leave of absence? FH says no, the school administration isn't that efficient. Wouldn't the military have asked him what he did in civilian life when he was activated? FH says the guy isn't too communicative, and he can picture him saying something vague like that he was a student or in school. Oy vey.

    So anyway, if there are any lurkers or anyone reading this who somehow aren't already aware, the pentagon has decided they'd rather have you in med school, so be sure to speak up if they try to activate you.
    Married to a hematopathologist seven years out of training.
    Raising three girls, 11, 9, and 2.

    “That was the thing about the world: it wasn't that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn't expect.”
    ― Lev Grossman, The Magician King
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  • #2
    Wow. That sucks. I'll bet that gave your FH a moment of panic.

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    • #3
      Re: I don't even know what to make of this story

      Originally posted by Julie
      Wouldn't the military have asked him what he did in civilian life when he was activated? FH says the guy isn't too communicative, and he can picture him saying something vague like that he was a student or in school.
      8O

      Wow, it's hard to believe that this guy would have just gone along with this whole thing to the point of being activated without asking any questions or offering up any additional information. What an odd story.
      ~Jane

      -Wife of urology attending.
      -SAHM to three great kiddos (2 boys, 1 girl!)

      Comment

      • #4
        Julie this CAN happen- because if he was in the reserves as an enlisted person, versus a reserve officer. i.e. he was an active duty enlisted person, got out, finshed school and was in medical school. Because he didn't enter medical school as a reserve officer, then he's just as susceptible to activation as any other reservist.

        Yes, the military wants to keep people in medical school, but enlisted status trumps useless medical student status most of the time. Rick was activated for the Gulf War (the first one) and only got out of it because they had him assigned to the wrong unit- they didn't care that he was in college, trust me. And, please, please, please DO NOT think that because someone is HPSP that they cannot be activated. The only thing that is certain in the military is that you never know what will happen.

        We know a few people who were sent during medical school, internship, residency and fellowship- it's not likely but it does occasionally happen. We know of a neonatalogist who was sent to Iraq. I can't imagine how overwhelmed she must have been after dealing with 2 pound people and then dealing with 202 pound people!!!

        Jenn

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        • #5
          Originally posted by jloreine
          The only thing that is certain in the military is that you never know what will happen.
          Amen to that!

          FH did say the guy was a private, but I don't know if the circumstances under which he became a reservist. It's a comforting idea, oddly, that the guy really did have to go.

          Because he didn't enter medical school as a reserve officer, then he's just as susceptible to activation as any other reservist.
          Yes, the military wants to keep people in medical school, but enlisted status trumps useless medical student status most of the time.
          So, FH became a reserve officer prior to starting medical school--you're saying that offers him some measure of protection* compared to the enlisted guy?

          *Disclaimer: "Protection" being a totally relative term, of course. Neither of us think of him as being immune to activation, since even if there's a rule against something the military can change the rule, but we did think that it would take something extreme for that to happen. "Extreme" also being a relative term in a post-9/11 world.

          *Further disclaimer: I hope I'm not in any way making it sound like if FH were really for sure called up either of us would whine or cry "unfair" about it. He's been activated before and he would certainly go again, but at 33 and still closer to the beginning of medical training than the end, we'd certainly like to get on with it uninterrupted. Activation would suck but it wouldn't be unfair.
          Married to a hematopathologist seven years out of training.
          Raising three girls, 11, 9, and 2.

          “That was the thing about the world: it wasn't that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn't expect.”
          ― Lev Grossman, The Magician King

          Comment

          • #6
            I don't think that there's really a comparison except that there is a greater need for enlisted personnel than reservist officers. (the foot soldiers as it were!)

            Anyone with prior service knows the drill- there's no guarantees! look at all those guys who thought they were done but got reactivated.

            It will be interesting to see how the pullback from Europe affects military physicians though.

            Jenn

            Comment

            • #7
              Yeah, FH says basically the guy was activated legally, but he thinks if the guy had said the right things to the right people, he might have gotten out of it. Or at least FH was surprised he didn't try.

              Apparently we may soon get the chance to find out for ourselves. In a bit of eerie timing, FH got a letter on Saturday from the Dept. of the Navy saying that they very much anticipate an involuntary activation of the IRR (that's him) beginning in January. I guess we were right to be nervous when the Army called up their IRR a few months ago. It came with a little questionaire asking if he'd be interested in voluntary activation (no thank you) and if he knows of any reason he'd be exempt from being involuntarily activated (medical, hardship, etc.). FH says "Well, that's ominous. Hope this medical student thing works."

              Hmmm, what would be the best way to do a quickie, pre-deployment wedding . . .
              Married to a hematopathologist seven years out of training.
              Raising three girls, 11, 9, and 2.

              “That was the thing about the world: it wasn't that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn't expect.”
              ― Lev Grossman, The Magician King

              Comment

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