Amp 101

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teacherman84

teacherman84

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Can any upper class AFHPSP students or current flight docs share what I can expect at AMP 101 this summer? Just a lot of classroom work or will we get the opportunity to do anything interesting? Thanks
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Ya, this is the first class to be at Wright Pat I believe. AMP 101 is death by powerpoint..theres just really nothing else to say. But, if your taking the full six week course (201 and 202) you should get to fly. When it was at Brooks we had a week at stenson air field where they gave us a quick grounds school, and about 10 hours of stick time. So that was cool, but AMP is generally pretty painful..sorry
 
teacherman84 said:
Can any upper class AFHPSP students or current flight docs share what I can expect at AMP 101 this summer? Just a lot of classroom work or will we get the opportunity to do anything interesting? Thanks
Click to expand...

AMP is a 6 week course where they give you approximately 500 PowerPoint presentations given by retired or senior flight surgeons, none of whom have seen a flyer/patient since 1992, still think that Air Force medicine works the same as it did back then and believe that this whole computer thing is just a fad.

On the bright side, you can spend entire mornings being hungover without missing anything, catch up on your reading (bring a Kindle or iPad), and after lunch you can have a good time devising pranks to play on your colleagues as they slip into post-prandial comas beside you. Trying to toss gummibears into an open snoring mouth is the game of kings.

Air Force flight medicine is strictly on the job training. Enjoy your six weeks away from the clinic.
 
AF M4 said:
AMP is a 6 week course where they give you approximately 500 PowerPoint presentations given by retired or senior flight surgeons, none of whom have seen a flyer/patient since 1992, still think that Air Force medicine works the same as it did back then and believe that this whole computer thing is just a fad.

On the bright side, you can spend entire mornings being hungover without missing anything, catch up on your reading (bring a Kindle or iPad), and after lunch you can have a good time devising pranks to play on your colleagues as they slip into post-prandial comas beside you. Trying to toss gummibears into an open snoring mouth is the game of kings.

Air Force flight medicine is strictly on the job training. Enjoy your six weeks away from the clinic.
Click to expand...

Bravo!!
 
AF M4 said:
AMP is a 6 week course where they give you approximately 500 PowerPoint presentations given by retired or senior flight surgeons, none of whom have seen a flyer/patient since 1992, still think that Air Force medicine works the same as it did back then and believe that this whole computer thing is just a fad.

On the bright side, you can spend entire mornings being hungover without missing anything, catch up on your reading (bring a Kindle or iPad), and after lunch you can have a good time devising pranks to play on your colleagues as they slip into post-prandial comas beside you. Trying to toss gummibears into an open snoring mouth is the game of kings.

Air Force flight medicine is strictly on the job training. Enjoy your six weeks away from the clinic.
Click to expand...

Im still a med student, this will be my summer between MS-1 and MS-2, so I am only doing AMP 101. Since I did COT before school they are sending me to this for 2 weeks this summer.
So nothing but powerpoints to look forward to? I at least wont have to live on edge about getting yelled at like last summer, will I?
 
teacherman84 said:
Im still a med student, this will be my summer between MS-1 and MS-2, so I am only doing AMP 101. Since I did COT before school they are sending me to this for 2 weeks this summer.
So nothing but powerpoints to look forward to? I at least wont have to live on edge about getting yelled at like last summer, will I?
Click to expand...

No one's going to yell at you. The Air Force is critically short of flight surgeons, and one of their ideas for helping with the shortage is to get as many young HPSPers interested in flight medicine as possible. Relax, this is going to be like a 2 week sales pitch for you to join the wonderful world of GMO/FS's.
 
Sounds like all you guys have already been through COT before MSI..what is that like? I'm awaiting my board decision, should hear back in a few weeks, but I should be accepted.. If I am and go to COT this summer in Alabama, what should I expect?
 
mbh11 said:
Sounds like all you guys have already been through COT before MSI..what is that like? I'm awaiting my board decision, should hear back in a few weeks, but I should be accepted.. If I am and go to COT this summer in Alabama, what should I expect?
Click to expand...

Expect a lot of yelling for the first few weeks, marching everywhere, fighting to stay awake during endless power points, and a sweet haircut.
This breaks down all the fun rules you have to follow, they give it to you on day 1 and you are expected to have it with you at all times.
http://myingling.com/random/otswiki/images/4/47/Otsman36-2202_000.pdf
If you get accepted, I wrote up a fact sheet with some tips for some classmates going this summer if you want to PM me your email address I can send that to you.
 
teacherman84 said:
Expect a lot of yelling for the first few weeks, marching everywhere, fighting to stay awake during endless power points, and a sweet haircut.
This breaks down all the fun rules you have to follow, they give it to you on day 1 and you are expected to have it with you at all times.
http://myingling.com/random/otswiki/images/4/47/Otsman36-2202_000.pdf
If you get accepted, I wrote up a fact sheet with some tips for some classmates going this summer if you want to PM me your email address I can send that to you.
Click to expand...


wow, thanks, i just started reading through that.....awesome haha.

so all you guys reading this who were once in my shoes, i ask this.. Should I go through with this? Is it a good decision? Just a quick bio for my situation: 22 years old, married, no kids(kids in the near future Im sure though), Texas resident going out of state to 41k/yr tuition, tentatively pursuing Emergency Medicine..

give me any advice!!
 
mbh11 said:
married, no kids(kids in the near future Im sure though), Texas resident going out of state to 41k/yr tuition, tentatively pursuing Emergency Medicine..

give me any advice!!
Click to expand...

Married..kids in the near future..and you know what you want to do..stay away from the military!
 
aegis said:
Married..kids in the near future..and you know what you want to do..stay away from the military!
Click to expand...

I demand a smilie where the guy shoots an arrow and hits the bullseye.
 
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AF M4 said:
I demand a smilie where the guy shoots an arrow and hits the bullseye.
Click to expand...


dang guys, really?? you REALLY REALLY would in all honesty tell me NOT to do it? trust me im not just doing this for the money, im all for the military, have no problem serving our country and jumping through all these hoops to be a doctor in the air force..father in law is a retired major in the air force, wife was born on an air force base and grew up on air force bases so at least she knows the lifestyle..

What are the major reasons why I shouldn't?
 
mbh11 said:
dang guys, really?? you REALLY REALLY would in all honesty tell me NOT to do it? trust me im not just doing this for the money, im all for the military, have no problem serving our country and jumping through all these hoops to be a doctor in the air force..father in law is a retired major in the air force, wife was born on an air force base and grew up on air force bases so at least she knows the lifestyle..

What are the major reasons why I shouldn't?
Click to expand...

Because you are making a major life decision on invalid information. Everything you think you know about the Air Force is wrong, and you don't know anything about being a doctor.

What happens if during the second year of medical school you realize this isn't for you? Lots of people quit medical school, but you won't be able to. You'll be stuck in a job you don't want for a decade.

Even if you end up liking being a doctor the Air Force, in particular the Air Force medical service, is not a good place to be. This is not about the usual military things like deployments and such. That is a given. This is about malignancy and systemic culture problems.

Are you OK with being a GMO? Fine. But are you OK with a medical system that, in 2011, still actively requires one year wonders to function as primary care physicians for active duty servicemembers when those same one year wonders could not even secure privileges to work in any other self-respecting hospital or clinic in the country?

There is a very good chance that when your wife is pregnant with one of those kids you hope to have she will be managed by a physician with only one year of a transitional medicine internship, and no experience with ob/gyn aside from the two months of medical school where maybe he got to put the ultrasound jelly on a couple of ladies' bellies. You will be placing the well-being of your wife and your unborn child into the hands of this well-meaning but underqualified individual, and there is a very good chance that you will be this individual's colleague and doing the exact same thing for someone else's pregnant wife.

I know because I'm there right now, and I am honestly telling you that this is not a good place to be.
 
Wow, that was an earful.


Well, I've worked in an ER for almost two years as a physician's tech/scribe and my brother and his wife are both doctors. So maybe I have an idea of what being a doctor is like. And my father in law, like i said, was in the air force for 23 years, so maybe i have a slight idea as well what the air force is like. But I appreciate your input, I will keep what you've said in mind as I make my decision. I honestly feel bad for you, sounds like you've had a rough ride in the air force.
 
He's not alone. This board is full of people who will tell you about their bad experiences. I, too, thought that I had it all figured out. I knew about deployments and marching and short haircuts, but I didn't know about how anemic military medicine is. I didn't know that I would be forced into an internship I didn't want last year. I didn't know that I would have to get permission to go through the Match and repeat a PGY1. I didn't know how poor the pathology at Air Force hospitals was and that physicians have to moonlight at civilian facilities to keep their skills up. I certainly had never heard of a GMO. My recruiter told me that a flight surgeon really was a surgeon that could fly. If I had found SDN's military forum back when I was a pre-med, I would have turned down the scholarship and could have avoided this whole mess.

You mention your wife. Is your wife okay with giving up her job and moving across the country every few years just to be with you? I had to apologize to my spouse for killing her career.
 
deuist said:
He's not alone. This board is full of people who will tell you about their bad experiences. I, too, thought that I had it all figured out. I knew about deployments and marching and short haircuts, but I didn't know about how anemic military medicine is. I didn't know that I would be forced into an internship I didn't want last year. I didn't know that I would have to get permission to go through the Match and repeat a PGY1. I didn't know how poor the pathology at Air Force hospitals was and that physicians have to moonlight at civilian facilities to keep their skills up. I certainly had never heard of a GMO. My recruiter told me that a flight surgeon really was a surgeon that could fly. If I had found SDN's military forum back when I was a pre-med, I would have turned down the scholarship and could have avoided this whole mess.

You mention your wife. Is your wife okay with giving up her job and moving across the country every few years just to be with you? I had to apologize to my spouse for killing her career.
Click to expand...


I definitely don't think I have it all figured out like you say, that's why I'm on here reading/asking questions. You have to understand it's hard to interpret the advice I get on here. Because I get just about an equal amt of people telling me the military route is a great decision as those who tell me it's hell.

Luckily for me, my wife has not started a career, if she even will for that matter. We are both in our last semester of undergrad so nothing to worry about there. She really just wants to have kids. And she was born on an air force base, moved about 15 times to different air force bases across the world growing up.

Really hoping some people with good things to say jump in here soon..ha
 
mbh11 said:
Wow, that was an earful.


Well, I've worked in an ER for almost two years as a physician's tech/scribe and my brother and his wife are both doctors. So maybe I have an idea of what being a doctor is like. And my father in law, like i said, was in the air force for 23 years, so maybe i have a slight idea as well what the air force is like. But I appreciate your input, I will keep what you've said in mind as I make my decision. I honestly feel bad for you, sounds like you've had a rough ride in the air force.
Click to expand...

Don't feel too bad for me; in a few weeks I'll be a civilian and this will all seem like a bad dream.

Good luck with your decision. What I relayed to you was only the substance of my years as an Air Force doctor; all of the other docs at my base are punching out as soon as they're able too. Your choice is now an informed one, and I'm not one to stand in the way of someone determined to be another body between me and the IRR.
 
deuist said:
You mention your wife. Is your wife okay with giving up her job and moving across the country every few years just to be with you? I had to apologize to my spouse for killing her career.
Click to expand...

I apologized for killing my wife's career... and ended up divorced anyway. Crappy middle of nowhere assignment (North Dakota) after 2 deployments with extensions and over 400 days away during a 4 year hitch, an apology (or a thousand) didn't cut it. Maybe that isn't the norm, but >25% time away from home is hard on relationships.

mbh 11, do yourself a favor and spend several hours scouring this forum. Some here are/were cranks, some are blind cheerleaders, and quite a few are in the middle. Get informed and make a good decision. Good luck.

Sorry to continue the thread hijack. Old AMP at Brooks was death by powerpoint as well. Like AF M4, I spent most mornings hungover and had a great time. Didn't learn a damn thing. The first year or two as a flight doc is your training.
 
BomberDoc said:
I apologized for killing my wife's career... and ended up divorced anyway. Crappy middle of nowhere assignment (North Dakota) after 2 deployments with extensions and over 400 days away during a 4 year hitch, an apology (or a thousand) didn't cut it. Maybe that isn't the norm, but >25% time away from home is hard on relationships.

mbh 11, do yourself a favor and spend several hours scouring this forum. Some here are/were cranks, some are blind cheerleaders, and quite a few are in the middle. Get informed and make a good decision. Good luck.

Sorry to continue the thread hijack. Old AMP at Brooks was death by powerpoint as well. Like AF M4, I spent most mornings hungover and had a great time. Didn't learn a damn thing. The first year or two as a flight doc is your training.
Click to expand...

my wife and i both have been reading lots about all this. for our situation, it just doesn't seem like the right path for us. I'm sorry if i'm wrong, but it just seems like most of guys are miserable. maybe you are or maybe you're not, but it comes off that way and i don't want to end up in a situation with lots of uncertainty and even regret. i know that i'd be doing a big disservice to my country if i end up bitter and unhappy with what they had decided for me so i don't want to risk that. thanks to everyone for the advice.
 
Wow. We saved one.

mbh11, you are much smarter than I was. Go forth and be successful.
 
Teacherman84 that sounds about right for COT. I was there last summer as well. What flight were you in? I am also signed up to go to AMP 101 this summer and was wondering what to expect. Sounds like it's going to be a good time...
 
I'm writing a quick synopsis of my experience at AMP 101 during summer 2017. (The last post here was over 10 yrs ago!! Needs to be updated).

First, I had a really good time there! And let me cut to the chase...you get to fly!!! The AF actually sticks you in a plane (the civilian SR-22), and you pilot while the instructor sits to the right of you). You also fly multiple simulators, and have multiple other excursions outside the classroom to learn cool stuff. There are a fair amount of lectures, especially the first week, but I found almost all of it captivating. I heard from others though that they found this part of the course monotonous.
If I remember, I am going to scan our schedule and post it onto this thread. Most of the lectures are adequately titled to give you an idea of what is actually discussed. Personally, I got pretty excited when I read the agenda for the 2 weeks.
Last thing for now, do NOT worry about the test at the end. They have a review at the end of the 2 weeks that provides you with all you need. All the officers/instructors/doctors want you to enjoy your time there!
 
IronMeister88 said:
I'm writing a quick synopsis of my experience at AMP 101 during summer 2017. (The last post here was over 10 yrs ago!! Needs to be updated).

First, I had a really good time there! And let me cut to the chase...you get to fly!!! The AF actually sticks you in a plane (the civilian SR-22), and you pilot while the instructor sits to the right of you). You also fly multiple simulators, and have multiple other excursions outside the classroom to learn cool stuff. There are a fair amount of lectures, especially the first week, but I found almost all of it captivating. I heard from others though that they found this part of the course monotonous.
If I remember, I am going to scan our schedule and post it onto this thread. Most of the lectures are adequately titled to give you an idea of what is actually discussed. Personally, I got pretty excited when I read the agenda for the 2 weeks.
Last thing for now, do NOT worry about the test at the end. They have a review at the end of the 2 weeks that provides you with all you need. All the officers/instructors/doctors want you to enjoy your time there!
Click to expand...
The last post was 2011...not quite 10 years ago.

Your experience sound like mine back in 2011. It's a big 2 week recruiting session...6 years later in my fellowship and I'm glad I didnt get swayes into flight med.
 
mbh11 said:
my wife and i both have been reading lots about all this. for our situation, it just doesn't seem like the right path for us. I'm sorry if i'm wrong, but it just seems like most of guys are miserable. maybe you are or maybe you're not, but it comes off that way and i don't want to end up in a situation with lots of uncertainty and even regret. i know that i'd be doing a big disservice to my country if i end up bitter and unhappy with what they had decided for me so i don't want to risk that. thanks to everyone for the advice.
Click to expand...

I'm glad I did it...but that is largely because I would have regretted not doing it. I knew I wanted to be in the Navy long before I knew I wanted to go into medicine. I met a ton of good folks and felt like I was playing an important role in lots of people's lives. I do believe that Navy FS is probably the best job milmed has to offer.

But with that all said...lots of sacrifice from both myself and my wife...and our lives could have turn out much worse that it did.
 
My point was just to give you guys some up to date info, and to let you know I actually enjoyed the experience.
 
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