This question makes up an entire chapter in my book..."Lies, D*mned Lies, and the Aerospace Expeditionary Force". In 1999, the Air Force promised us a more predictable schedule of deployment to diminish stress and improve morale. We could count on 1 (one) 3 (three) month deployment every 15 months, with a year off in between deployments. Then came 9/11, and, suddenly, the *****s in charge of all of the services realized that the structures and staffing designed around the MOOTW (Military Operations Other Than War) of the 90's (Bosnia, Haiti, etc.) were entirely inadequate for prosecuting MIW (Missions Involving War). Thus, our promised predictability went out the window...poof, like Keyser Söze, it was gone. Suddenly, people got deployed whenever for however long, in "buckets" that Pentagon generals pulled out of their pimply arses on the fly (you try doing that). Especially if you had valuable specialty training (ortho, vascular, to a lesser extent anesthesia), you had every chance of being a "onesie or twosie" deployee separate from the UTC deployment group you had trained with. The Army already deploys for a year
on the ground (pre-deployment spin up and post-deployment spin-down not included); if the three military medical services *do* merge eventually, you can be assured the Air Force and Navy will scale up deployments to match the Army, rather than vice versa.
Anyone who tells you with a straight face that he/she can predict what deployments or ops tempo will look like when you graduate from internship is either a liar, a recruiter, or...sorry, I'm being redundant. A liar. After we invade Iran, assist Israel in taking down Syria, try (valiantly, but quixotically) to save Taiwan from assimilation by Zhongguo, do something (who knows what?) to counter N. Korea's madman, we will be spread so thin all over the world that Luxembourg could march into D.C. and make us all eat smelly cheese.
So, here's my answer, as a former Deployment Team Leader at Travis, and ex-LtCol: If you sign your life away, expect the unexpected with regard to operational taskings. Expect every single promise
anyone makes you regarding deployment predictability or scheduling to be broken as soon as anything significant shows up on CNN...because you can bet your bottom dollar that NO ONE in the Pentagon has planned adequately for next year's crisis, let alone those of five years hence. You will become great friends with Major Bohica, so bring your own lubricant to the party, if you choose to go.
As you can see, my advice, after 19 years in uniform, would be to run screaming away from USU to a civilian medical school and residency. If you then choose to serve your country in the military as a specialist physician, at least you would have a 50:50 chance of not having to see flyers with runny noses and other body parts as a glorified GP flight surgeon.
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R
USUHS 1990
http://www.medicalcorpse.com
