Palace Front

[PressPforPi]

Looking to get out from Active Duty and serve a year in the ANG, possibly more if I like it. Is it possible to drill while in medical school without being in a particular program? My only real concern would be potential deployments. Or does anyone know of any programs for the ANG?

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[deleted480308]

Looking to get out from Active Duty and serve a year in the ANG, possibly more if I like it. Is it possible to drill while in medical school without being in a particular program? My only real concern would be potential deployments. Or does anyone know of any programs for the ANG?

medical student officers are not deployable but a commission is 6/2 and not one

 

[PressPforPi]

A Palace Front would still have me as enlisted so it’s only for a year. I imagine I’d have to agree to a commission and drilling for 6 years beforehand. Do you know any individuals that have drilled while in the ANG, and if it’s doable as a student?

 

[deleted480308]

A Palace Front would still have me as enlisted so it’s only for a year. I imagine I’d have to agree to a commission and drilling for 6 years beforehand. Do you know any individuals that have drilled while in the ANG, and if it’s doable as a student?

it is doable but annoying, reserves apparently are more uniform about letting you turn in the "i studied" forms instead of actually showing up but the NG states are not all that way

 

[PressPforPi]

I’ll have to talk with a Reserve recruiter as well then too. I don’t know if they offer a similar program as the ANG does with palace front. I enjoy a lot of aspects about the military, but I would prefer to have more control over where I live.

 

[DeadCactus]

Plenty (hundreds) of medical students and residents in the Guard and Reserve. I would be cautious staying on the enlisted side to test it out. If you're enlisted, the combination of being lower rank, having a real job, and being deployable is going to make the experience different and possibly more painful. You will likely have to commit for 6 years given the new commission and likely be expected give up a summer break in medical school to go to COT. For most people, I think 6 years as a medical student/resident officer is a lower risk trial than 1 year as an enlisted member. You can be a medical student without being in any special recruitment program.

The experience is going to be highly variable based on your command, your own motivations, and your willingness to push back. I've seen drill be anything from studying in a corner to being assigned as a platoon leader. The variability does seem to be higher in the Guard and the Reserve has some extra drilling options if there is no unit with a need for your specialty within a few hours drive of you. Really though, that choice comes down more to your specialty and what kind of military medicine you want to be involved in. The Guard is going to be geared toward operational medicine, disaster response, and "front-line" specialties like primary care, emergency medicine, and flight medicine. The Reserves are going to be geared toward sub-specialty care and either deploying to larger established medical centers either in theatre or back-filling in the US.

I would recommend scouting out the unit you would potentially join and talking to them. I would expand your search to both the Guard and Reserve and to at least both the Army and Air Force. I know nothing about the Navy Reserve. For Guard and Reserve, finding a good unit is way more important than the specific branch that unit is in because you're not shifting around every 2 or 3 years and neither are most of the people in the unit. It's not rare for people to commute from other states to stay with a solid unit. Talk with people in the units that would potentially be gaining you and find out what their expectations would be and what previous medical students and residents have done during drill.

 

[armytrainingsir]

Hmmm, googled it and it seems Palace Front is an interesting program.

Have you been accepted to medical school?

 

[PressPforPi]

Plenty (hundreds) of medical students and residents in the Guard and Reserve. I would be cautious staying on the enlisted side to test it out. If you're enlisted, the combination of being lower rank, having a real job, and being deployable is going to make the experience different and possibly more painful. You will likely have to commit for 6 years given the new commission and likely be expected give up a summer break in medical school to go to COT. For most people, I think 6 years as a medical student/resident officer is a lower risk trial than 1 year as an enlisted member. You can be a medical student without being in any special recruitment program.

The experience is going to be highly variable based on your command, your own motivations, and your willingness to push back. I've seen drill be anything from studying in a corner to being assigned as a platoon leader. The variability does seem to be higher in the Guard and the Reserve has some extra drilling options if there is no unit with a need for your specialty within a few hours drive of you. Really though, that choice comes down more to your specialty and what kind of military medicine you want to be involved in. The Guard is going to be geared toward operational medicine, disaster response, and "front-line" specialties like primary care, emergency medicine, and flight medicine. The Reserves are going to be geared toward sub-specialty care and either deploying to larger established medical centers either in theatre or back-filling in the US.

I would recommend scouting out the unit you would potentially join and talking to them. I would expand your search to both the Guard and Reserve and to at least both the Army and Air Force. I know nothing about the Navy Reserve. For Guard and Reserve, finding a good unit is way more important than the specific branch that unit is in because you're not shifting around every 2 or 3 years and neither are most of the people in the unit. It's not rare for people to commute from other states to stay with a solid unit. Talk with people in the units that would potentially be gaining you and find out what their expectations would be and what previous medical students and residents have done during drill.

I really appreciate all of this so thank you for typing it up. I talked to an ANG recruiter and still got the same story that despite being in as a medical student, I could still be deployable. This was a health professional recruiter as well. As far as speaking with the individual unit, I'm not sure exactly how to go about that. I guess I would be assigned to a med group? Do they have personnel to talk about specifics with as far as being a medical student?

 

[PressPforPi]

Hmmm, googled it and it seems Palace Front is an interesting program.

Have you been accepted to medical school?

I have an acceptance, yes.

 

[deleted480308]

I really appreciate all of this so thank you for typing it up. I talked to an ANG recruiter and still got the same story that despite being in as a medical student, I could still be deployable. This was a health professional recruiter as well. As far as speaking with the individual unit, I'm not sure exactly how to go about that. I guess I would be assigned to a med group? Do they have personnel to talk about specifics with as far as being a medical student?

A medical student officer is useless and not deployable. A medical student in civilian life who holds an unrelated job in the guard is deployable

 

[PressPforPi]

A medical student officer is useless and not deployable. A medical student in civilian life who holds an unrelated job in the guard is deployable

So this would be the 6 year commitment, yes? And would I have to take MDSSP or STRAP to qualify for this? Would my service obligation begin after residency or while I'm in school? Finally, is this service specific, because the Air Force recruiters seemed confused about any kind of programs for medical students.

 

[deleted480308]

So this would be the 6 year commitment, yes? And would I have to take MDSSP or STRAP to qualify for this? Would my service obligation begin after residency or while I'm in school? Finally, is this service specific, because the Air Force recruiters seemed confused about any kind of programs for medical students.

Air force didn’t have mdssp and strap when i was in school. Strap is for during residency. Residency does not count as payback time because you are still no deployable (only if your military job is doctor). And unless they changed it minimum commission is 6 with 2 additional irr years.

I have not seen policy stating the med student officer slot required mdssp

 

[DeadCactus]

Your recruiter should know which units are in need of a physician/medical student but you can always reach out to the medical group as a starting place.

A medical student is not deployable in any practical sense of the word. They're a medical service corp officer who, even if they've been to COT, have not been to any sort of career field training. You're not qualified to do anything. The thing to remember is that the US government can draft civilians and send them to war if it really wants to. There are no absolutes, but there is little reason to deploy a medical student officer (there is plenty of reason to deploy a trained and experienced enlisted airman or soldier). After finishing your intern year and attaining a medical license, you would theoretically be deployable but that would be a quick way of the military sabotaging any hope of ever recruiting another resident or medical student.

I believe it would be a 6 year commitment because you previously served and will have already met your 8 year military service obligation by the end of 6 more years in a reserve component. I don't believe that clock restarts with the commission. I don't believe you're required to take MDSSP or STRAP, but maybe this is service and component dependent. The ANG is difficult to find information on and seems to vary more regionally.

Payback begins when the agreement you sign says it begins, the current wording on MDSSP and STRAP both currently start pay-back after completion of residency. The wording on MDSSP used to say it started after medical school. The long defunct ASR program actually started payback the day you signed the contract.