Why do I want to become an Army Doc?

     "Why do I want to become an Army Doc?" is such a big question, but I'll try and be succinct and keep it simple.

     I have always wanted to be a doctor, well perhaps not always, but since I was around eight years old.  My Grandma sent me a Fisher Price doctor kit and I fell in love.  I diagnosed and treated all sorts of teddy bear maladies and barbie doll injuries.  From that point onward I knew that's all I wanted to do in life.  I'm not sure where my passion for medicine comes from, maybe it's God given, but one thing is for sure: I am supremely grateful for that passion.

     I hate to be a cliche, but since sometimes cliche happens, 9/11 is what made me really consider the military for the first time.  I was a young teenager living close enough to NYC to feel threatened by the events of that morning.   If I was old enough I might have signed myself up right then and there.  But there was one major problem: I wanted to be a doctor.

     Enlisting right off would delay my college plans and frankly I didn't think I was tough enough to be one of the enlisted.  I thought about ROTC in college, but even then that was likely to delay and perhaps even derail my medical school plans.  Of course as a teenager, TV was a big influence and I had been mainlining MASH episodes.  The military had to have doctors!  Hawkeye wouldn't lie to me!  So I began researching military medicine and that's when I found HPSP.

     I was fifteen the first time I found out about the Health Professions Scholarship Program.  It's a too good to be true deal.  If you qualify the military (Army, Air Force, and Navy) pays for your medical school, your textbooks, tests, and gives you a monthly stipend.  In return after you finish all your training you owe the military four years of active duty service (for a 4 yr. scholarship).

     It was the perfect choice for me.  But why Army, you ask?  I had three choices: Army, Air Force, and Navy (the Navy provides medical care for the Marines as well).  I didn't have any immediate family that was in the military.  In fact my parents and siblings did their best to talk me out of the decision to serve.  But the point of no connections was that I was free to evaluate all the services and make a decision independent of outside biases.

     The Navy as a choice was out for me almost immediately.  I read places that after medical school you don't go straight into residency, you serve as a GMO, General Medical Officer, for a number of years first.  I wanted to specialize.  I wanted my residency.

     Then it became a tough choice between the Air Force and the Army.  Air Force seemed like the more comfortable of the two services and having a greater number of women.  As a woman, this was a concern to me.  I even shared a few emails with a AF recruiter before finally deciding on the Army.  Why?  Again it came down to the residency.  I wasn't sure what type of medicine I wished to practice, but I wanted choice.  And the Army has the most amount of specialties for its residents mostly because the Army has the greatest number of doctors.

     So there you have it.  My story to the Why of this.  Now a quick disclaimer: the military isn't right for everyone and there is something truly great about each branch of the Armed Forces.  This is my opinion alone.  I hope through this blog I can help give light to us gluttons for punishment: the future military docs.

2LT Lister