Military options after graduating from PA school

[KatDee]

Hello all!

I am contemplating joining the military (Air Force vs Navy vs Army) after graduating this December from my PA program. A lot of these posts are more geared toward individuals who are getting their Bachelors and not yet in school, so I’m curious if anyone knows anything about joining after graduation? Is there any opinion on which faction is potentially better for a PA position? I’m also curious about deployments—I actually really want to be deployed overseas. My understanding is that you can’t pick where you end up (understandable) but is a deployment where I might actually be in the midst of some s%#^ more likely with one faction versus another? 

Any information y’all have with regards to this is greatly appreciated! 

Thanks,

-Kat 

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

1 hour ago, KatDee said:

Hello all!

I am contemplating joining the military (Air Force vs Navy vs Army) after graduating this December from my PA program. A lot of these posts are more geared toward individuals who are getting their Bachelors and not yet in school, so I’m curious if anyone knows anything about joining after graduation? Is there any opinion on which faction is potentially better for a PA position? I’m also curious about deployments—I actually really want to be deployed overseas. My understanding is that you can’t pick where you end up (understandable) but is a deployment where I might actually be in the midst of some s%#^ more likely with one faction versus another? 

Any information y’all have with regards to this is greatly appreciated! 

Thanks,

-Kat 

Army. More opportunities to be close to the fight, more highly utilized, and more likely to be selected after graduation.

[KatDee]

Thanks for the response!

That was my thought as well. A classmate and friend of mine was an Army medic for years though and he is telling me to go the Air Force route (more "cushy" I suppose) and that being in the Army won't alter my chances of deployment or utilization. I don't want to bring up potentially sensitive subjects BUT he also subtly hinted that, as a female, my options as a PA will be more limited (however I think his point was that this would be the case no matter what faction of the military) so I was curious what your thoughts were on that? I wasn't sure if I should PM you or leave this public so if PM works better please let me know.

[HMtoPA]

On 5/1/2018 at 4:57 PM, KatDee said:

My understanding is that you can’t pick where you end up (understandable) but is a deployment where I might actually be in the midst of some s%#^ more likely with one faction versus another? 

 

Are you for real?

[LT_Oneal_PAC]

13 hours ago, KatDee said:

Thanks for the response!

That was my thought as well. A classmate and friend of mine was an Army medic for years though and he is telling me to go the Air Force route (more "cushy" I suppose) and that being in the Army won't alter my chances of deployment or utilization. I don't want to bring up potentially sensitive subjects BUT he also subtly hinted that, as a female, my options as a PA will be more limited (however I think his point was that this would be the case no matter what faction of the military) so I was curious what your thoughts were on that? I wasn't sure if I should PM you or leave this public so if PM works better please let me know.

Being female won’t matter from a medical officer standpoint. Especially not in this age of women in the infantry.

air force is definitely more coosh. He is wrong about deployment utilization

 

17 minutes ago, HMtoPA said:

 

Are you for real?

Every 0311 Marine I’ve known signed up to be in a fire fight. They beg for that CAR, at least until it happens. As boot as wanting to be in a firefight is, wanting to be near the wire to patch people up seems several orders less silly to me. And much better than the typical “how do I not deploy” BS I hear.

[KatDee]

12 hours ago, LT_Oneal_PAC said:

Being female won’t matter from a medical officer standpoint. Especially not in this age of women in the infantry.

air force is definitely more coosh. He is wrong about deployment utilization

 

Every 0311 Marine I’ve known signed up to be in a fire fight. They beg for that CAR, at least until it happens. As boot as wanting to be in a firefight is, wanting to be near the wire to patch people up seems several orders less silly to me. And much better than the typical “how do I not deploy” BS I hear.

Right, that was my thought process. I did not mean to sound silly when I said that--I just want to actually be able to do my job and help people as opposed to only joining the military for the benefits without any of the actual work.

And okay, thanks for the info--you basically confirmed my original suspicions before I spoke with him so I appreciate it. 

[HMtoPA]

On 5/2/2018 at 9:15 PM, LT_Oneal_PAC said:

Every 0311 Marine I’ve known signed up to be in a fire fight. They beg for that CAR, at least until it happens. As boot as wanting to be in a firefight is, wanting to be near the wire to patch people up seems several orders less silly to me. And much better than the typical “how do I not deploy” BS I hear.

I guess. It just makes me think of this scene from the move Rushmore. Grates a little bit, lol.

[ProSpectre]

On 5/2/2018 at 11:15 PM, LT_Oneal_PAC said:

Every 0311 Marine I’ve known signed up to be in a fire fight. They beg for that CAR, at least until it happens. As boot as wanting to be in a firefight is, wanting to be near the wire to patch people up seems several orders less silly to me. And much better than the typical “how do I not deploy” BS I hear.

 

2 hours ago, HMtoPA said:

I guess. It just makes me think of this scene from the move Rushmore. Grates a little bit, lol.

 

It's not so much just wanting to get into a firefight, as wanting to do the job that you trained long and hard for. Why would you want to go through all the BS involved with being in a combat unit and the blood/sweat/tears of training (and deploying) as a grunt if you never get to actually put those skills to use? 

As a former 11B in the Army (with a CIB), I completely understand the OP's feelings.  

[KatDee]

8 hours ago, ProSpectre said:

 

 

It's not so much just wanting to get into a firefight, as wanting to do the job that you trained long and hard for. Why would you want to go through all the BS involved with being in a combat unit and the blood/sweat/tears of training (and deploying) as a grunt if you never get to actually put those skills to use? 

As a former 11B in the Army (with a CIB), I completely understand the OP's feelings.  

I appreciate it. That was how I was trying to think about it as well. Having had no prior experience I wasn’t sure what was reasonable to expect/what the chances were of truly being utilized etc. whereas I know what I can expect from a civilian PA job. Just lacks the added allure of serving something even greater (imo). 

So, in your personal opinion, would you recommend the Army route over the Air Force or Navy for someone like me? Like I stated earlier—I graduate in December and, although I don’t have military experience, I’m a hard worker and I believe I handle stressful situations well. I would just very much like the opportunity to actually offer some real help on deployment, as opposed to some of the stories I’ve heard from blogs among prior service members where they say they just walked a lot while on deployment and never did anything healthcare related (or otherwise). 

[HMtoPA]

41 minutes ago, KatDee said:

I appreciate it. That was how I was trying to think about it as well. Having had no prior experience I wasn’t sure what was reasonable to expect/what the chances were of truly being utilized etc. whereas I know what I can expect from a civilian PA job. Just lacks the added allure of serving something even greater (imo). 

So, in your personal opinion, would you recommend the Army route over the Air Force or Navy for someone like me? Like I stated earlier—I graduate in December and, although I don’t have military experience, I’m a hard worker and I believe I handle stressful situations well. I would just very much like the opportunity to actually offer some real help on deployment, as opposed to some of the stories I’ve heard from blogs among prior service members where they say they just walked a lot while on deployment and never did anything healthcare related (or otherwise). 

 

Well, this is not the same military it was 10 or 15 years ago, when nearly every deployment with a ground unit was a combat tour. If you join the military now, you will do healthcare-related things, for sure. You will not go to a combat zone.

Sure, the geopolitical landscape can change relatively quickly. People are always going on about the looming threat of North Korea (just like they have for the past 50 years), an ascendant China, a reemergent Russia...but how much political will (and money) is there for more war at this point? Little to none. Just saying.

[KatDee]

1 minute ago, HMtoPA said:

 

Well, this is not the same military it was 10 or 15 years ago, when nearly every deployment with a ground unit was a combat tour. If you join the military now, you will do healthcare-related things, for sure. You will not go to a combat zone.

Sure, the geopolitical landscape can change relatively quickly. People are always going on about the looming threat of North Korea (just like they have for the past 50 years), an ascendant China, a reemergent Russia...but how much political will (and money) is there for more war at this point? Little to none. Just saying.

Yeah, makes sense. 

My army medic buddy told me I wouldn’t go to a combat zone-which makes complete sense and is in-keeping with my expectations, but beyond that he said the deployment for a PA could look drastically different depending on where I ended up being put. Again, this makes sense and I understand that, I guess I’m just trying to get a feel for what a deployment might look like. Do most PAs work in field clinics? Hospitals? Are they treating illnesses/acute trauma/etc.

There is a high probability (I assume) that this question is far too broad and ultimately unanswerable which is totally fine, but being a nubie and all, I’m just trying to get the best possible purview I can. I figure this is the best place to go for these types of questions so I can hear from people who have actually done it as opposed to expecting the recruiters to be 100% upfront and honest about everything. 

[HMtoPA]

57 minutes ago, KatDee said:

Yeah, makes sense. 

My army medic buddy told me I wouldn’t go to a combat zone-which makes complete sense and is in-keeping with my expectations, but beyond that he said the deployment for a PA could look drastically different depending on where I ended up being put. Again, this makes sense and I understand that, I guess I’m just trying to get a feel for what a deployment might look like. Do most PAs work in field clinics? Hospitals? Are they treating illnesses/acute trauma/etc.

There is a high probability (I assume) that this question is far too broad and ultimately unanswerable which is totally fine, but being a nubie and all, I’m just trying to get the best possible purview I can. I figure this is the best place to go for these types of questions so I can hear from people who have actually done it as opposed to expecting the recruiters to be 100% upfront and honest about everything. 

I can't answer too many specifics about the Army. I did go to school with a bunch of Army students who are now Army PAs, and have kept up with a few of them on FB. For the most part, they ended up with combat arms units (infantry, cavalry) and I think their experiences where similar to mine with a Marine Corps infantry battalion: i.e., work out of a rudimentary clinic in garrison, and a field clinic while on exercises or deployments. Occasionally, you get to ride in some cool shit and go on humps and stuff, but mainly you stay put and wait for medical issues to come to you. The thing is, during training and in any part of the world with a decent casualty evacuation network in place, you won't really see any serious trauma, because it's just quicker for a helicopter to pick up the patient at the point of injury, where you as the PA typically won't be. So you end up spending a lot of time training your enlisted personnel (medics or corpsmen) and treating generally routine illness and injury. Many of the Army guys either deploy or spend a 12-month unaccompanied tour to Korea, which can have variable living conditions depending where you end up.

I'm grossly oversimplifying, and I think there are many good reasons to join the military. But if your goal is to see a bunch of trauma, you'd be far better served working on a trauma service somewhere (if you can stand the inpatient component, and being around surgeons all the damn time).

[KatDee]

19 hours ago, HMtoPA said:

I can't answer too many specifics about the Army. I did go to school with a bunch of Army students who are now Army PAs, and have kept up with a few of them on FB. For the most part, they ended up with combat arms units (infantry, cavalry) and I think their experiences where similar to mine with a Marine Corps infantry battalion: i.e., work out of a rudimentary clinic in garrison, and a field clinic while on exercises or deployments. Occasionally, you get to ride in some cool shit and go on humps and stuff, but mainly you stay put and wait for medical issues to come to you. The thing is, during training and in any part of the world with a decent casualty evacuation network in place, you won't really see any serious trauma, because it's just quicker for a helicopter to pick up the patient at the point of injury, where you as the PA typically won't be. So you end up spending a lot of time training your enlisted personnel (medics or corpsmen) and treating generally routine illness and injury. Many of the Army guys either deploy or spend a 12-month unaccompanied tour to Korea, which can have variable living conditions depending where you end up.

I'm grossly oversimplifying, and I think there are many good reasons to join the military. But if your goal is to see a bunch of trauma, you'd be far better served working on a trauma service somewhere (if you can stand the inpatient component, and being around surgeons all the damn time).

Side note: I legit just wrote out this huge long response and then something happened and I lost it all....ugh.

Anywho, thanks for the info I appreciate anything I can get.

I don't feel like writing everything again so I'll try and sum up what I originally wrote (lol).

I think I have explained myself poorly, because it's not necessarily trauma that I want to be around and this is not the draw I have towards joining the military. I know my original post sent your brain careening to Rushmore, but I honestly wrote what I wrote knowing full-well the irony behind the verbiage I used (specifically I'm referring to those exact words you emphasized since that terminology is somewhat notorious). I kinda just figured my overall point would still get across, obviously I was wrong there so my bad! Sometimes the more sarcastic and glib aspects of my personality are lost in translation thanks to modern day tech. What I want is simply to serve a purpose and to actually do my job-I'm fine seeing chronic illnesses or acute injury or whatever, truly! Just so long as I'm not spending day in and day out doing, essentially, nothing (or spend it lost in a bunch of admin BS).

My thoughts towards my reasoning in a nut shell are as follows: I obviously am drawn to the appeal of loan forgiveness--I go to Emory and this s#*& ain't cheap. The other benefits of the military are appealing, but not make or break for me. The allure of the military to me is akin to the same reason I've always wanted to become a clinician and, as cheesy or cliche as this is going to sound, all I've ever wanted to do is help people (simply put). I feel like I'm in a somewhat unique position in that I'm not married/no bf/no kids so being sent wherever for a couple years isn't a huge deal to me in the sense that I wouldn't have someone "waiting back home" so to speak. I have a strong suspicion, however, that if I graduate and get a civilian job that I will inevitably settle down and never join the military and there is a part of me that feels like I will regret that somehow? I can't necessarily explain why I feel that way, I just do. So there you have it! Best way I can explain my thought process thus far. 

[HMtoPA]

Some people will disagree with me, but I think it's perfectly fine and reasonable for loan forgiveness to be one of your primary draws, just so long as you know what you're getting yourself into, and honor the obligations you make (which I'm sure you understand, of course). I agree that it sounds like you're in a pretty good position (with no strings) to spend a fews years in, enjoy the ride, and see where it takes you. I don't have any experience with the PA recruiting process (I was trained in the military), but I've heard it said that it can be hard to go straight from school, because they want you to have a couple years of experience or something. The exception is students on certain scholarship programs that are identified and obligate before graduation. I don't know how true any of that is, but if I were you, and I was serious about joining, I would contact a recruiter sooner rather than later. Good luck.

[ProSpectre]

On 5/7/2018 at 7:45 PM, KatDee said:

I appreciate it. That was how I was trying to think about it as well. Having had no prior experience I wasn’t sure what was reasonable to expect/what the chances were of truly being utilized etc. whereas I know what I can expect from a civilian PA job. Just lacks the added allure of serving something even greater (imo). 

So, in your personal opinion, would you recommend the Army route over the Air Force or Navy for someone like me? Like I stated earlier—I graduate in December and, although I don’t have military experience, I’m a hard worker and I believe I handle stressful situations well. I would just very much like the opportunity to actually offer some real help on deployment, as opposed to some of the stories I’ve heard from blogs among prior service members where they say they just walked a lot while on deployment and never did anything healthcare related (or otherwise). 

Personally I would recommend the Army over the Air Force or Navy, both in general (obviously I'm biased there) and for what you seem to want to do. The important thing is to know what you are getting into, and to understand that deployment is likely, but not guaranteed. Also, the Army may not be as "comfortable" when you deploy and stuff (but this builds character!), but I think the odds of you being deployed to a combat zone would be greater with the Army. Granted, we aren't doing the same continuous, large scale deployments we were 10 years ago, but we still have small numbers of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other hot spots that likely require medical coverage of deployed troops. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to go "where the action is", or to be enticed by the benefits that come with service; the ones who annoy me are those who want to join only for the benefits and try not to get deployed. Just know that there is a lot of dumb luck and chance in terms of where you will be sent/stationed, and that even if you are willing and able, that doesn't guarantee any "cool" deployments (being vocal about wanting to be in a unit that deploys often may help though, but I'm not familiar with how that process works with PAs).  However, the chance to serve, plus the loan repayment and other benefits, make it well worth it to take that chance in my opinion. 

Look into each branch so you are well informed (including the National Guard and reserve sections, and the different loan repayment options and bonuses each offer), and it also may be wise to speak to a couple of different medical recruiters to ensure you are getting the full picture.

[KatDee]

56 minutes ago, HMtoPA said:

Some people will disagree with me, but I think it's perfectly fine and reasonable for loan forgiveness to be one of your primary draws, just so long as you know what you're getting yourself into, and honor the obligations you make (which I'm sure you understand, of course). I agree that it sounds like you're in a pretty good position (with no strings) to spend a fews years in, enjoy the ride, and see where it takes you. I don't have any experience with the PA recruiting process (I was trained in the military), but I've heard it said that it can be hard to go straight from school, because they want you to have a couple years of experience or something. The exception is students on certain scholarship programs that are identified and obligate before graduation. I don't know how true any of that is, but if I were you, and I was serious about joining, I would contact a recruiter sooner rather than later. Good luck.

Well people being offended and in a perpetual state of disagreement with something (or someone) seems to be the hallmark of modern society, so I'm not terribly concerned--I asked for opinions and that's exactly what you provided and that's all there is to it!

I 100% agree that loan forgiveness is a legitimate reason to join, it's just not enough for me specifically. I need something more, or I would at least like the idea that I'm somehow serving something more in some minute way--even if I am just some bottom of the barrel newb (which, truth be told, I will be no matter what I decide to do--some roads are just easier to navigate with less potholes). I just desire to have something that keeps me from the ultimatum of regret. So far I've lived a life chock-full of decisions (both good and bad) but with zero regrets, so I'd rather not make a commitment to arguably the largest and most powerful institution on the planet (or at least in the country) if I am concerned about regretting said decision.

I have also heard about students being more desirable either straight from a military program or with prior experience (either as a PA or with the military or both) but hopefully that is at least something I can expect the recruiters to be honest with me about? I mean why recruit someone that you don't want? (at least that's how my mind thinks about it???)

I already spoke with an Army recruiter, I have to wait another month before submitting this prelim assessment. I'm talking with an Air Force recruiter tomorrow. Guess time will tell! Again, thanks for the input.

[KatDee]

1 hour ago, ProSpectre said:

Personally I would recommend the Army over the Air Force or Navy, both in general (obviously I'm biased there) and for what you seem to want to do. The important thing is to know what you are getting into, and to understand that deployment is likely, but not guaranteed. Also, the Army may not be as "comfortable" when you deploy and stuff (but this builds character!), but I think the odds of you being deployed to a combat zone would be greater with the Army. Granted, we aren't doing the same continuous, large scale deployments we were 10 years ago, but we still have small numbers of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other hot spots that likely require medical coverage of deployed troops. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to go "where the action is", or to be enticed by the benefits that come with service; the ones who annoy me are those who want to join only for the benefits and try not to get deployed. Just know that there is a lot of dumb luck and chance in terms of where you will be sent/stationed, and that even if you are willing and able, that doesn't guarantee any "cool" deployments (being vocal about wanting to be in a unit that deploys often may help though, but I'm not familiar with how that process works with PAs).  However, the chance to serve, plus the loan repayment and other benefits, make it well worth it to take that chance in my opinion. 

Look into each branch so you are well informed (including the National Guard and reserve sections, and the different loan repayment options and bonuses each offer), and it also may be wise to speak to a couple of different medical recruiters to ensure you are getting the full picture.

Thank you! That is such a great answer, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. 

I did consider the reserves I just know a couple guys who are reservists and they tend to think of themselves as jokes? Maybe that's just them, I don't know. I guess the way I think about it is that if I'm going to commit, I'm gonna commit! No half-way nonsense--go hard or go home, isn't that what the cool kids say nowadays? (lol)

And I do think it's a great advice to talk to multiple recruiters, I'm just still trying to figure out how to do that exactly because it seems I keep getting funneled to the same people so far (regardless of the faction) but I will definitely keep doing my research and chatting with as many as I can.

Everything you said in your first paragraph is reassuring--it's what I either suspected/gleaned from people/online or it's something I don't care about or know I can handle (i.e.the comfort of the living conditions etc.).