Joining the reserves vs. national guard

[lol104]

Currently an active duty, and I am thinking about joining the reserves or national guard. In my state, there is no available Air Force slot. I don't really care about promotion, but I am sort of interested in completing 20 yrs total. Is there any benefit to joining one versus the other? Or are they pretty much the same for dentists? Any insight will be appreciated.

Thank you.

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[Lankers]

I think it really depends on which state you are going to join the guard. I will call up a recruiter for each and ask to speak to dentist. Or go on LinkedIn and find someone. Ask their deployment schedule and culture. I am in my states national guard and I drill 10min from home and deployments are far and few between. I have heard reserves will get you every 5 years. Again, think it just depends.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

I have heard reserves will get you every 5 years.

Never plan on being a practice owner then, I guess. Taking a 6-9 month “vacation” away from your practice isn’t exactly a sound way to build a patient or referral base.

Big Hoss

 

[Lankers]

Never plan on being a practice owner then, I guess. Taking a 6-9 month “vacation” away from your practice isn’t exactly a sound way to build a patient or referral base.

Big Hoss

Deployments are 2 weeks pre-mob, 90 days boots in the ground, and 2 weeks de-mob (not sure if that is exactly what it is called).

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Deployments are 2 weeks pre-mob, 90 days boots in the ground, and 2 weeks de-mob (not sure if that is exactly what it is called).

So, what becomes of your patients and staff over that 4 months?

Big Hoss

 

[Lankers]

So, what becomes of your patients and staff over that 4 months?

Big Hoss

Some will have other dentists cover (people they know in and not in the Guard) and pay them based off production. Some have a partner. On the other hand, (at least in my state), deploying is pretty hard. A few people have never deployed. One of those individuals has been in for 12 years. Recently when units deploy they have medical assets in theater.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Some will have other dentists cover (people they know in and not in the Guard) and pay them based off production. Some have a partner. On the other hand, (at least in my state), deploying is pretty hard. A few people have never deployed. One of those individuals has been in for 12 years. Recently when units deploy they have medical assets in theater.

That will add a whole lot of “what if’s” in the back of the mind of many a practice owner. I’d personally not want to deal with it.

A friend of a friend was in the Reserves and was activated at the peak of Iraq/Afghanistan for something like 9 months. It killed their practice. They had to rebuild a patient base.

I know deployments are down...for now. But since the Iraq/Afghanistan 20-year cash cow for the Military Industrial Complex has dried up, it’s only a matter of time before they kick off the next “overseas contingency operation.” Raytheon and like have to pay their bills and shareholders somehow...



Did I just share a Bernie Sanders campaign ad?! Okay, enough Internet for me today.

Big Hoss

 

[Lankers]

Yes, fair enough. It is really just up to the individual to decided. The other side to the coin is not do private practice and work for an Indian Health service or something along those lines. Do that for a while, get all your training out of the way, volunteer for a deployment, and you should be the back of the queue in terms of deployment.

At the end you never really know.

 

[Sajitude]

Hey guys, I am interested in a dentist reserve position but haven't had much luck. I am in the midwest, and am looking for a recruiter that may know of a reserve position in any state. I am open to traveling but most importantly looking for a recruiter that is interested in finding an available position.

 

[JDot Salter]

If the focus is 20 years for the pension there is also the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. It's a federal medical service that serves public health and other agencies non attached to DOD. I'm not a doctor but married to one working for IHS on the Rez. There are many commissioned Corps doctors/nurses/dentists etc here, they wear navy type uniforms but otherwise work as a civilian. There are some traditional reservists as well, but a retired army colonel after 30+ years in the army and guard working as a head nurse said if she knew about the commissioned corps back in the day she would have done it.

There are worldwide postings if interested, and apparently you would have access to all military bases from the stories I hear from them. One of the old timers here would hitch rides on Air Force tankers to get where he wanted to go, and he would got to the shooting ranges on base and get puzzled looks from army guys. But it is not an armed force and no obligation to deploy to war zones.

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