Posted on 11/02/2007 4:34:53 PM PDT by rabidralph
I would like to get some advice from FReepers who have served in the military, including guard and reserve. My female cousin, who is 38, has graduated with a degree as a chiropractor. She is in the middle of her board exams but wants more practical experience treating people. One of her high school buddies is in the Army (band) and suggested joining. She told my cousin to join as a National Guard band member for a couple years, get her student loans paid off and then switch to the medical field, either as a chiropractor or go as a physician's assistant. My cousin is a talented musician but she wants to get started in her medical career, even though enlisting and joining the band would help her with her student loans from chiropractor school.
I would like to hear some military FReeper opinions about which branch of service, whether the NG would be a good idea. I'd especially like to hear from military FReepers in the medical field about the career paths for chiropractors and PAs, if anyone has any information. I have given her my opinion, as a Navy vet, but I am biased. I also was enlisted and I have no real insight into officer training/culture.
My cousin lives in Maryland and teaches at an elementary school while she studies for her boards.
I appreciate the info. I’ll pass it along. She went to school in TX.
Thanks.
Ping
It is very wrong...it actually makes sense now, more than ever, that the military needs non-combat personnel.
No offense, but your logic and reasoning skills must be seriously deficient. You can’t be serious?! I’ve seen you around FR for years and I don’t remember marking you as an idiot before now.
The military is still accepting all kinds of roles. We’re in a war for god’s sake. It’s hard to move an Army without someone cooking the food, delivering the vehicles, etc. Hard to believe that this is even being discussed. Very few people are actually on the front lines relative to the support troops.
I believe you have to be in by 42 for Officer in Army. Don’t know about enlisting.
Completing a chiropractic course of study, and passing the Boards is THE TICKET... in that field.
I would recommend finding an established practice willing to take on an associate DC...
Get the hands on experience --- also learn the day-2-day business side...
And when the time is right.... go for it with her own practice!!
>I believe it is very wrong to join the Military for something other than a combat related field,<
There is nine soldiers behind everyone soldier on the front lines.
My chiropractor works with the back surgeons in two local hospitals. He goes in and aligns peoples spines before the surgeons cut them open to fuse the vertebra in place. The surgeons know how to cut the tissue but they have no idea what manipulation is needed to properly align the vertebra.
DTogo (Army, officer)
When I was active & when working in USAF hospitals, crack-o-practors were viewed pretty much as quacks, at best.
Things are different now.
Chiropractic care became available to the Air Force in 1995, after the US Congress directed the Department of Defense to test the feasibility of providing that service at its facilities. The findings were so positive that they directly resulted in Congress making chiropractic a permanent benefit for active duty military members.
Director of the Air Force chiropractic program, Lt. Col. (Dr.) Robert Manaker, said, "A similar thing is happening across the Army and the Navy. This is a tri-service program." Manaker said. "Chiropractic helps by essentially realigning joints to their normal alignment", He continued, "A misalignment in your spine can cause the muscles around it to begin to have pain, to spasm or to cramp up. What chiropractors find is that if you realign those vertebrae, that can help decrease your pain."
Currently, the eight Air Force medical treatment facilities that offer chiropractic services to active duty members include facilities at Lackland AFB, Texas; Offutt AFB, Neb.; Travis AFB, Calif.; Scott AFB, Ill., Keesler AFB, Miss.; Andrews AFB, Md.; Langley AFB, Va.; and the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. The Air Force is working to increase the number of facilities offering the service, Manaker said. "We wanted to get this benefit out to the most active-duty members that we could," he said. "We are looking at places where there are multiple bases or where there are the greatest number of active-duty members, and putting chiropractors there first."
Bottom line: For award of AFSC 43B1A, a degree from a chiropractic college approved by the Council on Chiropractic Education and approved by the Secretary of the Air Force. So, call the recruter already!
I just had back surgery in March and go to a phys therapist twice a week, and I find that hard to believe.
I have one vertebra out of live between my shoulder blades, and have had for years, but no one ever believed me, except now my therapist sees it right away on the first visit.
That being said, to align a vertebra through manipulation so that it stays is a time consuming act that takes weeks to make that vertebra stay in place.
Once you are cut open, the surgeon can move the vertebra through eye sight alone, they have to check the alignment before they bond the fusion, and that means they have some ability to manipulate since your back is sliced open to expose the vertebra to see it for the bone graft and fusion!
Just for a discectomy and laminectomy I was cut open 5 inches tall by 6 inches deep to expose the blown disk at the rear of my L5-S1. He could have done anything to my exposed vertebra to control alignment, I think.
If I needed surgery again for my back and I was told that I had to wait for manipulation to align my spine before I had a fusion, that last bend and twist session would need to be 1 hour before I was prepped for the knife! :)
As for nine soldiers supporting every individual grunt, that only supports what I said. A Band member wont be at the front nor is that a combat MOS. If you are going to sign up, do it because you recognize you are going to war, not because you need a scholarship.
Umm, we are about to go to war with Iran and also experience nuclear detonations here at home, and you are confused that I wont support someone joining the Military to play in the band so she can get money for school??
And you question MY logic??
still is.
P.A. school will get her into the med side, but she needs to know what she wants to be.
Air Force or Army nursing programs are good on the benefits. The problem is that there is a growing number of "joint" services so that Air Force , Navy and Army nurses are getting lumped into treatment facilities. Which is great for the troops but if you joined the Air Force to get stateside safety, well it might not be the way to go.
As far as joining the service to play in a band..........well she's not going to go into "combat" , why not?
If I was to do it all again, ...... ah, why would I lie.... USMC....then college then other part of life.
Good luck with her wishes to serve in the Armed Forces.
I’d advise regular Army, if not as a chiropractor than as a PA. The Physician’s Assistant has work to do, and she is guaranteed to keep her medical knowledge fresh. There is continuing education. If she goes to a band she will be out of the field for years - and a private’s pay won’t do much for paying student loans.
http://www.usarec.army.mil/armypa/
Uhm, you didn’t say joining the band, you said non-combat.
Non-combat includes quartermaster, transportation, information operations, medial, chemical, signal, etc.
I assume you understand that these roles are necessary to go to war and win?
I don’t really get the band idea. If she’s gone to all the trouble to train as a chiropractor, she should be a chiropractor. I googled and the military’s medical school is graduating chiropractors these days, so they have a need. Best thing for her to do is talk to recruiters from all the services and then see what she thinks. For the Navy, if she’s accepted as a medical officer she would first go to a short training school to learn basic military stuff (how to wear a uniform, salute, etc.) and then either to further training depending on her individual circumstances or directly to the fleet. Odds are that as a specialist she would serve in a large medical facility. There might be some way she could get some or all of her loans from chiropractor school paid off. I know the military will do that for doctors in some specialties who agree to serve for a certain period of time. At any rate, choosing to go in as an enlisted band member instead of a medical officer is nonsensical if money is an issue.
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