Line of duty

MSU medical students prepare for service

When Ryan Buckley told his mom he had joined the U.S. Navy last year, he said three words crossed her mind: Afghanistan. Iraq. War.

Buckley, a second-year osteopathic medicine student and ensign in the Navy, is part of the branch’s medical corps participating in the Health Professions Scholarship Program, or HPSP.

The scholarship provides the necessary funding for tuition, books and supplies, along with a monthly stipend to pay for living costs in exchange for years of service upon completion of medical school. The Navy also started offering a $20,000 signing bonus this year for students newly recruited to the program, as well as those who were already enrolled.

Along with the financial and training aspects, Buckley said the chance for travel and adventure is part of the reason he joined in the first place.

“I had to tell (my family) that if I do end up going over to Iraq, the Navy has invested a lot of money in me and they’re not going to send me up to the line with a gun and say, ‘Here you go,” Buckley said. “If you decide you do want to go, you’re going to be pretty safe.”

With a family history of military service, Adam Susmarski, also an ensign, or junior ranking commissioned officer in the Navy and second-year osteopathic medicine graduate student, said his parents were initially wary of his decision to enlist because of the war, which began five years ago today.

“There was a little phase there where (my parents) offered to help me pay for school in those situations, but it was more of a precaution to make sure that I wasn’t just doing something so that I’d have a paycheck,” said Susmarski, president of the Military Medical Student Association at MSU.

Of the 15-20 members of the association, which is used primarily as a networking and support opportunity, he said about seven students on campus are a part of the scholarship program.

For every year students participate in the scholarship program, they owe the Navy one year of service. That means Buckley, who signed up during his first year of medical school, must serve a minimum of three years. Susmarski, who signed up during his senior year as an undergraduate, owes four years.

There are benefits to staying in longer — Buckley said retirement and pension come after about 20 years of service.

Steve Yester, a first-year osteopathic medicine graduate student and ensign in the Navy, said completing officer school in the summer before he began medical school inspired a 180-degree change in his mind-set.

“The day I got commissioned, I didn’t even ask my mom to come,” Yester said. “I just went and met my recruiter and got commissioned, and it was like no big deal to me. I just didn’t think anything of it.”

“When I completed officer school, I realized and I understood better how prestigious it is to be an officer and to be a part of the Navy.”

Since medical school runs year-round, Susmarski and Buckley said they will complete officer school once they finish medical school.

The military also has a separate match system when students list the hospitals where they prefer to do their residencies, so in the third and fourth years of medical school, the ensigns will be allowed to take a rotation out of each year and go to a Navy base hospital, Buckley said.

If they don’t get matched, Yester said they will enter the General Medical Officer tour, where they can practice on a ship, submarine or plane.

“You’re not just a doctor, you’re actually a trained diver or a trained pilot and you get a lot of extra training,” he said. “You can go to flight school for six months and be flight certified. You can be a doctor, you can be an officer and you can have your flight certification. After you finish flight school, then you can go back to being a head doctor.”

In place of the usual 45 days of active-duty training required each year, Buckley said he and his fellow ensigns are currently on school orders, so there isn’t much required of them besides studying for exams and minimal paperwork.

Even the uniforms are optional.

“If you have school orders for active training, you don’t have to wear your uniform, but you can if you want to,” Buckley said. “At the same time, if you choose to wear your uniform, you choose to live up to that level.”

Being a part of the medical field, Susmarski said he has encountered some skepticism as to his motives.

“Some people do it just for the money, and they’re probably in for a rude awakening,” he said. “They’re probably not going to enjoy those four years. It might be a countdown of time until they’re done.”

“I think there has to be some form of underlying passion to serve your country or some type of respect or honor for what it is to be an officer in the military in order to really view this as a positive experience.”

Published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008