National guard service during residency?

I'm in the process of joining the Air National Guard (for a variety of reasons). However before I take the final step and sign away a weekend a month for the next ten years, I wanted to check with attendings and/or program directors to be sure that such a pre-existing time commitment wouldn't work against me during the residency application process. Does anyone have any idea if this would be a negative factor during the interview process/match? would it be considered at all?
thanks for your help,
J

i don't think this is a negative against you. i am in the reserves myself and have been called up for service twice in the last 4 years. the only concern is if you will be called up for service. the question i would have is what is your MOS/AOC? are you in a needed MOS? the reason i ask is that it may put you at risk for being called up.

I haven't finalized anything yet, so i don't know what what my MOS/AOC status would be. How would I go about finding out?
I was under the impression that I couldn't be activated until after residency is over. Is this not the case? thanks again,
j

It depends on what you are doing. I know the Army Reserve has a program where they pay you during residency and then you owe them time afterward. With something like that you would not be MOS (military occupational specialty) qualified (and therefore, technically nondeployable) until you finish your residency. With this type of thing you pick your specialty and apply for a civilian residency, then sign up once you get a residency spot. There are programs that pay for medical school, then you may or may not have to do a military residency, and they may or may not be able to influence your specialty choice (you would have to talk to people who have done it for more details). Again, you would not really be deployable until you are done with residency (although, I guess they could send you after intern year as a general medical officer if they decided they wanted to). If you are not in one of those programs, and they are going to be training you in a military specialty, you would definitely be deployable from the moment you complete training. I found this out while in med school. Despite the fact that I had only a year left to finish, they deployed me for a year and a half as a nurse (my specialty when I joined). Your unit may try to work with you, but in the end it only matters what the needs of the service are for the final decision on whether to deploy you. When I applied last year (prior to the end of my enlistment contract) I was asked about my deployability status at each of my interviews. I don't know how much of a role that played in my not matching (there were other factors for sure). If you are definitely protected from deployment during residency (don't just take someone's word for it, if it isn't in your contract it doesn't exist-a good thing to keep in mind for everything they promise you at the recruiter's office), I don't think it would be a disadvantage, but if you are in a critical wartime specialty with the potential for deployment, I think some program director's would prefer not to have to deal with that.

I've looked into the program I'm considering a fair amount, and so far everyone (recruiters, col. in charge of the unit, MD's in the ANG from the local hospital) has been in agreement that I would not be deployable until after my residency. It isn't HPSP, or other similar program. They pay nothing for school. They have no say in specialty selection. They pay for weekend time on-base based solely on rank and time in service. 4th year I would be eligible to attend the Aerospace Medicine Primary (AMP) course. They describe each deployment as an "aerospace expiditionary force", with a deployment time of only 40 days. They have repeatedly claimed that all medical personnel deployments with AEF's are voluntary (is this possible?), however with the expectation that you will volunteer in a timely manner. Other physicians in the same program include a vascular surgeon at the local hospital, as well as several other surgeons and physicians. They all confirm the details I have listed above. Whaddya think?
thanks again,
j

From what I understand, you are expected to deploy not more than once every 30 months. The 40 days probably just accounts for "boots on the ground" time as we say in the army (maybe butt in the chair for the air force ) meaning that you might spend more time than that in preparation and redeployment (the processing time after your deployment). I think its voluntary in that you can schedule your deployment for the time that is most convenient for you, but you probably are mandated to deploy at least every so often (that's how it is on the active side). There is probably some variation depending on what you ultimately end up doing. I would guess the guys on the critical care air transport teams (CCATT) have to deploy more often (and to less pleasant locales) than the people that just do unit backfill for flight physicals. Sounds pretty cool though. My husband was thinking of joining the air national guard while I was deployed in Germany since the unit he would join goes there pretty frequently (on their way to the desert). It ended up taking too long since he was recovering from ACL surgery, and I was coming home soon anyway. I think it sounds like something that would be interesting to talk about in an interview. You just need to check into whether you will need your schedule adjusted for monthly battle assemblies (or whatever they call it in the air national guard). It might cut into your days off, which would suck after a while.