Navy or Air Force Orthopaedics

you are talking about 2 different programs. hpsp is for med school and affects your residency choices. FAP is during/after residency.

for HPSP, there is no guarantee you will get ortho. your chances are much higher if you do a few years of flight surgery, but you are not 100%. if you are not currently in the military or hpsp, you can do residency and then apply for FAP, which is basically a loan repayment scholarship from what i understand (don't quote me on that.)

most recently i understand the AF was not allowing you to reapply as an intern if you did not get your specialty of choice as they did when i went through. i don't know if this has changed again, you'd have to ask some current applicants.

cheers
fg

I am currently an HPSP ortho resident in the Navy. Must admit it's really not a bad gig. FAP gives you a good pay boost and there area plenty of places to go in the Navy once you are done.
Right now Navy is fully manned w/ ortho, but that's going to change in a few years. Pay as staff is definately something you can live on, and the deployment possibilites are high considering our current situation. Think it over and make the best choice for you. Must admit from what I am seeing the lifestyle is good and if you like your family you can make a good living and play a big role with them; minus the deployments...