Officer entry (Scientist)

[konic]

I have multiple issues with my goal for joining the army. First off, even though I am an american, I have lived in the UK for the past 9 years compleating my education here. In a Years time I will be graduating with a MSc (Research) in Microbiology, particularly in infectious diseases and fermentation. I wish to join up as a Medical Service Corps Officer (67) (http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=313), particularly as a labratory microbiologist.

I havent been able to speak to a recruiter about this, and I was wondering a few things about this. First off and most importantly will I be able to join for this specialty and this one only? Will having my MSc mean i can join in as a Higher rank possibly O2? I belive PhDs go in as an O3... How long does it usualy take once I speak to a recruiter to actually starting, this is a worry because of living in a different country and all.

I know the army wants scientists with my particular skills, its just proving difficult for me to find out how to serve my country in this way. Any help or information that can be provided would be very much appreciated.


Konic

 

[AJChenMPH]

Welcome aboard! Don't forget to introduce yourself in the Welcoming Center forum.

Not really sure, but all the literature I've seen seems to say that you could go in as a microbiologist. And unless you have significant work/life experience in addition to your master's degree, expect to get a direct commission to O-2. Despite the fact that I had two master's degrees, the US Navy basically said that I'd go in as an O-2 if I were to go in as a Medical Service Corps officer.

Now, and not to completely derail your dream of entering the Army (and if you haven't already), you might also want to consider the service I'm in, the US Public Health Service. Depending on how much work experience you also have, you may be able to come in as an O-3. I received a direct commission to O-3 back in OCT 2005, and if it weren't for the fact that I was commissioned after 01 SEP 2005, I was looking at promotion to O-4 this summer. For more info, check out www.usphs.gov -- and feel free to PM me with any questions you might have.

 

[konic]

That is very interesting I will have an indepth look at that! Thank you for the quick reply and an option I had not known about!

 

[AJChenMPH]

No worries -- everyone knows the Surgeon General of the United States, I'm just pointing out all the support he's got.

More info from other posts that I made elsewhere on this board:

Basically, the USPHS is the commissioned corps arm of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). While public health emergency preparedness is one of our missions, we have officers stationed in all DHHS agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), etc. Some of the officers are mainly statisticians and have no line or operational responsibilities; others are in positions of management.

We're an all-officer organization; there are no enlisted personnel in the USPHS. We have no combat mission, but USPHS officers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the public health missions there. Bottom-line core mission for every officer: we're here to protect the health and well-being of Americans.

Hope that answers your general questions; more info is at www.usphs.gov.

EDIT: right from the USPHS site:

The mission of the Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps is to provide highly-trained and mobile health professionals who carry out programs to promote the health of the Nation, understand and prevent disease and injury, assure safe and effective drugs and medical devices, deliver health services to Federal beneficiaries, and furnish health expertise in time of war or other national or international emergencies.

It sounds like the material of conspiracy theory movies but it would make complete sense to me to have military officers in organisations such as you mentioned so that in times of extreme crisis the system would be, for lack of a better word, commandeered by the DOD in the interests of national security. But you are in fact not under any arm of the DoD correct?

I believe that military officers don't have, for lack of a better term, "jurisdiction" outside DoD. Don't forget, a military medical officer or medical service corps officer's mission is primarily to provide military medicine to combat troops. Our primary mission is to the American people, so we're responsible for public health and medical support. As an example, DHHS is responsible for any health-related emergencies under the National Response Plan, specifically under Emergency Support Function #8. DoD doesn't have any lead authority (i.e., there's no ESF assigned to DoD the same way ESF-8 is assigned to DHHS), but rather plays a support role in ensuring overall safety/security management. (This is all unclassified -- you can easily learn about all of this on the FEMA training site through their online courses.)

Also, the same way a military officer's chain of command runs through the SECDEF and DoD, my chain of command runs through the Secretary of HHS and DHHS. And our respective Secretaries both report to the POTUS; so no, we're not part of DoD in any formal way, though we have liaisons at each respective Operations Center when it hits the fan.

In addition to all the above, three more notes:

1. I mentioned that there's no enlisted personnel in the USPHS; that still holds, but there's currently consideration to create a warrant officer corps. Stay tuned.

2. I find the PHS unique because you're serving on active duty, in a uniform (by the way, because we're historically affiliated with the sea services, we wear Navy-style uniforms and use Navy-style ranks), but directly serving the citizens of the United States (i.e., they are direct beneficiaries of the work we do), as opposed to fighting for/to ensure the freedom of the United States. We still take oaths to uphold and protect the Constitution like military commissioned officers, and we get our commissions from the President as well.

3. The PHS is a little weird in that you have to look for a job (like you were applying for a civilian job) at the same time you're applying for a commission. In the regular US military, you apply for your commission, and if you get it, then they more or less assign you to a job and a duty station (though you might have some input if you're filling a high-demand slot).

Again, any other questions, just let me know. You can download an application packet from the USPHS.gov site and start working on it.

EDIT: looking at your background above, your best bet would be to apply for a job with CDC (which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, though they have billets all over the country -- last I heard, though, is that there's a hiring freeze there) or to be detailed to the USDA.