This doctor is a third-class liar. Let me explain why.
When you take a military medical scholarship, you owe one year of active duty service for every year of scholarship, plus one more. So a four-year medical school scholarship means a five year active duty commitment. The military is real clear about that when you sign up.
Further, the military decides when, after you graduate from medical school, you start your service time. That in turn depends on their needs, not yours (sounds familiar to you vets?). Some graduating medical students are allowed to sign up for full residencies, but others are told up front that theyÂ’ll only get a transitional year internship, after which they start active duty. For those who are allowed to do a full residency, some may get to do advanced training (fellowship), but most who start a residency are told at that time when their service time will start. Understand that the military medical service generally likes doctors to have more training, not less; the advantages are obvious. But they know what their needs are, and they tell the graduating doctors what is going to happen to them.
This doc trained as an anesthesiologist. ThatÂ’s a four year residency. He started in 2002 (inferred because his scholarship, which I presume covered medical school, was 1998 - 2002) and would graduate in June, 2006. The military not only knew that, they gave him permission to do this and did so in advance.
ThatÂ’s important: if he didnÂ’t have their permission in advance, the anesthesiology training program would never have taken him, because they wouldnÂ’t know if he would be there the entire four years. Few residency programs will take a trainee with a military obligation unless they know for sure that he/she will be there for the duration. So he knew up front that he had four years of grace.
Now the military might not have told him in 2002 that he definitely would be called in 2006. They might have allowed him to get more advanced training. But absent any such commitment, he would know (just by being in the system) that in 2006, he was going to be going to active-duty status.
And indeed, in late 2005 he got orders telling him just that: youÂ’re finished with your training in 2006, and youÂ’ll report to this location on this date. And itÂ’s only then that he decides to be a C.O. ItÂ’s horseshit -- he knew well beforehand what his obligations were and about when heÂ’d be ordered to start fulfilling them.
I donÂ’t know whether he thought he could put off his obligation, or whether he was going to try to game the system to get out of it completely. But the idea that he just suddenly became a C.O. when he was given preparatory orders is a lie. HeÂ’s a liar.
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