Originally Posted by
satpak77
Hello
As the father of a son who likes airplanes but wants to be a doctor, what opportunities exist in the military, to be a "flying doctor" or similar. If I can get (for example) USAF to pay for med school AND send him to flight school, that would be a home-run, as the training and experience he would be exposed to would be second to none.
Do the military version of AME's get flight time, etc ?
Thank You
In my experience, the vast majority of doctors associated with military aviation have been flight surgeons. They get their med school paid for by their parent service, but then owe them time afterword. They go to "flight school" which consists of a brief syllabus, not really meant to be more than a familiarization with flying, and then get to fly occasionally in the squadron.
I had one flight doc in the Navy that was also allowed to be a primary Instructor Pilot. Sadly, he wasn't very good at either.
The premise behind the program is to have an aviation specialist, but you want them to be a good doctor, not a good pilot.