Army Veterinarian: Do You Have What it Takes?
Many of you have commented and e-mailed asking for more information about my life and work as a veterinarian in the Army. I’m planning to write articles for my site about each of my Army assignments so far, but I wanted to let you know about a little piece I recently wrote up for the Veterinary Medicine page on About.com.
I’m excited to have this article on About.com for several reasons.
First, it’s a great opportunity to share about my work with a much wider community of readers than I’m able to reach here on my own website.
Second, the incoming links from such a well-established site will help Google and other search engines give my own fledgling efforts here on the internet a little bit more credibility.
And finally, it’s nice to have a short summary article online that I can easily point people to who want a general overview of the Army Veterinary Corps as a career path.
It was also fun to work with Dr. Janet Tobiassen Crosby, the Guide to Veterinary Medicine on About.com since 1999. She’s an uncommon veterinarian in her own cool way!
All that said, I hope you’ll head on over to About.com to read the article and my accompanying biography as a “Guest Author for About.com.”
You can’t leave comments on the article itself, but I’m happy to answer any questions here about the information I’ve shared.
Does anything surprise you or make you want to learn more?
Comments
I would like to know if it is possible for South African citizens to do something like this too? I would really like it to do something like this.
Most members of the U.S. military are citizens of this country, but it’s actually not a requirement. Many people use military service as a quicker route to citizenship in the U.S. However, it looks like the South African military also has veterinarians, as you can see in this article. See if you can find out about the Military Veterinary Institute that is part of the South African Military Health Service.
Dear Elliott,
Great article. I am UK trained working at St George’s in Grenada and would like to know how I can get access to the army sponsored acvpm study group?
Many thanks and good luck
Rohini
Hi Rohini, I’ll send you an e-mail now with the information on signing up for the study group. Good luck!
Hi Elliott,
i was born and raised in canada and i love the sound of being a veterinarian in the army but i am aware that the the royal canadian army veterinary corps is no longer active. is it possible for canadians to serve in the us army as a vet and how do you go about doing that?
thanks,
Lauren
Hey Lauren, unfortunately I’m almost 100% sure that you have to be a U.S. citizen in order to be an officer in our military. Sorry! Any chance you’re thinking of joining the land of the free? 🙂
There is a program in the US Army for non-citizen to join:
http://www.goarmy.com/benefits/additional-incentives/mavni.html
Elliott,
Thank you for the information! I have read your blog and articles extensively over the past few years. I am currently a junior in undergrad and will be applying to veterinary schools this summer. I am also a contracted cadet in ARMY ROTC and am working on my branching options. Have any of your colleagues joined the Veterinary Corps with previous military service, or do vets come directly through the HPSP program? I am debating branching Medical Service (70 B) AR, or taking an educational delay throughout vet school. I have also considered Army Reserve Veterinary Corp, instead of AD. Do you know what reservist duty as a veterinary looks like?
Hi Elliott,
I’m a little confused on the differences between Active Duty and the Reserves for a veterinarian. Can you still get an awesome scholarship for vet school through the Reserves?