I talked to numerous doctors in the military regarding this issue because i was very interested for a time. i dont know how the academy-to-med school thing works because it never affected me. however, med school is med school, regardless of whether you are going to the military or not. you would do most if not all of your residency at a military hospital. i've never heard of the 2 years service per year med school thing. if that is true, it's been a recent change, because it's always been a one-for-one thing...med school, dental school, etc. it would make absolutely no sense that a dentist would serve one year for one year (as i know for a fact it is now), but a family practictioner (ie, flight surgeon) would serve 2 for one. schooling costs the same amount....not to mention that military docs dont make a fraction of the salary of the civilian counterpart. but as i said, if you're interested ask someone who's in charge of military medicine programs. as far as some of the other things said here.....i mentioned that some of the doctors i spoke with were dissatisfied with how things worked. not enough nurses, things run like it was 1970, etc. but there will always be people complaining about every duty. other doctors loved it. one guy i spoke with was a critical care/pulmonologist guy with the navy and did a 3 year assignment running DARPA's medical program, and he loves it. as to the resume thing....a lot of doctors at civilian hospitals looks unfavorably upon military docs because of the experience thing. many times, doctors in the military do other assignments, etc (ie, DARPA)...and sometimes the scope of what they see might not be all that impressive. that's more a case by case issue, but if the reference letters you have going into a civilian job are all from superior officers who say "yes, this lad can hit a target at 1000 yards and was excellent in organizing his underlings", well, the civvy docs dont give a crap. then, again, surgical specialists over in the middle east (we have one trauma surgeon here who just got back) see things that a lot of civvy docs dont....like i said, case by case basis.