at OCS or the academies, the pay the cadets enjoy is "enlisted" pay. They're called "cadets" or "officer candidates" but they are not "officers" until the graduate and receive their commissions.

I believe they're paid at the E-5 level, without allowances.

I think the medical types come in as officers--they get their commissions before they go to "Oyster" (OIS--Officer Indoctriation School) school and learn how to salute and tell an E-1 from an 0-9!

He was commissioned an officer upon graduating medical school. To my knowledge, he never had any military training.

Those teach ranks, how to salute, proper wearing of the uniform, and things of that nature. Some might even do a bit of light marching. No jogging, sit-ups, or getting yelled at by an old gunny or chief, though!

The PHS isn't military, but it is a uniformed service...ranks equal to Navy officers. No enlisted personel or warrant officers in PHS. Original role was providing medical care for merchant seamen and commercial fishermen. Later expanded to include immigration health exams, quarantine operations, healthcare to remote populations like Native American villages, and disease outbreak identification and control. PHS also provided additional medical staffing for military as needed, which was what my father did. He started out assigned to Norfolk Navy Hospital, but also spent much time aboard CG Cutters on North Atlantic ice patrol... Cutters not usually staffed with doctors. Similar at other places he was assigned. In NOLA, primarily treated commercial fishermen, but also was sent out on CG Cutters picking up Cuban refugees in Florida Straights...treating them for exposure dehydration and the like. He resigned his commission in '65 to go into private practice.
Budget cuts in 80s changed PHS role a lot. Many functions were transfered to other agencies, but it still exists. Operates under Secretary of Health and Human Services.

He was probably the most famous and most visible of the PHS crowd.

What was amusing about him was that beard of his--and of course, the USN had, a few years previously, gotten rid of the beards (Excuse: They interfered with OBAs for firefighting) and there were still a LOT of hard feelings about that decision!

They train at the Bethesda campus these days, I think--at least they did the last time I was down that way.

My father went to med school at U of Chicago. Govt footed the bill. He graduated about '53, was in PHS for 12 yrs. He liked it for the first 10, until they wanted him to be an administrator. He wanted to continue practicing, so he did remaining two years and left for private practice while he was still fairly young (early 30s).

NIH is there, as is the military medical school, Walter Reed has moved over there, Bethesda National Medical Center, etc.....it's a massive campus with a bunch of inter-related governmental medical facilities--very nicely landscaped, and HUGE!

I think the paradigm is still the same as your dad's era--they pay the bill at the med school where the candidate is accepted , and on graduation the new docs go on active duty to "pay back."

http://www.usphs.gov/

Here's the fork and knife curriculum for the USPHS (they even have a somewhat more "advanced" course now):

I knew the hospital was there, didn't know that the med school, NIH, and other facilities were there. Info about the "knife and fork" courses also interesting. My father prob had something like that.
As a humorous anecdote...when aboard the Cutters, my father was expected to stand watch on the bridge, with the other officers on watch, if he had no medical duties to perform. Usually he was given a pair of binoculars and told to look out for icebergs. Occasionally, the CG officers would want to leave the bridge (probably against regs) for some reason, and leave my father in charge, as ranking officer even though not Coast Guard. Although a small-boat sailor, he knew nothing about ships. Enlisted man at wheel would ask my father for orders, conversation would be like this:
Enlisted man: "What orders, sir?"
Father: "Uhhhh.... <scratch head> ...What course were you steering?"
Enlisted man: "325 degrees, sir."
Father: "Well, carry on, then"

Bad, bad skipper for forcing a staff officer to stand watch like that!!! It's not at all uncommon for staff officers to get their surface warfare qualifications, but they volunteer to do it and start out at the bottom rung, doing their JOOD quals and getting them signed off in proper fashion! I've known a few Supply Corps, lawyers and chaplains who have done it; it helps them relate to the crew at sea and it gives them a sense that they are really pulling their weight. It's not mandatory, though--it's entirely optional.

I feel for your father--that had to be a "bad feeling in the pit of the stomach" atmosphere to be abandoned on the bridge on the high seas with enlisted personnel looking to him for guidance! He sounds like a hot shit though, someone who could roll with the punches!

Probably junior officers, without Skipper's knowledge, wanting a quick game of cards or to set up a prank.
Probably no real danger...daylight, calm weather, officers able to be called back quickly. Still, probably violated some regs.
Father not to comfortable with it, yes he rolled with the punches. He knew enlisted men at helm knew far more about ships than he did, so for those brief periods my father would take his cues from enlisted men. Yea, funny story.

The ice patrol cutters were ex-Navy ships, WWI vintage. Not DEs, but something similar in size (maybe 180'?). They were in poor condition. One time a couple of enlisted men were sent into the bilge to chip rust, as punishment for some misdeed. After a while, a warrant officer rushed into the bridge to inform captain the men chipped rust right through the bottom of the ship, and they were taking on water. Had to rush back to Norfolk for repairs in drydock.
I think all the ice patrol now is done by satellite, probably with aircraft verification.

Being a cadet or in OCS is NOT the same as serving in the enlisted ranks. Never saw a single cadet next to me when I was in Iraq, not a one. Enlisted and officers are like cat vs dog, or Cowboys vs Giants or Yankees vs Redsox people - two distinct groups. There's a reason why we referred to the officers (O1 to O10) as zeros.

Here's the bottom line, pal--if a person dies while in OCS, they die as an E-5. They get paid death benefits as an E-5. Not as an officer. Training ranks ARE enlisted ranks--even if you don't happen to like it.

And only someone with a light grasp on reality would expect "cadets" to train in Iraq. What a foolish notion, and the very fact that you made that statement does reflect on you. Not well, either.

You do know the "E" in the military pay scale stands for "enlisted," do you not?

Your comments are suggestive of a real lack of military professionalism. They don't enhance you in the slightest.

As someone who served in both pay scales, and who understands that the "enemy" is not my fellow uniformed personnel, regardless of their positions, I wouldn't want you in my unit.

Respect is a two-way street. You gotta give it to get it, and that applies to recruits or flag/general officers.

OCS candidates (not 'cadets') normally come from the enlisted ranks (though we had one Warrant Officer in my Infantry OCS class).

Officers commissioned through ROTC, without enlisted service, attend their branch basic officer course, not OCS. iirc, that's normally 2 or 3 months, versus 6 months for OCS, and unlike OCS candidates they already are commissioned officers when they begin that training.

My OCS training came only after I had been inducted as a Pvt. E-1, completed Basic and Advanced Infantry Training and a leadership course, and did a brief stint assisting drill sergeants with training at two posts. Some had more enlisted service, including some of my classmates who had years of enlisted service and were Sergeants or Staff Sergeants (E-5s and E-6s) when they went to OCS.