Doctors, nurses, medics, and technicians who keep troops healthy at home, at sea, and on the battlefield, often for free medical training.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Military Physician: Doctor who treats service members and families in military hospitals, on ships, and in combat zones. Typical pay $215k.
Flight Surgeon: Military doctor who specializes in keeping pilots and aircrew healthy and fit to fly, and flies with them. Typical pay $215k.
Undersea Medical Officer: Navy doctor who specializes in diving and submarine medicine, including treating decompression sickness in hyperbaric chambers. Typical pay $215k.
Military Dentist: Dentist who keeps troops 'dentally ready' to deploy and treats them in clinics and the field. Typical pay $215k.
Military Nurse Corps Officer: Registered nurse and commissioned officer who leads patient care in military hospitals and deployed units. Typical pay $122k.
Military Physician Assistant: Officer-level medical provider who diagnoses and treats patients, often as the main medical provider for a battalion. Typical pay $122k.
Army Veterinary Corps Officer: Veterinarian who cares for military working dogs and horses, and protects troops' food supply. Typical pay $122k.
Military Pharmacist: Commissioned officer who runs military pharmacies, manages medicines for deployed forces, and advises doctors. Typical pay $135k.
Military Clinical Psychologist: Commissioned psychologist who treats service members and evaluates fitness for special jobs. Typical pay $130k.
Military Physical Therapist: Commissioned officer who treats injuries and gets soldiers back to duty, often embedded with combat brigades. Typical pay $122k.
Medical Service Corps Officer: Officer who runs the business side of military medicine: hospitals, evacuation units, medical logistics, and planning. Typical pay $122k.
Military Entomologist: Insect scientist in uniform who protects troops from mosquito-, tick-, and fly-borne diseases like malaria and dengue. Typical pay $122k.
Aerospace & Operational Physiologist: Trains pilots to handle high altitude, g-forces, and disorientation, and runs altitude chambers and centrifuges. Typical pay $122k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Special Operations Combat Medic: Special-operations team member trained as an advanced paramedic who can do field surgery and long-term care far from any hospital. Typical pay $88k.
Independent Duty Corpsman: Navy enlisted medical expert who serves as the only medical provider on a submarine or small ship. Typical pay $70k.
Flight Medic: Combat medic certified as a paramedic who treats patients in the back of medevac helicopters. Typical pay $70k.
Diving Medical Technician: Corpsman qualified as a Navy diver who handles diving injuries and runs hyperbaric chambers. Typical pay $70k.
Combat Medic Specialist: Soldier trained as an EMT who gives emergency care on the battlefield and in clinics. Typical pay $62k.
Hospital Corpsman: Navy medical specialist who works in hospitals, on ships, and alongside Marines as their 'Doc.' Typical pay $62k.
Aerospace Medical Service Technician: Air Force medical tech who provides patient care in clinics, hospitals, and aeromedical evacuation flights. Typical pay $62k.
Behavioral Health Specialist: Supports psychologists and psychiatrists by screening and counseling service members dealing with stress, trauma, or substance abuse. Typical pay $62k.
Veterinary Food Inspection Specialist: Inspects food the military buys and serves to make sure it's safe, from meat plants to deployed dining halls. Typical pay $62k.
Medical Laboratory Specialist: Runs lab tests on blood and tissue to help doctors diagnose disease. Typical pay $62k.
Operating Room Specialist: Surgical technician who prepares the operating room and hands instruments to surgeons. Typical pay $62k.
Radiology Specialist: Takes X-rays, CT scans, and other images used to diagnose injuries and illness. Typical pay $62k.
Preventive Medicine Specialist: Prevents disease in military units by testing water, tracking insects, and investigating outbreaks. Typical pay $62k.
Animal Care Specialist: Cares for military working dogs and other government animals, assisting Army veterinarians. Typical pay $62k.
Biomedical Equipment Specialist: Repairs and calibrates medical devices, from heart monitors to X-ray machines, in military hospitals and field units. Typical pay $62k.
Pharmacy Specialist: Prepares and dispenses medications under pharmacist supervision in military clinics and field hospitals. Typical pay $62k.
Dental Specialist: Assists military dentists with exams, cleanings, X-rays, and oral surgery. Typical pay $62k.
Bioenvironmental Engineering Technician: Tests air, water, noise, and radiation on bases to protect airmen's health, and responds to chemical or radiological hazards. Typical pay $62k.
Nutrition Care Specialist: Helps Army dietitians plan and prepare special diets for patients in military hospitals and teaches soldiers about fueling for performance. Typical pay $62k.
Optical Laboratory Specialist: Makes eyeglasses for soldiers, including the special lens inserts that fit inside gas masks and ballistic goggles. Typical pay $62k.
Respiratory Specialist: Runs ventilators and breathing treatments for patients in Army hospitals and on medical evacuation flights. Typical pay $62k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.