The thread title should have been “An Army of 40-28-34.”
On her back? Dunno how it would look, but she’d be a great dance partner:)
I dunno, why DID you vote for George Bush?
[aside] You don’t um, share a keyboard with anyone, do you?[/aside]
Drag him out and shoot him. I’ll swear out the warrant later.
Breast surgery is excellent training for the type of plastic surgery many wounded servicemen will require to both promote healthy tissue and to attain some semblance of normal appearance. Besides which, proficiency in breast surgery is going to be helpful when a female soldier gets a boob blown off in a mortar attack – and don’t try to tell me that’s not a real possibility.
This is not some new perk – it was a routine procedure when I worked in Naval hospitals in the 80’s. A fair number of military women, just like their civilian counterparts, have self-esteem issues related to breast size. Besides providing excellent peacetime training and practice in essential surgical procedures, breast augmentations have a positive effect on morale. Come to think of it, probably everyone’s moral, not just the woman’s. 
Breast augmentation is also sometimes helpful for breast cancer patients, or women who are ‘lopsided’. Many women have health issues related to oversize breasts, and breast reduction surgery is also routine at military hospitals.
Just because a large number of people have sexual fetishes regarding breast size, doesn’t make surgical procedures to alter breast size ‘dirty’, or wrong. Get your minds out of the gutter, folks. These are ordinary women, not strippers looking to be enhanced to abnormal sizes to satisfy perverts.
My girlfriend had a breast reduction in the Air Force because she was basically knocking herself unconscious every time she had to run. To be honest, it definitely looks like they were “practicing”. She has fairly extensive scarring. But it doesn’t bother either of us, so no biggie (so to speak ). If it were me, however, I would have shot the surgeon in the face and worried about the court martial later.
Is this something that regular insurance companies cover? In that case, I don’t see any problem with covering it for military personnel, and their dependents. I mean, it does say it also is available to military families. Not doing it would seem to be denying military dependents something that they could or would have in civilian life.
Well, maybe, Danalan, I admit you make it all sound rather sensible. Which ain’t easy. I was an Air Force brat, and the beneficiary of military medicine as applied to those creatures known as “dependents”.
Now that was a long time ago, but even so I gotta think, there should be some sort of medal, akin to a Purple Heart, for anyone with enough courage to submit to a military vasectomy.
How about we pay them better and let them purchase their own cosmetic surgery?
somehow, I doubt breast augmentation and liposuction experience will come in that handy when trying to help a soldier who was difiguered in combat. But I could be wrong.
You miss the point entirely. Paying soldiers more is a great idea, but that isn’t what this is about. The surgeons are already there. When not performing more urgent reconstructive surgery, why not let them ‘practice’ their craft, giving a low(er) cost perk to the troops?
I am sort of curious why some would want to piss all over this perk that troops might get. What is your plan B? They should practice on…what?
You missed this part.
Can one of our resident MD’s enlighten us here?
Because we hate our freedom.
Well, why are these surgeons just sitting around while they’re already there? Isn’t subletting those doctors out to hospitals the correct corporate thing to do? The military could actually get a bit of an income out of these gys as well as keeping them in practice.
-Joe
Bingo Merijeek. Why do why have a team of plastic surgeons sitting around twiddling their thumbs on our dime?
Yeah, my boyfriend had one of those. I’m due November 22nd.
It’s not just the surgeon who needs and gets experience. It’s the anaesthesiologist, or more likely nurse anaesthetist, who uses the same skills for everyone. It’s the surgical nurses, who may not even be nurses in a military setting, they may be enlisted medical technicians (Navy Corpsmen, Army / AF Medics). Counting instruments and sponges are the same skill in all settings. So is prepping the OR, running the recovery room, hell – even ordering the supplies.
Military hospitals sometimes struggle to keep busy and competent. They don’t get the trauma cases from the surrounding communities – even though they will be most likely to see those cases when we go to war. Utilizing these facilities provides vital experience for all levels of healthcare personnel, from the janitors and registration clerks, to the lab and pharmacy. All these functions are needed in field hospitals, too.
And plastic surgery is plastic surgery. Minimizing surgical wound scarring is a learned skill, as much an art as science. Breast augmentation is an excellent chance to learn that skill.
Well, at least I’ve found a market for my supply of ‘Man-zierres’.