Before he served as a combat medic and sniper on Navy SEAL teams in the Middle East, before he ever thought of becoming an officer or going to medical school, and before he even dreamed he'd become a NASA astronaut, military benefits were the "last thing" on Jonny Kim's mind.
In fact, when he enlisted in the Navy as a seaman recruit in 2002, Kim "specifically did not want to go to college," the now-lieutenant commander with the rare dual designation of flight surgeon and naval aviator told Military.com in a recent interview.
But after serving in Iraq -- and in order to try to make up for what he characterized as the lost potential of fellow service members who died in the war -- Kim decided, simply, that what he did next in his military career should have the largest possible positive impact on the world. So he set his sights on becoming a military physician, accepting the fact that he'd "have to suck it up and go to school."
Kim likes to believe that even without the military benefits that helped pay for his education and support his family through it all, he would've found a "different avenue" to get where he is today: a NASA astronaut, still serving on active duty in the Navy and awaiting his first mission to the International Space Station in March 2025.
But "the specific route I took to be where I am today would look very different if those benefits did not exist, because I was not capable of affording that," said Kim, who earned his bachelor's in mathematics from the University of San Diego and his medical degree from Harvard, thanks largely to his military benefits. "I didn't really come from a family with money ... to do things like that."
Kim shared his origin story in longer form in a 2020 podcast episode with Jocko Willink, a fellow former SEAL who even played a role in Kim's qualifying for some of those benefits when a rule got in the way. Today, Kim would like people to know "how generous these programs can be, and how much they do help, and how important they are."
Bachelor's Degree: Seaman to Admiral-21
Kim already knew after his first deployment in 2006 that he wanted to become a doctor. But like many combat vets of his era, serving just a single deployment didn't sit right.
Finally, with seven years in uniform and two deployments under his belt, Kim in 2009 entered the Navy's Seaman to Admiral-21 program, which helps enlisted sailors earn an officer's commission. The Medical Corps option, available at the time but since discontinued, selected candidates with the promise that a separate benefit program would later pay for medical school.
Seaman to Admiral-21 pays up to $10,000 a year toward college tuition and educational costs while, crucially, continuing the participants' active-duty pay and benefits. However, there's a catch: Participants have to complete their degree in only three years.
Kim attended the University of San Diego to earn a bachelor's in mathematics along with the prerequisites for medical school. At the same time, continuing to receive military pay and benefits -- including health care through Tricare -- allowed Kim and his wife to start a family, providing "a path for me to do that and not have to worry about paying the bills," he said.
Medical Degree: A Mix of Benefits and a Fight
Kim's acceptance to Harvard Medical School opened a new chapter in his use of his military benefits. But it wouldn't have happened without a fight -- albeit a respectful one.
The rules of Kim's Seaman to Admiral-21 Medical Corps program stated that the next step after earning his bachelor's degree was for the U.S. government to pay for his medical school tuition under a different program, one that didn't include active-duty pay and benefits.
However, since Kim still had his Post-9/11 GI Bill he could use to pay for school, plus a Pat Tillman Foundation scholarship, what he really wanted were the active-duty pay and housing allowance to cover Boston's high cost of living, plus access to Tricare for his growing family.
Just such a program existed (and still does) in the form of the Navy's Health Services Collegiate Program, or HSCP. The only problem: It wasn't included in the rule governing Seaman to Admiral-21.
"To me, there was no rhyme or reason why they left out HSCP," Kim said.
Kim asked a superior whether he thought he could switch but didn't get the answer he wanted to hear. That "no" spurred him to ask for help from friends and colleagues at Naval Special Warfare, where Willink, the podcaster, helped make more people aware of the problem. Then-Cmdr. Darin Evenson, a member of the SEAL community at Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tennessee, heard about the problem. Some of the relevant benefit rules had originated there.
"We didn't have a relationship," Kim says, but Evenson "went out of his way, because he heard my story, and he was like, 'Well, yeah, of course ... I'm sure whoever wrote this program just didn't think about it.'" He brought it up to Millington's medical community, and a captain ultimately called to deliver the good news.
Noting that Kim had "a lot of friends from Naval Special Warfare" who were "very passionate" in taking his side, the captain acknowledged that the reason for the omission was, "'We just didn't think about it.'" Kim would be allowed to get his pay and benefits through HSCP while he went to medical school, and others in the future would also have the same chance.
His takeaways from clearing the bureaucratic hurdle: Don't accept the first "no." Always do the right thing.
"You know, oftentimes, it's easy to say 'no' at the lowest level, right?" Kim said, referring to his superior, a lieutenant, who originally declined the HSCP benefit and got "a little angry" that Kim went around the chain of command.
But "life is full of 'no's,'" Kim said. "What I try to teach young mentees, and especially young officers -- or just young anyone -- is if you stop at the first 'no,' you're not going to get very far. Now, don't break any laws. Don't do anything illegal -- and be respectful -- but you should be motivated when someone tells you 'no.'"
The final upshot, to "always do the right thing," refers to Evenson, who didn't owe anything to a frustrated officer candidate but ultimately put the problem in front of the right people.
"He didn't have to help me out, but he went out of his way to help me," Kim says.
What's Next: Completing the Mission
Kim had finished medical school in 2016 and was training as a Navy emergency medical physician when NASA selected him to be an astronaut in 2017.
Now he's a lieutenant commander, designated both a flight surgeon and astronaut. NASA announced in September that he'll serve as flight engineer on his first mission to the International Space Station in March 2025 via a Russian capsule. Kim said he'll also be his mission's medical officer, but he doesn't expect that to take up much of his time.
"We conduct a lot of science, a lot of research," he explained. "We do a lot of maintenance on the space station. We do a lot of education and public outreach."
He foresees his future a little differently from when he decided to become a physician.
"You know, I don't like to close doors, but I don't see myself going back to clinical medicine," he said, "and not because I don't love it."
But his original goal was always "to make a positive difference on as big of a scale as I can," Kim continued. "At one point in my life, that meant medicine."
Now, however, "completing that mission looks like something else."
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