AHHHHHHH, but Im fine I tell you!!!!!!!!!

[maybe]

Well today I got the worst letter ever, the DOD has medically disqualified me form service because of an old back injury, even though I am fine now. I know I am really reaching out there when I ask this, but is there any way I can appeal this or get another decision???, I just got the letter and there is no phone number or anything so I am hoping you all would be able to give me some info. Does anyone know if there is a way around or through this or am I just f***ed,

What really pisses me off is I never even saw a doc, they just looked at my files and said no, reject him,

You spend your entire life wanting to do something then poof someone tells you , no you cant fly, its very depressing

 

[arbor]

Is this for an Officer training program (NROTC, etc), or the flight physical? If it's the DODMERB, I've had kids in my class go in and out of the program 3 times, appealing, and getting dropped again, and in the end making it.

Especially if this is a program you can spend some time with like NROTC, do college program option (no scholarship) for a year, show them you can do well and perform in the PFA/PRT, and the CO will be able to write a letter on your behalf to accompany the appeal. From that point of view I've seen a lot of success in my few years here, but of course I'm not sure what route you're looking at.

Hope it helps, but bottom line I would assume you should probably be able to send an appeal for a medical waiver with your physician's comments on how physically able you are.

 

[maybe]

I'm trying to get into Marine OCS, the way the letter is worded it sounds like the decision is final end of story see ya later, no appeals, so Im just gonna have to live with it, thanks for replying, but im gonna see my OSO tomorrow talk to him and at least get my medical records back

 

[FLYMARINES]

Bummer about the MEPS physical. From personal experience as well as with other people's experiences, I know the people at MEPS can be jackasses. I have 20/20 vision, have my whole life, normal color vision, no astigmatism, have passed dozens of eye exams. Went to MEPS and took a depth perception test, the one with the bars, passed it easily. Went to the doctor and he told me to focus on his finger while he moved it across my face. Told me I could never fly because I had ocular motility, and that there was no way I could pass an advanced depth perception test. Told me on the spot I might as well go ahead and leave, because I could never be a pilot. I was in shock, I could not believe what I had just heard. I have never had problems with my eyes ever, this was totally unexpected. I went and talked to the Marine recruiter at the MEPS facility, and he told me that this was a bunch of bull****. He got me in to the head docs office, and the head doc said the same thing. I told him will you at least let me take the advanced depth perception test, and prove to you that my eyes are fine. He said okay, and I took it and got every single one right, and with blazing speed. He signed off on my depth perception abilities, and that got me to pass my MEPS physical. My OSO looked at my medical records and said I was fine, and since I passed an advanced depth perception test that it would overrule everything that that doctor wrote about my irregular occular motility. I ended up getting selected for SNA. There are almost always little bumps along the way, don't let what one person wrote or said stop you. Prove to them that you are physically fit, and you have no back problems, and it will be possible to get waived. Good luck with your appeal, and good luck getting into OCS.

 

[ChuckMK23]

Bummer about the MEPS physical. From personal experience as well as with other people's experiences, I know the people at MEPS can be jackasses. I have 20/20 vision, have my whole life, normal color vision, no astigmatism, have passed dozens of eye exams. Went to MEPS and took a depth perception test, the one with the bars, passed it easily. Went to the doctor and he told me to focus on his finger while he moved it across my face. Told me I could never fly because I had ocular motility, and that there was no way I could pass an advanced depth perception test. Told me on the spot I might as well go ahead and leave, because I could never be a pilot. I was in shock, I could not believe what I had just heard. I have never had problems with my eyes ever, this was totally unexpected. I went and talked to the Marine recruiter at the MEPS facility, and he told me that this was a bunch of bull****. He got me in to the head docs office, and the head doc said the same thing. I told him will you at least let me take the advanced depth perception test, and prove to you that my eyes are fine. He said okay, and I took it and got every single one right, and with blazing speed. He signed off on my depth perception abilities, and that got me to pass my MEPS physical. My OSO looked at my medical records and said I was fine, and since I passed an advanced depth perception test that it would overrule everything that that doctor wrote about my irregular occular motility. I ended up getting selected for SNA. There are almost always little bumps along the way, don't let what one person wrote or said stop you. Prove to them that you are physically fit, and you have no back problems, and it will be possible to get waived. Good luck with your appeal, and good luck getting into OCS.

Too many Doctors who can't make it in the real medical world, playing God with their egos! Good for you in perservering and gettin through the system!!!!

There is almost always a way - "try try again"

 

[maybe]

Stick a fork in me I am done, I called my OSO just now and I cant appeal or get a second opinion, with a heavy heart I've got to accept the fact that I need to move on and look for another way to serve America,

 

[sirenia]

I feel your pain. I went through a medical disqualification as well for the Navy. I couldn't get a second opinion or appeal a waiver denial. I was told to try another service. Have you considered that?

 

[maybe]

Cant even try another service, But i've been thinking maybe it wasnt meant to be, maybe god or whoever has another purpose for me.
But here I am complaining about not getting the excat job that I want and the other day someone posted that his mom was just diagnosed with cancer, there are worse things that I could be dealing with right now. I've learned two very important lessons in these past two days, You dont always get what you want, and the true measure of a person is not how they handle victory rather it is how they deal with defeat......

 

[ip568]

Would you like some cheese to go with that whine? How about a motivation check?

I was turned-down three times for vision and kept going back. Fourth time I just wore them down. Never, ever, ever, ever, quit.

Nineteen years later, when I had been an NFO for 17 of them, the Navy grounded me for having hay fever. I had had hay fever my whole life, but some numbnuts O-3 at NAMI decided that made me NPQ for flying. Bull****. I went right up through my CO to the commdore before they backed down and put me back on flight status.

Look. If you really want it, short of having epilepsy or some degenerative eye or nervous disorder, camp out on their door step if you have to. Write them. Call your congressmen. Start a website. Do what you have to. Or isn't it worth the effort to you?

"Never surrender. Never, never, never. Accept in matters of decency or conscience, never give up." -- Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, 1940 - 1946.

 

[GTodd]

Call BUMED. Search for BUMED on google, you will find someone to talk to.

 

[Goober]

I too received bad news before I could even get started. My senior year of high school I went in for my DODMERB (DOD Medical Examination Review Board - they oversee all commissioning physicals) physical and the warrant officer physician's assistant that did my physical "found" a heart murmur. This got an immediate rejection to all of my apps from the good folks at DODMERB. My doc thought they were morons, and I got a consult to have an echocardiogram done by a cardiologist. Armed with new results that showed that the valve "leakage" was within norms (unknown to me prior to this that everyone has heart valve leakage), they still said no. At this point my doc and the cardiologist were so torqued about the whole thing that the cardiologist ran another echocardiogram with every bell and whistle for free (color, doppler, kitchen sink, etc.), and wrote an accompanying letter that stopped just short of calling the docs at the review board morons. Disqualification subsequently reversed.

Moral of the story: that was 17 years ago. I'm an NFO w/ 16 years of combined enlisted/officer/active/reserve service, qualified in four aircraft models. Just how bad do you want this? Are you willing to do what it takes, or are you content to let some yahoo who wouldn't know you if you threw a rock at him tell you "no"? IP568 is dead on the money on this one. You've either got the stones to refuse to take no for an answer in order to become what you want to be, or you don't. Aviation's a fun road; however, it can be a tough one as well. You've got to be willing to jump a few hoops when it's tough, otherwise you actually might not be cut out for it. It's your decision to make...

 

[BrandonJ1780]

Keep lookin...

maybe, what's this about "you can't look at another service"? Who says man? I don't know all your situation, but dude, I'm in a similar deal--selected for Army OCS, DQ-ed just prior to leaving due to some swelling still in my knee from a little meniscus surgery last year. Anyway, yeah, I hear you on thinking "hey, maybe it wasn't God's will" but you know if the Lord has put a military calling on you...if He has, you better knut up and start looking elsewhere, any other branch man...you aren't gonna have peace til you're in...after getting DQ-ed, I went through that, thinking hey, maybe it wasn't what I was sposed to do...screw that noise, still pretty much all I can see myself being happy doing...I've been working on my knee and I'm meeting with a Navy Reserve guy down in Wichita this week, if I can somehow parlay some solid work in the Reserves into an OCS slot, go active and get selected to do ANYTHING that will get me above the clouds, I'll be one of the most blessed guys this side of Heaven...best wishes maybe, keep pluggin man, what you do now, not what one doc told you, will tell you if this is what you're really sposed to do or not...