The Navy said no...!

[ASUPilot]

Well, for those of you who have been following this message board for a little while you have probably read a few of my posts. I'm the guy who got down to Pcola and made it through the entire physical and then got whammied at the end because of a pterygium in my left eye. I just recieved the news on Friday that after five weeks of review the wonderful Navy doctors at BUMED have denied my request for a waiver to have a certain procedure to remove that pterygium so I could get PQ'd for pilot and start OCS. This decision is indefinate. I'm obviously pissed off to no end! I don't know what I can do now. I cannot enter trainign with that thing on my eye but if I were already in the pterygium would be no problem and the Navy would remove it and send me back to training.

I guess my question would be where do I go from here? Can I go any higher?

 

[Dave Shutter]

Hey ASUpilot...

Cheer up, I'm in the waiver boat myself. Besides my age, I'll need one for my knee. My recruiter is shopping around at the local bases/facilities for a "friendly" Doc for my physical. Bethesda, MD., an hour from where I am, is on the list of places he might send me. I had surgery to patch a bone tumor in the right medial condyle of my left femur. (imagine a bone with a pair of knobs on both ends. The end of my femur that connects to the knee had the tumor in the right knob. It was more like a cavity then a tumor, the right hand knob of my femur had a golf ball sized hollowness in it.) The void was patched up with cement and the excised tissue got the pathology treatment and came back as a benign type of growth, good news! However the name of the type of growth is Condroblastoma (say it ten times real fast!) It's rare in children and teens and practically unheard of in people over twenty. Boy, if it wasn't for bad luck...Anyway, according to the med textbooks, it has the characteristic, however unlikely, of returning at any given time bad news! The exact type of med conditions the services avoid like the plague, pardon the pun.

My recruiter told me straight up today that he thinks there's no way I'll pass a physical, no matter who I see, and that it's only a formality on the way to applying for a BUMED waiver, which he has repeatedly informed me, is the final voice on acceptance, to answer your question. His plan is to have my whole package together when he submits the waiver so he can say: "Look, he's a great candidate, we gotta have e'm!"

Yes I have been monitoring your posts as I have a great interest in the waiver process myself. My recruiter has assured me that I have a decent shot at a waiver due to the low numbers of newbies. You might too. I don't know what you should do, but if I were you I'd try to get someone from BUMED on the phone in person. If not, you might wanna try the AF, their vision requirement have gone through the floor, and they are allowing PRK, wheras the Navy isn't, from what I've read. They may be a little less strict.

Think positive.

Hey ENS. Wickham, dig the new forum! I've been promoted again!

FLY NAVY Y'ALL!

D

Edited by - Dave Shutter on 08/29/2000 00:02:45

 

[Jeff]

Looks like I may be in the same boat as you guys. I was wakeboarding this weekend and smacked the side of my face into the water pretty hard, I had a lot of water in it and it was very painful for a while. Well I went to have it checked out by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist this morning because when I have been getting water to drain out the past couple of days there has been a significant amount of blood coming with it. It appears a busted my eardruma and damaged my innere ear pretty severly. They think I may have dislocated one of the bones in my ear or something because I have an very dramatic loss of hearing in my right ear, 4 times as what is expected of someone who busted their eardrum. So now I have to see if any of my hearing comes back over the next week or so and if not I will never regain my hearing and thus no FLYING FOR ME.
Since I was supposed to leave for OCS on Sept 9, the Navy does not seem to happy with this. I'll let you guys know what happens though.

 

[OracleMSU]

I'll be hoping for all of you guys with the waivers, and with Jeff for the healing of his ear. The only thing I have to do is lose some weight, but otherwise the recruiter is sure he can get me in. But, being 265 pounds, I have a lot of work to do.

Bummer to hear about that Jeff, hope everything gets better. Makes me worry a little bit about going up north this weekend for tubing and waterskiing. Looks like I'll have to be careful.

Best of luck to all of you! Fly Navy!



-----OracleMSU----------
"Give me ambiguity or g

 

[Dave Shutter]

OracleMSU:

How tall are you, in inches?

D

 

[OracleMSU]

I am 72 inches tall, 265 pounds. The OCS webpage says max weight allowed for my height is 201 pounds, so I have a good 65 pounds to lose. The good thing is I have 2 YEARS to do it, because I won't be out of school until then.

I am 21 years old, but decided to change my major after my 3rd year or college, so I have about 2 more years to go considering I also have to change schools. Pity my interests had to change so much, otherwise I could just finish up Computer Science and stay where I am. I want to study Aeronautical engineering now, and MSU doesn't offer it. I had decided on Comp. Sci or Aeronautical before I left highschool. Turned out Comp Sci isn't my cup of tea. Like the programming in C++, but I got my fill of it. I like the administrative functions of computers and not the programming. Will probably get some professional certifications later on if I ever want to get a computer job.

Anyway, that was more info than you asked for, but what else am I going to do with the time before I go to work. Anyhow, talk to you guyz later.



-----OracleMSU--------

 

[webmaster]

quote:
Hey ENS. Wickham, dig the new forum! I've been promoted again!

Well Dave, at least until I demote you, or reset your counter to 1 or something . Glad you like the "newer" forum, some interesting capabilities are coming with the next release, including polls and a chat room, so will update that when the time comes.

Lots of bad news here in this post...

ASU, sorry to hear about the decision from BUMED, if there is still any chance of getting in for Aviation I would still try working at it (didn't really understand what "decision is indefinate meant&quot. It may be a pain in the ass to get them to approve you, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Jeff, wow, talk about shitty luck/timing! Sorry to hear about your misfortune, and certainly hope that you regain your hearing in short order. Please do keep us informed about what is going on.

OracleMSU, sounds like you have plenty of time to accomplish that in, better than some stories I have heard of guys crash dieting trying to lose weight before a physical or reporting in.

All the best to all of you, think I am going to leave this topic before it depresses me anymore...

 

[Dave Shutter]

OracleMSU...

quote:I am 72 inches tall, 265 pounds. The OCS webpage says max weight allowed for my height is 201 pounds, so I have a good 65 pounds to lose. The good thing is I have 2 YEARS to do it, because I won't be out of school until then.

Dave Shutter here...

I'm 72 inches myself, and yes I'm a bit over the textbok 201 weight. I have good news for you though. Althought they want you to meet the height to weight chart, in reality it is only a guideline! You can be over your specified weight providing you meet body fat measurements! Meaning you have to meet a certain proportion. Myself, I was a stick as a kid and an Army guy, but in the last five-six years I've quit smoking and lifted weights regularly and my body's really filled out so there's really no way I'm ever going back down to 201.

My recruiter has given me the MAX percentage for my(our)height: 220 lbs. at a waist measurement of 40 inches.

That oughta cheer you up!

D

 

[OracleMSU]

Yeah, that does make a difference. I have a waist of 40 inches right now, and I am 265. How does that work? Hmm, weird. Maybe I have more muscle than I thought. I am pretty hefty on top, fat wise, but my legs are like rocks, with almost no fat on them. So, in essence, i am an apple not a pear. This means I am more prone to heart problems, because my fat is on my upper body and around my heart. Heh, life favors the pear it looks like, even those most pears look weirder. Go figure. Anyway, thanx for the info, I still wanna look buff though, so I am not going to shoot for bare minimum. I got the physical readiness program off of the OCS webpage, the conpro.pdf. It gives you stages to work through, for people like me who don't excersize. Starts you walking 2 miles, and then builds you up to running 4 miles, through about 24 stages. It also tells you how to go about perparing for push ups and sit ups. So, it is a really good document. I am going to be working through it myself.

Anyway, thanx for the info guyz.

-----OracleMSU--------

 

[Phoenix]

I also have a question. How come the AF literally bottomed their vision requirements, but the navy haven´t? Does it have anything to do with carrier landings?

DEATH FROM ABOVE!

 

[ASUPilot]

I'm not trying to be bitter here, but the Navy is just acting hardcore. Although I don't advocate bringing people on board who really have a physical problem, eyesight crap is really pretty trivial these days. Who cares if you have 20/40 instead of 20/30? Does it really make you a different pilot? I think not. I don't think people should be let into the Navy to fly with really crappy vision, or some serious form of eye defect. But I do feel that the Navy will need to relax its requirements if they want to meet their numbers. They are WELL below their numbers! I have two close friends at NASC who are O-4's who believe that the Navy will need to losen up a bit like the AF. Just my 0.02...

 

[Tripp]

quote:
I'm not trying to be bitter here, but the Navy is just acting hardcore. Although I don't advocate bringing people on board who really have a physical problem, eyesight crap is really pretty trivial these days. Who cares if you have 20/40 instead of 20/30? Does it really make you a different pilot? I think not. I don't think people should be let into the Navy to fly with really crappy vision, or some serious form of eye defect. But I do feel that the Navy will need to relax its requirements if they want to meet their numbers. They are WELL below their numbers! I have two close friends at NASC who are O-4's who believe that the Navy will need to losen up a bit like the AF. Just my 0.02...

Hmph. My vision is at slightly less than 20/200 (ya, I need the contacts/glasses), but I'm still a damn good stick. I'd much rather fly for the military, but unless the Navy gets a little less pissy about LASIK, the airlines will compensate me well for my so-called "physical inadequacy."

Sorry, I just had to vent.

 

[ASUPilot]

Tripp,

I have personally flown with guys who had 20/200 and worse. They were some of the best pilots I've ever witnessed. I wish you luck in getting into the Navy. For me, well, the Navy is not an option now. I am going full-throttle right now to get my AF package in...and it's almost done. I took the BAT yesterday, the AFOQT today, and have most of my LOR"s in. Like you, if the military won't give me a shot I'll be in the airlines. But lets hope that doesn't happen!

 

[vicki]

I have a NOMI story that may be helpful to some. I was picked up for SNFO back in May, but after the ACES program was absolutely sure that I wanted to go SNA. My vision (20/400 in one eye, 20/150 in the other) wouldn't pass in a million years. I have since had PRK and am seeing better than 20/20 in both eyes. I have applied for the waiver, but haven't heard anything yet. To make matters even more exciting I am 5'3" and require a fit check for virtually all fleet aircraft.
If things pan out (or even if they don't) I'll try to let folks know about the process of getting a waiver for PRK. Good luck to all.

FLY NAVY!

Vicki

 

[Dave Shutter]

Sumthin for all you PRK fans from the Sept.- Oct. Naval Aviation News Mag...

quote:LCdr. Kevin Mannix (above), is the first pilot to fly and perform carrier qualifications following corrective eye surgery. Naval Aviators may undergo the surgery only if they meet certain criteria, including participation in a Navy sponsored clinical study. For more information see NAVADMIN 341/99 or log on to www.navymedicine.med.navy.mil.

I thought I'd share that, but don't ask me about it. Just something I saw.

Luv to hear anything you got on NOMI Vic' since that's my big worry now, Welcome aboard.

D

Edited by - Dave Shutter on 09/02/2000 01:44:01