01-27-2006, 09:17
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#1
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SF Candidate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Bragg
Posts: 22
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MEPS question
Hope i'm not breaking any rules, i really did search for this online and turned up nada.
I was going in for my MEP yesterday and intending to sign my REP 63 contract. Everything was fine except the vision test (i'm nearsighted, -6.5 in one eye and -7 in the other), which we had to get a waiver for. I didn't get a chance to talk to the National Guard liason or the doctor, so everything I know is through the recruiter. The doctor apparently will not approve of the waiver for the 18D MOS specified on my contract because SF training includes Airborne training, which I guess requires good eyesight. We are putting off the contract until we get the full medical report back next Thursday.
The recruiter says there are ways around this waiver issue, and we might have to get pretty creative, including enlisting in a regular 11B unit as a medic and then attending the SF tryout the SF unit holds in order to get back on track. However, that entails changing the contract to 91W. I was wondering if the waiver issue is true, that Airborne frowns upon bad eyesight. I had been planning to get LASIK surgery, but the recruiter said I should wait until after SFAS (before Airborne school) to get it. I appreciate any insight people can provide.
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kwu is offline
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01-27-2006, 09:26
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#2
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,822
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As I am sure you are aware, that is REALLY bad eyesight, perhaps unwaiverable.
Refer to the vision requirements in AR 40-501.
Any sort of corrective eye surgery can render you ineligible for Airborne or SF.
See the reg, as is directed in one of my stickies.
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-02-2006, 15:47
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#3
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SF Candidate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Bragg
Posts: 22
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Just spoke with my recruiter. Said his first sergeant looked at my medical and thinks I should have no problem getting a waiver from the NG Bureau for SF pipeline. Won't consider myself out of the woods yet until I am holding that waiver in my hand at the end of the month, but I hope to sign the contract soon and will be posting my ship date.
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kwu is offline
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02-04-2006, 23:10
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#4
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SF Candidate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 50
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BS, Get a new recruiter!
Nevermind
Last edited by Nuke; 05-03-2006 at 14:35.
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Nuke is offline
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02-05-2006, 00:38
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#5
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SF Candidate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 50
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Missed something
I missed something. This is from the Free-fall air section. Looks like I'm screwed as well at least for HALO. I'll see on Friday I guess. Who comes up with this crap? They changed it form the older version. I hate this uncorrected crap. Oh well.
(2) Uncorrected near visual acuity (14 inches) of worse than 20/50 in the better eye. Uncorrected distant visual acuity of worse than 20/100 in either eye. Distant vision that does not correct to 20/20 in both eyes with spectacle
lenses. Any refractive error worse than plus or minus 8 diopters.
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Nuke is offline
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02-05-2006, 09:10
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,822
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Nuke
I missed something. This is from the Free-fall air section. Looks like I'm screwed as well at least for HALO. I'll see on Friday I guess. Who comes up with this crap? They changed it form the older version. I hate this uncorrected crap. Oh well.
(2) Uncorrected near visual acuity (14 inches) of worse than 20/50 in the better eye. Uncorrected distant visual acuity of worse than 20/100 in either eye. Distant vision that does not correct to 20/20 in both eyes with spectacle
lenses. Any refractive error worse than plus or minus 8 diopters.
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Nuke:
We already told him where to find the info, and that his vision was bad.
How about you quit dispensing medical advice until you are an Army physician or an SF soldier?
I wouldn't worry about HALO School till you make it through Basic, AIT, Airborne, SOPC I, SFAS, SOPC II, etc. Focus on the 25 meter target.
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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02-05-2006, 10:19
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Williamston, SC
Posts: 2,018
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Optician's View
Refractive error and Visual Accuity are distinct though they MAY be related.
Looking at the requirements, a plus or minus 8 correction is quite severe. Frankly if one with such an error were to lose his glasses or contacts he woulo be dependent upon someone else to find Them.
Things have changed vastly in the past several years and you may be getting outdated advice or the military may even not be totally up to date. I would expect the military in the future to require 20/20 vision corrected by means of surgery rather than spectacles or contacts. Hopefully you won't be mis-placing your eyeballs.
This may not be the case right now but it will come.
Not just for vision, but for all disabilities, remember that its not about you or your career. It is ultimately about the lives around you. What good is a medic if he can't see what he is doing because his glasses are lost or broken? In the same light, what good is a trooper who has to be helped/carried along because he reinjured a leg or knee which he lied about or failed to report?
BTW: 20/200 is considered legally blind!!
Last edited by QRQ 30; 02-05-2006 at 10:56.
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QRQ 30 is offline
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02-05-2006, 13:35
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#8
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SF Candidate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 50
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Blind
Nevermind
Last edited by Nuke; 05-03-2006 at 14:35.
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Nuke is offline
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