Medical Waiver for ROTC

<p>My son was offered an AF ROTC scholarship; he was accepted to RPI and ready to go ... until we received a letter from DODMERB which said he was rejected due to Asthma. My son has hay fever in the Spring; he takes over the counter allergy pills for runny nose / watery eyes .... they sent his records to AF ROTC to see if he can get a waiver. Has anyone dealt with allergy / asthma issues and ROTC waivers ?? My son will reallllly be disappointed if this falls through
thanks</p>

<p>To have your question answered by someone associated with DODMERB directly:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Jamzmom is absolutely corect. Always have a question like this answered directly by someone who really knows. But I will address how this "May" have happened. </p>

<p>Somewhere in your son's medical file some medical person used a term, maybe not asthma, but possilby one of the terms below ..............</p>

<p>reactive airway disease
reversible airway obstruction
symptomatic atopic airway inflammation
episode of airway obstruction
exercise induced bronchospasm</p>

<p>Knowing what words were used may help you in formulating your questions and responses.</p>

<p>Thank you for the note; my son is scheduled for a pulmenary test so that we can try to get a waiver; I'm not sure if thats enough; I would like to know if there a standard policy regarding this type of condition .... when I spoke to someone in the DODMERB office, she seemed to indicate that ANY history of RAD / asthma after age 13 was a show stopper. If that is in fact their policy, then they should tell people so we can go to plan B. Also, I would like to know if it helps to have any high level AF officer contact DODMERB .... any info or tips would be great</p>

<p>The best advice I can give is that you go the link that Jamzmom posted, </p>

<p><a href="http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/...splay.php?f=20%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/...splay.php?f=20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That forum has a DoDMRB (retired) that is amazingly helpful and truly well worth the visit there. Even if you don't feel comfortable posting your info, I am fairly sure this question has been discussed there many time so you can search that forum for the info.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The best advice I can give is that you go the link that Jamzmom posted, </p>

<p><a href="http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/...splay.php?f=20%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/...splay.php?f=20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That forum has a DoDMRB (retired) that is amazingly helpful and truly well worth the visit there. Even if you don't feel comfortable posting your info, I am fairly sure this question has been discussed there many time so you can search that forum for the info.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I agree. the retired Dodmerb expert is the best! Screen name: RetNavyHM.
You can also send him a private message if you don't want to post it for everyone to read. Good Luck.</p>

<p>My son has wanted to be career military all his life. He comes from a long line of relatives who fought from the Civil War on and has always wanted to follow in there footsteps but go one further and be career military. He was very excited about his future but when he was in 7th grade he began to have a slight tremor with his left hand. He did not get his diagnoses of Essential Tremors until the end of his freshman year in high school. It continued to get worse as they tried to find the right medication to help, and thankfully he is on that now. He still has tremors on occasion if he hasn’t been taking his medication for several days and is tired or stressed. This is his freshman year in college and he began his exciting step toward his dream in the Air Force ROTC. He did note his tremors on the form and had a medical exam where they question him extensively. About half way through the semester he got his dress blues, he was thrilled to say the least only to call us 24 hours later saying he had to turn them in the beginning of the next week as they were medically discharging him. The officers over him were surprised and told them they were really sorry. He stayed in the classes even though he was no longer a part of the program. He was shocked as were we, to get that far and have it ranked out from under you. Is there a chance he can get a medical waiver and if so how do we get that started? I do believe the commanding officers would vouch for him as they felt terrible about the whole situation and said if they could change it they would. His specialist is also on board with working with the medical list of medications that are acceptable or whatever they need to try to do to help. Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>