i tried joining the Marines while 17 only to be told i wasnt physically able because of a bad back and flat feet.  Up to that point i had already studied the Guidebook. I could do alot of the tasks blindfolded and backwards. Basically i had spent all my formative years drilling myself physically and mentally for service. It really broke me to learn i wasnt able to do so. I wonder if any of you have had this happen to them.

Knowing i will soon be a father has gotten me to thinking about how i wont be able to pass a military legacy on to my son/daughter. The best i will be able to do is teach them adoration and respect for our warriors. It really is upsetting me to know i wont have that experience. My grandfater served in WW2 as infantry  from 1942-1945 in the african,italian and finally in the European theater. My father served in the Navy aboard the USS South Dakota. Anyway my point is that i wish there was some way i could have served to help instill in my future kids a love for the military.

couldnt you have joined another branch and left out your back problems?

just wondering.  

i was in the military for 4 years...worked on computers the whole time...nothing special i guess

Almost.  I had a pancake breakfast with orange juice before my screening.  After the piss cup test they thought I was diabetic until I explained my breakfast.  Had to stay there all day taking more tests to prove I wasn't diabetic.

I've been turned down from every branch because I was born deaf in one ear. I'm still trying to get in though since my other ear naturally compensated.

Eyesight made me 4F.

But now I have a great internship with a gov't contractor. So no worries.

I was turned down becuase of a bilateral pneumothorax but it's been completely fixed after the 2nd surgery but they won't take me.  

after i was turned down by the Marines i went for the Army with the same results. The Navy guys would have taken me but told me to roll a coke bottle under my foot for several hours the night before to swell my arch up. I didnt want to lie so i didnt do it. This was months after GW1 and they were full up with people trying to enlist. They didnt need people with bum backs and feet. My back was sort of visually crooked too. If you looked at me naked from behind you could see a curvature.

The Marines won't take somebody with flat feet? Hell, I have flat feet. I never tried to enlist, but would they turn me down if I did? What's the reasoning behind it?

First time I tried to enlist I was turned down becuase they asked if I ever tried Marijuana. I told them I tied it before. They said NO THANKS.

Second time I tried I said "No way" to the maraijuana part but when they asked about Asthma, I said yes. They said "NO THANKS

By now the Gulf War was in full swing and I was pissed I miissed getting trained in time to be there.

Third time I went in and when asked about Asthma I said "TO the best of my knowledge I dont, so I will have to say no" (I was tolds I had it real bad when I was young but I never had an Asthma attack when I was older so I figured it was gone) They said ok take tha ASFAB andf that job would you like? I said Infantry. I was Benning bound a few wees later.

I applied for the USMC officer candidate program.  I was interested in becoming a naval aviator.  I was turned down because of my grades.  Funny thing is I graduated with a degree in engineering and later earned a pilot's license.  

Yeah Medically DQ'd I have a cyst on my brain and they said that I couldn't enlist.  

Turned down because I'm blind in the right eye, my back is fucked up and I've got arthritis (Yeah, I know, WTF ? I'm 21) in almost all my joints.  

I hear ya Bob. I'm 30 now and i have had three spinal fusions, i have arthritis and degenrative disc disease in my neck and my ankles suck like an old womans.

Quoted: I applied for the USMC officer candidate program.  I was interested in becoming a naval aviator.  I was turned down because of my grades.  Funny thing is I graduated with a degree in engineering and later earned a pilot's license.

If your grades weren't there why should they take you?  Acquiring a civilian license is one thing, flying a 40 million dollar aircraft with munitions capable of putting the hurt on a lot people is another.

I had to lie to MEPS once over some stupid shit .........they WILL kick you back if you admit to ever having Bronchitus or other minor conditions related to simply being sick. Their criteria is pathetic - they let mental midgets enlist no problem - but turn back people with so-called health problems which have no bearing on performance.....You can be a recovering cocaine addict and enlist - but God FORBID you had pneumonia as a child.

Something else amusing is that while they don't accept EXISTING back injuries,etc - its almost a given that you will acquire back problems in certain MOS fields and Rates..........My back used to be near-perfect. The last two years on a 25' gunboat has kind of jarred my entire spinal column........will see how I look near retirement LOL.

Quoted: Quoted: I applied for the USMC officer candidate program.  I was interested in becoming a naval aviator.  I was turned down because of my grades.  Funny thing is I graduated with a degree in engineering and later earned a pilot's license.   If your grades weren't there why should they take you?  Acquiring a civilian license is one thing, flying a 40 million dollar aircraft with munitions capable of putting the hurt on a lot people is another.

Had I applied again after I graduated, I would have been accepted.  That's the irony.

Damn asthma.  

Yep.

I retired from the USAF 1 Oct, 1999.

Last year I tried to join the National Guard and they said they couldn't take me.  Some bureaucratic drivel about racking up more retirement points.

The Marine Corps denied me at %:30am on September 20, 2004 when I was supposed to ship. They were doing a final check of my paperwork, and found out that the CMO overlooked a seizure I had when I was 3. The CMO didn't like the amount of medicine they gave me, and denied me, even though I've never had reprocussions of it ever since .

After that I gave up, that shattered my life plans and goals.

Reject by Army, Navy, and Air Force due to a knee injury and flat feet.

turned down cause of Open heart surgery as a baby. No problems since, but it was a automatic DQ. Funny think is I would have been in during Gulf War 1 if they had taken me.

Quoted: Yes, the Marine Corps turned me down because I failed that test...   I couldn't fit my head in the jar.

The Jar was to big, because your a pin head.

nope.

I still want to know what the reasoning is behind turning down people with flat feet. What am I missing?

Quoted: I still want to know what the reasoning is behind turning down people with flat feet. What am I missing?

marching and running in combat boots.

Quoted: I still want to know what the reasoning is behind turning down people with flat feet. What am I missing?

they usually take people with flat feet as long as you dont have any problems standing for long periods or you have low arches, I have flat feet and I faked my arch when the doctor said to stand and relax my foot, I made a slight arch and I was accepted.

flat feet is no longer a disqualifier, unless it's so bad that you walk like a penguin.

In the old days, marching and running would cause stress fractures in the feet and a multitude of knee and hip problems. Now, though, we actually fit boots and running shoes to the Soldier's feet, so flat footed people get shoes with better roll control, thus eliminating the problem.

 Let me set the record straight on a few more things:

1.  We keep people with medical histories out of the Military because we don't want to cause them any more injury. If you had a back problem befor, we will make it worse.

2. Standards change, the flat feet is a case in point. Something that DQ'd you 5 years ago might be o.k. now. So check back in.

3. Unless you have been assigned to USMEPCOM or one of the Services Recruiting branches, PLEASE don't get online and start pretending that you understand the Militaries entrance policies. We have big fancy books that we call REGULATIONS that we use to determine someones eligibility. We don't just make it up as we go along.

4. " Mental midgets" usually make the best Soldiers. Why? Because what they lack in education, they make up for in common sense. The book smart kids, on the other hand, turn into a giant pain in the ass once they are assigned to a unit. They have to question eveything and think they know better instead of trusting 200+ years of experience. These are also the idiots that become "barracks lawyers" and are always trying to get over on the system by finding loop holes in the regs. As an NCO, I'll take the po-dunk kid from the boonies over the college boy ANY day.

Quoted: I was turned down for military service, but pursued and obtained a waiver from BuMed.

I was given an Army scholarship and made it through three years before DoDMERB finally hammered me on knee surgery #3 (all from playing ball in HS/college) and declined another waiver.
WindGap, there are other ways to serve your country if you can't go .mil.

Talked a recruiter yesterday... disqualified from the start based on what I told him.


I've had the same Doctor for years... going to see how hard it is to make some pieces of paper disappear.


- BG

Quoted: couldnt you have joined another branch and left out your back problems? just wondering.   i was in the military for 4 years...worked on computers the whole time...nothing special i guess

I always worried about joining and getting stuck in a computer room for 4 years.  That's not the military!  March in the muck and get dirty.

So how was it?

Heart condition and severely color blind.

No service for me - although I was told I scored freakshly high on the ASVAB.

Av.

Just stopped by to see who the gimps are. Carry on.

I was turned down when I first tried to volunteer for the Danish Army at age 17.   I'm still pissed about it.  


I decided to join the military before being called up at 18 (we still had the draft) so I went to the process for testing - it's a three-day thing I believe, where they give you tons of physical, mental, etc. testing.  When I was there, I did really well.  I aced all the intelligence tests, did really well in the physical training components (better in the running than the upper body, but far above average overall), passed all the medical tests, etc.

On the final day, before the army can offer you a job, you also have to pass an interview with a civilian psychologist.  If the civilian psychologist fails you, the army cannot hire you.

So I go into talk to this psychologist, and it's some hippy woman.  Her first question is "I see from your records that you're currently an engineering student at the top engineering university.  Why do you want to be a soldier?"

I was stunned - since that doesn't really see to have anything to do with the quesiton of whether I was psychologically suited for the army, and when I told her that I had already dedided to drop out of the university a while ago - she just kept prattling on about how she thought I had so much potential, and my life could be spent in so many better ways than the military .  Pretty annoying - and so I kept telling her that it was nice (and flattering) that she thought so, but I had decided to join the military, and woudl likely pursue an officer's training at some point anyway.  She just kept rambling on about what a "waste" it would be for me to be in the military, if I could be an engineer.


So when I went to talk to the hiring panel at the end of the day, they told me that I scored better in all their test than everyone else who was being tested that week, and that they REALLY wanted to hire me - but they could not, because the civilian psychologist had disqualified me!!!  

Holy crap I wanted to kill that bitch!  

Of course, six months later, when I was drafted - I volunteered for the same regiment, and ended up with a successful (short) career in the army, and then went to university afterwards anyway.

But damn - if I had EVER seen her again, I would have been hard pressed to control myself.  What phenomenal arrogance, to think that SHE knew better than me what I should do with my life.  I hope she has painful hemmeroids!



Yeah - I'm still not over it.

Two bad knees and something called spinal stinosis

Not to sound like I'm trying to tell people how to beat the system but I'm serving with and have served with people who "forgot" to disclose things at Meps. They knew their qualifications, made it through basic/osut and do a fine job.

Talked to two recruiters.. not gonna happen since I have asthma.. I'm hoping it will go away soon

Quoted: Not to sound like I'm trying to tell people how to beat the system but I'm serving with and have served with people who "forgot" to disclose things at Meps. They knew their qualifications, made it through basic/osut and do a fine job.

+1.

Due to an ear infection I lost all hearing in one ear.  Not to mention it affected my vestibular system.  So now rollercoaster rides kick my ass!  Used to have an incredible sense of balance.  Now, just below average.

what about weight issues. My USAF buddy told me they  don't really have a weight issue anymore they will take ya and just work you harder and hold you back  in BMT if they have to , too get you in the shape they want you in.   I was curious cause i'm over weight. Not super fat but over what i should be and wanted to  inlist in USAF. Just woundering if anyone here knew anything about the weight issues?

thanks

Quoted: i tried joining the Marines while 17 only to be told i wasnt physically able because of a bad back and flat feet.  Up to that point i had already studied the Guidebook. I could do alot of the tasks blindfolded and backwards. Basically i had spent all my formative years drilling myself physically and mentally for service. It really broke me to learn i wasnt able to do so. I wonder if any of you have had this happen to them.

I have a godchild that since he was a child wanted to be a Marine.  Throughout highschool he conditioned himself physically and went for summer training for teens.  After graduation he was shipped out and while in basic they learned a doctor had precribed Ridallin (sp) while in grade school and was sent him home.  He probably new more about the Marine crop history than most Marines.

For my Post # 762:

I was turned down due to an asthma/chronic bronchitis condition I had post-puberty.



<---------------Post 762  

The Navy took me in even with "drug use", flat feet, scoliosis and a traffic ticket "problem".
The Army wanted me, but could not get around the traffic ticket "problem".
The Air Force wanted me, but could not get around the traffic ticket "problem".
The Marines told me no fucking way a long haired dope smoking hippie was going to join their beloved Corps (My dad called the recruiter the night before). The Marines would not waiver the drug use or the traffic ticket "problem".

I was turned down by the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force because I have bad hearing in my left ear.  High frequency loss from too much loud noise.

went to meps in 83 and they diagnosed me with diabetes
and spent two weeks in the hospital after. i was 17 then,
long military history in my family. i was upset but the recruiter
visited me in the hopital and said don't worry the times are changing
i bet we will never have to worry about war in our lifetime
he seems to be wrong lol

Quoted: I was turned down by the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force because I have bad hearing in my left ear.  High frequency loss from too much loud noise.

I've got plenty of "bad hearing" as a RESULT of being in the army.  More than just high frequency loss - from being too close to too many guns in live-fire exercises.

I was kept out of the Marines at 18 as I had a bad car wreck, and was put on blood thinners for a Deep Vein thrombosis (Blood Colt).



Had to stay on those blood thinners for about 18 months.

Got into corrections work at that time and drifted away from my wants to be inn the military.