Status Change to Disqualified

Mom-Team Smith

Mom-Team Smith

5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
37
Son #2 had labrium surgery in Jan 2010. Completed rehab, no issues. Has since played varsity football (2 years), made All-Area Defense Team in football (2 years), played varsity baseball (1 year), hunts, water skis, snow skis...no residual effects from the surgery.

After the DoDMERB exam, he was listed as Remedial. We requested the required documents from the surgeon. It took over 4 weeks to receive them. Then we received a letter from DoDMERB requesting a letter from the surgeon stating that he had seen the DoDMERB letter. We contacted the surgeon's office for the letter. It has taken over 2 weeks to get the letter from the surgeon. Today, Son calls me because he has gone onto his USMA Candidate Portal and saw that on October 29 his status was changed to Disqualified. Could this be because it has taken so long for us to get the required paperwork/records submitted?

As you can imagine, we are quite concerned. Son's applications are in for USMA, USNA, USCGA, and the Citadel. Four military schools...his choice. A DQ from DoDMERB will change all his options and plans.

Any insight or advice as to what steps we need to take now to allow him continue to pursue his plans?
 
Mom-Team Smith said:
Son #2 had labrium surgery in Jan 2010. Completed rehab, no issues. Has since played varsity football (2 years), made All-Area Defense Team in football (2 years), played varsity baseball (1 year), hunts, water skis, snow skis...no residual effects from the surgery.

After the DoDMERB exam, he was listed as Remedial. We requested the required documents from the surgeon. It took over 4 weeks to receive them. Then we received a letter from DoDMERB requesting a letter from the surgeon stating that he had seen the DoDMERB letter. We contacted the surgeon's office for the letter. It has taken over 2 weeks to get the letter from the surgeon. Today, Son calls me because he has gone onto his USMA Candidate Portal and saw that on October 29 his status was changed to Disqualified. Could this be because it has taken so long for us to get the required paperwork/records submitted?

As you can imagine, we are quite concerned. Son's applications are in for USMA, USNA, USCGA, and the Citadel. Four military schools...his choice. A DQ from DoDMERB will change all his options and plans.

Any insight or advice as to what steps we need to take now to allow him continue to pursue his plans?
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Contact DoDMERB at the e-mail address on their website www.dodmerb.tricare.osd.mil as soon as they recover from Sandy. Include your first and last name and last 4 SSN and they will get to you ASAP. Also, contact your son's MALO & BGO for assistance.

Best wishes. :thumb:
 
Mom-Team Smith said:
Any insight or advice as to what steps we need to take now to allow him continue to pursue his plans?
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I am sorry to hear of the disqualification. Please understand, DoDMERB processes a lot of great kids every year. Assume good faith on their part.

First, DoDMERB most likely changed his status to disqualified because they deemed his medical status to be disqualified. If a remedial goes unanswered then they would have left him in a remedial status. They must have felt they had enough information to render a qualification decision.

Second, the disqualification is not the end. Candidates are accepted and enter West Point and the other academies and commissioning programs every year after being medically disqualified. The waiver process is the way this is done.

The waiver process is initiated by the service academy and/or ROTC program that deems your son competitive for admission. So, if West Point deems that your son is competitive for admission, they will most likely request that a waiver evaluation be conducted based on your son's medical files and any more remedials they have to request. This is done by physicians at West Point or the other service academies (there are exceptions to this).

Now, is a waiver request guaranteed? No. Even if your son is competitive, they might not request that a waiver be initiated for a number of reasons.

I recommend that your son reach out to his admissions officer (goes by the name regional commander or RC on the forums). He/she can provide an update on the status of your son's file regarding the process and their evaluation of his competitivenes. Now, they might tell your son that no waiver request evaluation will be conducted until he completes his file or improves his file. This to save the limited time of the reviewing physicians so that they are not reviewing medical files on DQd candidates who are not competitive or interested.

As to the actual medical disqualification itself, the fact that your son has excelled at sports since the surgery and had no ill effects might be important to West Point, but for DoDMERB sometimes the medical disqualification decision is based on a black/white criteria. Example: History of Shoulder Surgery? Yes. DQ.

What this does is put the onus on the service academy or commissioning program to "accept risk" and determine if they will provide a waiver or not.

I understand your frustration. Best to have your son reach out to his RC for an update. The hurricane was near there, so they might be out of communications for a bit, but email might work as well.
 
Thank You

Thank you for all your responses. My son did contact his local liaison who did a quick evaluation of his file, noted that he was still listed as competitive, and gave some suggestions as to how to make himself even more competitive; therefore at least giving him the opportunity to make his file as strong as possible to allow the possibility of the Academy requesting a waiver evaluation. Additionally, our congressional liaison called to see how things were going. When my son told him about being DoDMERB DQ'd, that liaison gave him a few more ideas.

As for how the Academy will view him in the end is not for us to predict. I will say that the liaisons are truly a valuable source of honest evaluation and insight into the application process! They did not discourage him, but did provide a realistic view of the process and possible results.

Thank you, also, GoArmyBeatNavy, for the insight as to how DoDMERB may have seen his file and how that could differ from how USMA sees it. Hadn't thought about it in that way.
 
Also, contact your son's MALO & BGO for assistance.
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Please don't contact them about medical issues. We are specifically told not to get involved in a candidate's medical matters, for privacy reasons. We can offer general comments on the process but are really not in any position to provide advice to an individual candidate beyond going through the process with DODMERB and, as appropriate, the SA or ROTC.

As you probably know, a DODMERB disqualification is not necessarily fatal. DODMERB must disqualify for certain things. it is then up to the SA/ROTC to waive that condition. BTW, I doubt the disqualification was for lack of records -- that would trigger an "incomplete" status. Thus, I would assume that DODMERB has reviewed what you sent and issued a DQ.
 
DS was told very specifically by his BGO to contact him should he have trouble with DODMERB. Actually BGO told son at the interview to contact him if anything should go wrong with anything IE: Dodmerb, traffic ticket, poor grade. BGO wanted no surprises along the way. I didnt get the sense the BGO could help but could advise DS on next steps. Son never had the need to contact him (except with good news)
 
Truly DQ'd

As USNA1985 stated, my Son's DQ was for history of dislocation, subluxation, or instability in shoulder. It is a standard DQ for a shoulder injury. As we stand now, we must wait to see if one of the Academies will request a waiver.

I was able to gain access to my Son's DoDMERB file through their website (as recommended on the forums). It listed very clearly the steps taken throughout the file evaluation process, the dates of each step, the reason for the DQ, and the status of the schools that were notified of the DQ. Excellent information and easy to find when you know where to look.

Again, thank you to those who take time to give guidance to those of us on the forums. It alleviated some concerns and clarified the situation as it stands at this time.

With Regards...
 
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