At the appointment, make sure the optometrist is following the instructions exactly as DoDMERB requested.
I completely agree with runorrun.
When my ROTC son scheduled his Dodmerb eye doctor appointment he was assigned to an eye doctor Elk Grove Village, IL. My older son who went through the Dodmerb process last year also had this same eye doctor and we were surprised how rushed and hurried he was. Last year it seemed that the appointment was under a minute. This was concerning to me last year, since I knew this ROTC son was already going to have vision issues since he is color blind (technically is color deficient). So this year I went
into the appointment with my son after spending a lot of time researching every aspect of the vision test.
This year was the same with regards to the eye doctor being hurried and rushing through the eye exam.. The eye doc in Elk Grove Village, IL was rushed and straight off the bat said "this will be a quick screen." Son was asked if he had worn contacts for three days. My son replied that he had not worn contacts for three days but had them with him.
Throughout the exam the eye Dr. kept hurrying my son and when he would take a few seconds to decide the answer the eye Dr. would quickly say, “Well, which one is it?” He consistently rushed my son. However, things took a turn for the worse when it was time for the depth perception portion. My son was not given an opportunity to put his contacts in. I told the eye doctor the depth correction test should be with corrected vision. He said, “Yes but your kid didn't bring any glasses.” I explained that we weren't told to bring glasses, he brought contacts instead. The Elk Grove Village, IL didnt allow DS to put his contacts in, my sense was that the eye Dr. was too busy to give him time to put them in. However, asked why DS wasn’t allowed to wear contacts for the depth perception part of the evaluation. The eye Dr.stated that he was not allowed to put the contacts in “for three days prior to the test.” However, the eye Dr. was incorrect, according to the directions for the test it states:
Item 17 through 26. Before conducting vision test, find out is the examinee is wearing contact lenses. Soft contact lenses must be removed a minimum of 3 days before the examination. All other types of contact lenses (hard, semisoft, retainers, color–correcting, etc.) must be removed 21 days before the examination. If contact lenses have not been out the required period of time, note the fact in item 57 and continue with the examination. Have the examinee remove them for those tests where lenses would obviously cause erroneous results, such as items 17 and 19 (uncorrected vision). If the examinee usually wears corrective lenses (spectacles or contacts), have the examinee wear them during depth perception and color vision testing; however, make sure that lenses are not “color corrective.” –medical examination of applicants for United States service academies, reserve officer training corps (rotc) scholarship programs, including 2– and 3–year college scholarship programs (csp), and the uniformed services university of the health sciences (usuhs).
I watched as son failed on the depth perception portion of the evaluation that was given incorrectly by the eye Dr. I immediately called our family eye doctor (
from the parking lot in Elk Grove Village IL), who replied my son does not have a depth perception problem . I then called Dodmerb (
from the parking) and was transferred to my son's 'handler' who was extremely nice who suggested going on our own at our own expense and getting the test redone by our private doc and sending it in-maybe it would help, maybe it would not.
Son went to his eye doctor who did THREE different depth perception tests. Son wore correction and got a 100% on the test. Family eye dr. was so appalled by the Elk Grove Village, IL eye dr he didnt charge us. Family eye dr faxed over the results immediately. Son is now an MS1
I cant imagine someone going through this process without taking an active part with regards to information gathering. I also cant decide if the moral of the story is to trust in the process and it will work out in the end, or dont trust the process because it may not.
