Next Steps

K

Klone

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2014
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32
Good afternoon everyone,

I have reached a point where I am stuck on what I should do moving forward.

My situation is as follows,

I was an AS200 in AFROTC but was recently denied my medical waiver for eczema past the age of 12. I have not been on prescription medication in years, with only one instance at 13 where I went to my dermatologist which is what was disqualifying. For my additional medical information, I had my dermatologist write a letter stating that I have not had a flare up in years and it was something he believed I had outgrown and should not impact my day to day activities. Nonetheless the waiver came back a few days ago denied. Cadre told me there was basically nothing else they could do and the last thing I could try would be a congressional inquiry but they said even with that there is extremely little success because it would only be resent to the same waiver authority who denied the waiver in the first place.

As a result, they suggested I switched over to Army ROTC. Speaking with the Army cadre, the commander, who is a medical officer, believed there was a reasonably high chance he could get a waiver approved for me through them. I have begun the waiver process through them and am waiting on the results.

While I would be willing and interested in being able to serve as a Nurse officer in any branch of the military, I have grown to love being with AFROTC, and would love to continue through them. I have contacted Mr. Merchant with DODMERB consultant who believed I would have a good success rate in getting my waiver approved but there is no guarantee. Has anyone had any interactions/experiences with him that would be willing to share with me? I am interested in his services but his fees round out to about $900 which is something I would have to pay for myself, as my parents would prefer I just graduate with a Nursing degree and work as a civilian nurse. It is something that I could eventually work enough money to save for, but how effective is the consultant in getting the waiver in general? In addition, I am as of now disenrolled in AFROTC so if I were to get it approve and come back it would have to be by next semester, FTP semester, to qualify for Field training this upcoming summer.

Should I go through with the consultant and see if he can get me the AFROTC waiver? Or is this an unlikely chance and I should stick with AROTC? As this is pertaining to my future career, I would not mind paying that amount, even though it's quite a bit, if I would be able to serve in the Air Force.

Thank you for your time and assistance.
 
Not clear how paying a 'consultant' $900 will get you any better results. His website implies he USED to work at DODMERB and is now a private citizen running this consulting business. Aren't there people at DODMERB who can assist you free of charge if you need assistance in processing a waiver?
 
The consultant said he knows how to help physicians to word a remedial letter in ways that would mean something to the military. He said a civilian doc writing a letter carries little to no weight with the military. In addition, he told me he already had a specific physician in mind to help with my case. Contacting my DODMERB technician, she basically said if my waiver was denied then my cadre members would help me with the next steps instead.
 
Hard decision. Every case is handled individually so even if another poster on SA forums has had a positive experience with this type of waiver yours could be different.

You're taking the right path and weighing your options. If you would not be happy in the Army then pursue the AF Waiver appeal.

It is very very unlikely the AROTC Cadre is a medical professional. Medical Officers cannot be AROTC PMS's - It would be a misuse of resources. It is remotely possible the PMS is a Medical Service officer but they are not medical professionals.
 
@AROTC Parent Correction, you are right he is a medical service officer who believes he could write a recommendation letter for me regarding the waiver. My take on this situation is that if I request a congressional inquiry it would yield the same result, the only thing with a "reasonable" chance at overturning the waiver denial is the consultant.

How strict is the military on eczema in general? From the forums I've heard both successes and failures for obtaining a waiver. I also contacted the OTS technician who said the ATEC surgeon general that was recently appointed denied her OTS's applicants waiver for eczema as well.
 
If you would be happy as an Army Nurse then the assistance from the PMS won't likely hurt you and doesn't cost anything. Worst case the Cadet Command Surgeon says 'No'. If the PMS has an open 'mission' for nurses in your year group even better. Ensure your Army waiver submission, or the PMS recommendation, indicates you are a Nursing student.

I can't really speculate on the 'strictness' for eczema waivers though I do understand why the controls are in place. Good luck.

Klone - sending you a PM
 
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My daughter's friend tried to enlist last year (graduating senior). Sadly, she was denied by all four branches due to eczema. First Navy, then Marines, then Army and finally Air Force. She was heartbroken.

Enlisting is different than an officer commission of course, and the nurse option is probably different as well. I am just speaking as a mom, whose daughter's friend tried to get a waiver for eczema. I do not know this girl's medical info, so I cannot compare if your case is milder than hers, although hers had been very mild and hadn't been active for years.

All I can tell you is that she was told that she could never be deployed outside of the US, due to the fact that eczema is an inherited disease and even when it is not "active" it is always still there. It can be triggered by adverse conditions such as jungle, desert environments, lack of good hygiene available, etc.

Another very big reason she could never be deployed is that a person with eczema cannot be given the smallpox vaccine, as it can cause an infection to be triggered that can actually be fatal. (Google "eczema and smallpox vaccine" for more info about that). There is a newer smallpox vaccine that does not use the live virus, however they do not use that vaccine for the military (at least not yet).

I do not know if the nursing route could be different than a typical enlistment, but I thought I would share some of the things she discovered last year. Hopefully it can give you some insight as to why eczema is disqualifying, and figure out if the nursing option might waiver eczema for you.
 
@EOD/SEALmom Thank you for your experience. I understand all of those are legitimate reasons and concerns, however I am almost positive that there are people within the military with eczema considering there are about 35million people with it. I have heard of those with eczema in the military being waived for the smallpox vaccine.

Nonetheless I will wait for the waiver decision to come back from army before I make any other decisions. Thank you for your time and assistance.
 
Klone said:
The consultant said he knows how to help......
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I am sure all 'consultants' say that and for a fee imply a better outcome. Whether or not that is true or simply a sales pitch is something you have to decide.
 
I do believe that a medical opinion could be written using specific words and phrases that would more appropriate for a DODMerb review. In all likelihood Mr. Merchant knows what that letter looks like. Unfortunately I do not. If it is worth $900. It maybe to some.
 
The problem with eczema is that according to my dermatologist is you do not outgrow it if it is eczema, instead you go into remission. Remission is the key word here from their position and why they rarely waive this condition.

I have eczema and my DD has it too. My eczema was in remission for decades. It has now come back with a fury. I am currently living on a steroid cream and vaseline for my hands. My DD had no issues from the age of 10 to @18, she never knows when it will come back. Her and I both know without a doubt that it is indeed eczema because we had skin biopsies.

As EOD stated it is a deployment aspect and on top of that it can be just a daily workplace aspect too. My eczema is on my hands, as someone that wants to be a nurse what would happen to you if it occurred to your hands from a health and safety aspect? My DDs eczema when she was young was behind her knees, but now it appears on different parts anywhere from her elbow to her face, but never behind her knees.

The thing you should realize is that yes, there have been people in yrs past that have received a waiver, but in yrs past they weren't overflowing with candidates to meet their manpower needs in certain career fields. If you go back to 2010 the AF was critically manned for nurses, not anymore. In 2010 SFT overall selection rate was 55%, but 100% for nursing majors. Thus, if AFMPC knows that they are overmanned for nurses currently and have more than enough in the pipeline for commissioning yr group 2018 it would be an uphill battle to get that waiver since their choice is to either waive you with a pre-existing condition or take the person with no medical issues.
~ There use to be a poster here that had a DD (2014 AFROTC grad). She was an AFROTC nursing scholarship cadet. When she arrived at Brooks for her training they flat out told her class that within 4 yrs they would only need 25% of them.
~~The reason why comes down to the fact that the AF is contracting more and more medical personnel instead of using military members. On top of that they are reducing the type of healthcare offered on base. Bullet (DH) is retired and my DS is now ADAF (AFROTC 2012). When Bullet was ADAF, my oldest 2 were born on base. We had 24 hr ERs at the base hospital. My kids saw docs on base from day one, for everything from their shots to sniffles to broken bones and xrays. Now FFWD to my DS. Call a base hospital like Seymour and you will get a voice recording that if this is a medical emergency hang up the phone and call 911. My DIL has never seen a doc on base, she has been shipped off base for everything since the day she married him. She is due to have our 1st grandchild in 2 weeks. She already has been told to find an off base pediatrician. She is a pilots wife. In the old days fliers families were able to see the flight doc. as a perk. Not anymore. Why? Because they are not overstaffing that office like they use to, now it is staffed just enough to see only the fliers.
~~~ Our neighbor is not military, but works on base as a contracted doc.

Sorry to go off tangent, but I felt you needed to see that the medical world in the AF is changing from a personnel needs aspect and how that may impact you getting a waiver.

Good luck. OBTW, I have read here both good and bad results here using a consultant. My advice is to search the bowels here for an old poster called MullenLE. Larry Mullen is very high up with DoDMERB. He use to be the DoDMERB moderator on this site and he was kind enough to give his direct DoDMERB email to posters here. You may be able to find it and contact him directly. If anyone could give you true advice it would be him.
 
That brings up two questions from me @Pima , one being last year we had our region commander coming as a guest speaker stating they were undermanned in the nursing field, SFT was also 100% for nurses last year as well from what I was told by my det and the poc that went through it. In addition, I thought that through a medical waiver consideration, the waiver authority does not see anything, gpa, det rankings, major, scholarship/nonscholarship, or anything else other than your medical history. As a result how would they know they would be overmanned in one field over another without that knowledge? Thanks for your time and replies.
 
100% for nurses last year is not a biggie impo compared to yrs past when they had 100%, but overall was 50-60%.
~ Just saying when they had a 93% select overall and 100% for nursing is not statistically shocking compared to when 100% went and 55% overall were selected.

They maybe undermanned again. That is how it works. I have always said that the military is bulimic. No offense to that very serious medical condition, but that is my best analogy I can give. They binge and purge. They (MPC) will say they don't have enough in that career field and add many more, than a few yrs later, they say we have too many and purge.
~ Being in the military is part timing.
~~ Back in 1993 the military did huge RIFS across the board including fliers. If you were an AFROTC or OCS grad for certain yr groups you had a 95% chance of being RIF'd. Bullet had commissioned 1 yr after those groups, thus he was safe. The same thing happened a few yrs later. The O4 board before his had a 68% selection rate. His had an 85%. It was all about timing impo. Had he been born 1 yr earlier and graduates from college 1 yr earlier, chances are he would have been given a hearty handshake and a pat on his back as an O3 during the RIF years because he was an AFROTC grad, instead of retiring after 21 yrs as an O5.

I think you are missing my point. The medical board does not see your cgpa, pfa, afoqt, etc., however, what they do know is we have X amt of slots for nurses for O1 commissions in 2019. Do they give you that slot over someone that does not need any waivers knowing you will need a medical waiver for the rest of your military career and may not be deployable to certain areas (the sandbox is not ideal for anyone that has eczema since eczema is irritated by dry arid area, and eczema can flare up with stress too... there are nurses in the Green Zone and I would consider the Green Zone as stressful).
~ Understand this...they are accepting the fact that medically you will be on their dime when they waive any medical condition. You need steroids and it costs 500 bucks, than they are paying for it.
~~ My steroid cream was generic. Tricare picked up the bill, and it was still 250 bucks. I have 3 refills. The name brand was 800, which Tricare denied. I also take Claritin and if I was ADAF they would have to prescribe it. I am a dependent. Money is money, and for me I am not someone they can deploy, but for them that is what they are looking at as an AFROTC cadet commissioning with 4 yrs ADAF owed.

Klone said:
As a result how would they know they would be overmanned in one field over another without that knowledge?
Click to expand...
HQ AFMPC does personnel planning 5 yrs out at any given time and HQ AFROTC will be informed of the needs. You as an SFT candidate will sign paperwork.
~ Do you think that back in 2012 they offered AFROTC CSO/ABM only scholarships bc they did not know they were going to be short from a manpower need. They are no longer offering those scholarships to the best of my knowledge. Those cadets entered AFROTC knowing that in 4 yrs they would go that career field...there was no option of changing their mind for pilot or RPA and keeping the scholarship. In essence, they (AF MPC) placed that number into their 5 yr planning.
~~ Just like you right now. You are a nursing major. Are you going to sign rated for SFT? No, so for them they know how many they need and how many are in the pool for SFT.

I have been trying to be supportive, but here is my honest opinion. Your CoC is giving you the writing on the wall. Your words:
Klone said:
Cadre told me there was basically nothing else they could do and the last thing I could try would be a congressional inquiry but they said even with that there is extremely little success because it would only be resent to the same waiver authority who denied the waiver in the first place.
Click to expand...

Congressional inquiry would be huge. It would also be unlikely that they (MOC) would do anything because you are not ADAF, just an AFROTC cadet that has yet to be selected for SFT. They are more than likely going to NOT get involve and like your CoC stated to you they are going to refer it back to HQ AF medical review board that denied you in the 1st place.
~see my above comment about needs. Let's also be realistic...sorry, but OTS exists. If there is a shortage in the nursing field, they can flood the field via that commissioning source at a much cheaper cost than ROTC. As a 300, scholarship or not, you will get a stipend once you become a POC. The cost to send you to SFT, plus the stipend is tens of thousands.
~~ Think about it...SFT is not cheap when they have to fly you to and from, add in food and training for a month. Now add in about 10K in stipend. All in all, with the military still dealing with sequestration, yes, we are still dealing with it, than they have to pinch every penny they can and using OTS as financial spigot to save money you can see why your CoC is saying this.

Now for your guest speaker, impo, if I were you, it would give me hope, but that does change my opinion what you originally asked... should you pay for a consultant?
My answer stays the same. Contact MullenLE. AROTC-dad gave you the link. If it I read it correctly, you need your CoC to give you the direct info/code to contact him.

You have eczema, or so you think. As I stated in an earlier post, I know I have it, atopic eczema. I had a skin biopsy as has my DD. Google it and you will see that it is not something you outgrow, you just go into remission. Eczema can flare up due to stress or allergies.
~ See above regarding my DD. If she was you, she could honestly say on her DoDMERB no because her last flare before college was when she was 10. However, in college with finals, she came out of remission (MPO..stress) and like me when it does reoccur you don't sleep well due to constant scratching, and that increases stress, which increases more problems. It is a bad cycle.

Just saying that someone acutely aware to this medical condition, I get why they would not waive this issue. DD and I thought like you that we outgrew it, but it has come back to bite us yrs later.

I am not trying to be negative. I love the fact you want to defend this great nation so others can enjoy life.

If you were my child, I would not pay the 900 bucks. What I would do is try to find a military dermatologist and see them on top of contacting Mullen. They will know exactly what to write and what tests you should be given.
~ How do you find them? My best advice is to call the closest AFB hospital and ask for the Allergist dep doc. Ask politely if he/she could refer you to a military doc that is a dermatologist. I am only saying allergist, bc typically the military does not have dermatologists and eczema does fall into the allergy cat.
~~ Military doc world is small. The allergist doc could also know dermatologists from a flier aspect. Rated officers do not only have to pass the DoDMERB, but an FAA FC1 physical which is a higher level than the DoDMERB.

I say this bc Bullet was DQd as an AFROTC cadet 6 mos. before commissioning. His folks took him to a nationally reknown specialist and the AF waived it.

I really wish you the very best.
 
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