What I have had to go through...

H

HassamaMama

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Dec 19, 2015
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I received a LOA for the Class of 2020 on February 5th, 2016. All I needed was the medical qualification. I just had the only test I needed to complete done last week, and that was the soonest I could complete the examination.

Here is what I have had to go through for the past three months...thanks DoDMERB, love you lots...
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HassamaMama said:
Here is what I have had to go through for the past three months...thanks DoDMERB, love you lots...
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@HassamaMama, DoDMERB was doing its job to rule out potential candidates that have conditions incompatible with military service. It was not personal. How would you feel if you suddenly find out your Shipmate is no longer deploying with you because he/she has a precondition and that he/she should have never been accepted and trained side by side with you for years? Who is going to take his/her place then? Could you do the work designed for two people? Lots to think about. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the gaining organization - the U.S. Naval Academy. Do not only think from your prospective. Best of luck.
 
It's been a long path for you, @HassamaMama. Congratulations on your appointment. ktnatalk is right, though - and not just from the perspective of your shipmates. Ground troops (Marines and Navy corpsmen) may be deployed or on operations where medical care isn't guaranteed, or the fast destroyer on which you're stationed can't get supplies in a port. What if YOU were that sailor or Marine having an allergic reaction, or an obstructed airway, or difficulty breathing, and there were no way to treat or evac you? That's where DoDMERB's coming from. And now YOU know for certain that you won't have any difficulty during Plebe Summer or your four years or the following five +. This isn't even a blip on the radar! Best to you. Go be a Plebe Summer rock star!
 
Bottom line is you go through it with an appointment. Congrats. It's also why we say to start early. Kids will start their DODMERB in the next month or two. Waivers take a long time. You will have another much more in depth physical your 2/C year to determine what you are medically qualified to serve as. The military is a hurry up and wait organization. Now you will wait for summer assignments, service selection, duty stations, school selections, command boards, promotion lists. All of these from the time you submit or are screened for can take months to hear back from. I tell candidates all the time, the hurry and and wait for an appointment is part of your future training. Good luck!

It's all perspective that you will gain as you progress that this only honestly not even a bump on the path. Take a deep breath, go have fun.
 
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Another Great perk to living in the country....they send us to the same places that truck drivers go to get their physicals. Compared to most truck drivers these kids are physical gods.

Best I can tell according to our kids that went, the exam is something along the lines of

"Let me see can you walk?" "Can you jump on one foot?" "Do you have two legs and two Arms?" "Look healthy to me! ":thumb: twenty Min tops!
 
Thank you to all. I have still yet to receive the waiver and an Appointment, as the pulmonologist office still has not sent out the results...the methacholine challenge test was done last Wednesday, May 18th.

It has been a very long and frustrating four months. I understand why it needed to be done, it really does come down to the fact that if I did have asthma then I would be putting everyone around me in danger if I suddenly had an attack. What bugs me is that I wasn't sent to have the Methacholine challenge test done three months ago just to prove I don't have asthma, instead I had to go through a LOT of pointless remedials. The wait has affected my school's guidance counseling office as well, because of the fact that I have not received the official word from the USNA yet. The fact that the pulmonologist is taking a long time as well is even more frustrating, and I contacted them almost every day last week to see if I could urge them to speed up the process as I was instructed to, but to no avail.

Thank you again for listening. I hope to update everyone when it's all sorted.
 
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