Torn ACL

My son, who is in the process of applying to the Air Force Academy, tore his ACL at football practice and will need surgery. What are his options? Is he even able to apply now? Will he be able to apply to AFROTC?

Mathteacher, check out the DoDMERB section of this forum. You will quickly learn about Larry Mullen.

SEND an email to Mr Mullen at the address below with your son's name, last four of his SSN and the problem. He is very good about getting back to you quickly.

Larry Mullen
Deputy Director, DoDMERB
Larry.Mullen@dodmerb.tma.osd.mil
Available 24/7/365
90% of my responses are within the hour
100% of responses are within 24 hours

mathteacher said:

My son, who is in the process of applying to the Air Force Academy, tore his ACL at football practice and will need surgery. What are his options? Is he even able to apply now? Will he be able to apply to AFROTC?

Click to expand...

Wow I don't want to make anything final, but a torn ACL is pretty serious. My friend tore his ACL from boxing, and although it hasn't prevented him from being active in sports, he says it's been really hard. Anyways I hope your son feels better. Good luck.

One of my son's best friends in high school, tore his ACL last fall in football and had to have surgery. He had applied to Naval Academy. He got an appointment to Naval Academy pending his completion of a satisfactory CFA (or whatever they call it at the Naval Academy). When his doctor released him in the Spring to do the CFA, he completed it and sent it in, and got his appointment. He is a freshman at the Naval Academy now. So.. no it is not the end of the road at all. So, yes, continue to get all your application in and completed as soon as possible with the exception of the CFA.

Larry Mullen

Yes...it is possible my daughter is at USAFA and she has knee surgery last summer.....

Make sure you stay in touch with DODMERB and email Mr. Mulles he is a gift from above.....

Your son will need to get thru rehab etc.....but it can be done!

don't give up

I will pm you a little information on son's experience, but generically --

Work through the process this year. If your son does get clearance and is able to do the CFA in time, he will be considered. If he goes through the process and can't recover in time for this year, the Congressmen, etc, and the admissions board seems to LOVE people dedicated enough to go through it again the second year.

Without blowing sunshine on the situation, recovering from this disappointment might be the thing which puts his application over the top and results in receiving the appointment.

D

who is mr. mulles and what is his email?

Look 5 posts up.

Stealth_81

thank you Stealth_81, I wanted to make sure it was the same person, there is a different email address on the web for Mr. Mullen. Stay safe.

HAS ANYONE had a torn ACL, then surgery and then admitted to the academy? Or KNOW OF ANYONE?

A few months ago on the DoDMERB thread Mr. Mullen posted his new email address. It is different, quite long. I believe it was due to a promotion. I am not sure he works directly with candidates anymore. However, he did put it out there if anyone needed him.
~ Mr. Mullen was the one that was instrumental in setting up the help desk at DoDMERB. Once it was set up, he than resigned his moderator position from here as the go to medical poster.

That being said, I would not contact him. The answer was already stated, which you quoted. mom22gals stated so. Aggie also stated yes.
~ If you look back even when he was here MullenLE was a deputy director, basically anytime you have the word deputy in the GS world you are getting tons of work emails a day, while you put out fires and attend meetings.
~~ IMPO I believe being here as the med. go to answering questions non-stop and his job as the deputy director at DoDMERB, he was instrumental in creating the help desk at DoDMERB. He saw the need for candidates.

Have you 1st tried the help desk at DoDMERB?

I understand your concern right now, but you need to understand that all DoDMERB does is DQ according to the standards set forth. It is the commissioning source that waives. Since, you already knew he has a torn ACL and will need surgery, than you are probably going directly into the waiver pile. That will go up the chain for the USAFA medical world. They will be the ones to decide yes or no for the waiver.
~ AFROTC is considered a different commissioning source even though they go ADAF too. So, it is possible that one or the other waivers, but the other doesn't. Just like it is possible that both can say yes, and both can say no.

I am just not sure how much Mr. Mullen would be able to assist right now from your standpoint. It is pretty straight forward. He has a torn ACL, he will need surgery. That is a DQ. The results of the surgery will impact the waiver. After the surgery would be when I would contact him, the help desk or a DoDMERB consultant (companies that you hire) to see exactly what the AF medical board will look for in the wording of his condition.
~ Sometimes, it can be how the doc writes the results you supply that can be an issue. Many docs do not work with the military, and thus, do not know there are key words that can be important.

Again, jmpo, but right now, I would stay on top of it, wait for the DQ paperwork and follow their instructions. I would have my DS place his emphasis on the following:
1. Getting those nominations
~ No nomination, no appointment
2. If they have not done the CFA, talk to their ALO about how he can submit without it, or if he can at all.
3. Finishing their AFROTC scholarship application
~ You have stated that he will hopefully be healed by April, what if it is not healed until May, and USAFA says NOPE due to healing time frame, but AFROTC decides he is in the window?
4. Applying to plan B schools.

I wish him the very best, but this is an insane roller coaster ride with very little control of what occurs next. Take one at a time according to priority.

In the end just remember the adage...DoDMERB DQs, commissioning source waives.

thank you and you are soooooo right. I did contact Mr. Mullen. He's quick and awesome. He basically said the same thing. His after surgery is important and Mr. Mullen pointed out a few paragraphs in the DoDmerb help pages. I don't know a lot of the DQ and DS jargon. My son did take the fitness test and passed. That was submitted. etc. I'm just concerned, hopeful, worried. He's upset over this. It's a very common injury just hope it doesn't hold him back from this dream.

Quick tip.

Go to the DoDMERB forum. If there is DQ jargon that you don't understand, there probably will be a poster that can interpret it for you.
~ When you get the DQ letter you can also just put in the code in google and it will tell you what it is.

KP2001 is a great resource, especially if he wants to fly. KP is a flight doctor. He should be able to decipher for you the jargon.
~ Flight docs also have their own specialty field for medicine. Our 1st flight doc was certified (?) as an OB/GYN. Our last was an Ortho.

If you do not have a surgeon yet, you might want to try to find a doc that has some background with the military. They know the key words that they will be looking for when reviewing him for a waiver, due to their military experience and clearing the member for return to duty.
~ This is why people also have hired DoDMERB consultants. Sometimes it is just how it is worded that can be the make or break.

Pima, check your private conversation inbox.