Hello everyone, I was hoping to pop on and get some information on technical versus 'real' disqualifications for SAs and military service in general. So, as you might have guessed from the title, I used to have epilepsy, a condition called 'Absence Seizures' which is rare but mostly prevalent among young girls, and clears up among almost everyone who has it in childhood. The other specifics aren't that important. I've done a decent amount of research, and found the regulation on it is as follows, though sometimes the age is six and sometimes it's five:
“Epilepsy (345) occurring beyond the 6th birthday, unless the applicant has been free of seizures for a period of 5 years while taking no medication for seizure control, and has a normal electroencephalogram (EEG) is disqualifying. All such applicants will have a current neurology consultation with current EEG results.”
I've been seizure free for easily ten years, and off medication for maybe eight or nine. I know people here can't give me medical advice or any such, I don't expect it. My question is whether despite the fact that I'm eligible on paper (assuming I get the go ahead from a neurologist and a clear EEG), if the condition will be practically disqualifying, especially considering there are so many eligible people without any complicated medical histories. I've had vague aspirations of becoming a pilot for a long time, the qualifications there are even stricter, but again not in a way that technically disqualifies me. I'm just looking to find out if it's reasonable to assume that my application would be completely compromised by my medical history. And I've also gathered that medical waivers are not so easy to get from the Academies, so even if my application didn't get thrown away on sight, it looks as if the waiver process might be just as bad. Don't be afraid to say military service is out of the question if you think so, I have other career aspirations too, just like to check out my options, so honesty is 100% appreciated
. Also feel free to refer me to someone not on here who might have information, because I've had an incredible amount of trouble trying to figure out who to talk to, so that's kind of half the purpose of this post.
And thank you to everyone with any know-how on the subject!
“Epilepsy (345) occurring beyond the 6th birthday, unless the applicant has been free of seizures for a period of 5 years while taking no medication for seizure control, and has a normal electroencephalogram (EEG) is disqualifying. All such applicants will have a current neurology consultation with current EEG results.”
I've been seizure free for easily ten years, and off medication for maybe eight or nine. I know people here can't give me medical advice or any such, I don't expect it. My question is whether despite the fact that I'm eligible on paper (assuming I get the go ahead from a neurologist and a clear EEG), if the condition will be practically disqualifying, especially considering there are so many eligible people without any complicated medical histories. I've had vague aspirations of becoming a pilot for a long time, the qualifications there are even stricter, but again not in a way that technically disqualifies me. I'm just looking to find out if it's reasonable to assume that my application would be completely compromised by my medical history. And I've also gathered that medical waivers are not so easy to get from the Academies, so even if my application didn't get thrown away on sight, it looks as if the waiver process might be just as bad. Don't be afraid to say military service is out of the question if you think so, I have other career aspirations too, just like to check out my options, so honesty is 100% appreciated
. Also feel free to refer me to someone not on here who might have information, because I've had an incredible amount of trouble trying to figure out who to talk to, so that's kind of half the purpose of this post.And thank you to everyone with any know-how on the subject!
