I was awarded an Navy option ROTC scholarship and have a concern. I took the dodmerb a few months ago, had some remedials for some different things (none related to vision) and just recently became “qualified”.
I new I wouldn’t have any issues except with possibly my with vision. I have great vision however I sometimes get colors mixed up on computer games which led me to believe that I might have a color vision deficiency.
I passed the dodmerb color vision test however I think I barely passed it. The test was really hard for me and I think I had to guessed on some plates.
If I’m all set and good to go, that’s great however I’m worried about this becoming a future problem.
My ultimate question is if I passed dodmerb am I 100% good to go or will I be retested for color vision at Great Lakes durning NSI.
Thank you!
I would be unsettled to not confirm exactly your issue and the severity of it but cautious to not make this part of your official medical record yet. I would take a free or low cost internet test to confirm in more detail what's going on under the registered name Herman Snerd (anonymously). I agree with your apprehension that this could become a future problem. Why have the weight of this to carry around if you don't have to? Knowledge is power. *Barely passed is passed but what jeopardy would you be of passing future color vision or vision / medical exams? That's I think the detail you need.
Perhaps someone who went through NSI last year can confirm if a color vision test was part of the intake or process.
Look - you should be able to proceed with training and a free education that you would not be on the hook for to repay, if this is uncovered later as it was not present in your DODMERB exam (not pre existing). But bad news here is that you have risk to proceed to continue to train and serve if this is found and if you do not meet standards. You also give up merit scholarships at some schools to take the national scholarship and if that National doesn't' work out, then you might be in a bad spot to continue schooling.
Throughout your training and then active duty, you have to meet standards. On the date of your DODMERB eye exam, you passed. But be in in 2-4-8 years if you do not pass a future exam, that could impact you. NROTC is predominantly a path to URL unrestricted positions - research those and restricted line paths. There are some restricted line positions that don't care about color blindness. Research Navy color blindness standards and confirm how rare it is for color blind waivers to be granted. Research the limitations of color blindness for SWO, SNA/ NFO pilot / aviator positions. Understand the danger of trying to be a color blind pilot and why you really can't do that in some cases esp red/green blindness which would DQ you. Confirm what happens when this diagnosis is presented as one prepares to join or joins the fleet as an Ensign or 2nd LT.
For my DS, on the advice of a AF Brig. General who was mentoring my son, we paid for a full class 1 medical from a physician who does these for the military when he was in HS, as we wanted to know if there was anything that would preclude his ability to fly for the military or for a commercial airline (hopefully both) when he was in HS and before he got too far in training - flight lessons are not cheap - we figured better to know than spend years training toward a dead end. I think you also are better off knowing too - easy to find out. One caveat - He was fine but had he found an issue we would have had to disclose that so we might have lost out on the scholarship by DQ had that happened.
Hope that helps you as food for thought.
