Yesterday I had the great experience of hearing from my daughter as she was on her way back from the Holy Cross MEC. Her NROTC Unit had competed - she is on their Squad Drill Team, they came in 2nd. She also got to “kick butt” in dodge ball, sleep on the gym floor, get woken up at 01:00 to stand watch and the list goes on. They were there for barely 24 hours.
A year ago we were exactly where so many of you are. USNA candidate- everything looking good and jumping those hurdles one at a time. She knew she would have a fight when it came to that medical waiver so she was prepared. And at every school we visited she would talk to the NROTC table and they would tell her the same thing- you should apply here anyway. But she did not WANT ROTC she wanted USNA she would say ... and in May 2008 she stood in the hallway of her high school, listening to the Sr. Medical Officer at the USNA tell her that No, she was not going to grant her appeal and No, there was nothing that my D could do to change that decision. It was over, that fast. And oh wow- now what.
The VERY LAST thing any one of our kids wants to hear is there will be no appointment regardless of the reason. In my D’s case her waiver denial appeared to shut a lot of doors including NROTC. My daughter needed to let I-Day pass before she would even discuss options. She gave me a hug and whispered “you should be dropping me off now”. After that, she could move on.
Sources like this forum have been, in our case, priceless. It has put us in touch with people, that put us in touch with people, or it can inform you about a program and suddenly possibilities exist where there were none before. As information from here often kept me sane “back then” maybe someone will learn something from what we have been through so I thought I would share. You never know. We are still hanging on for that elusive medical waiver
. (And just to be clear I am NOT bashing DodMERB here). She is a college programmer with NROTC putting her heart and soul into the unit. It is nerve-wracking knowing that she could still have it taken away, but with every “kick butt dodge ball” story I get I know how happy and thankful she is to be there with not one whit of regret for what might have been.
Thanks for all the help.
A year ago we were exactly where so many of you are. USNA candidate- everything looking good and jumping those hurdles one at a time. She knew she would have a fight when it came to that medical waiver so she was prepared. And at every school we visited she would talk to the NROTC table and they would tell her the same thing- you should apply here anyway. But she did not WANT ROTC she wanted USNA she would say ... and in May 2008 she stood in the hallway of her high school, listening to the Sr. Medical Officer at the USNA tell her that No, she was not going to grant her appeal and No, there was nothing that my D could do to change that decision. It was over, that fast. And oh wow- now what.
The VERY LAST thing any one of our kids wants to hear is there will be no appointment regardless of the reason. In my D’s case her waiver denial appeared to shut a lot of doors including NROTC. My daughter needed to let I-Day pass before she would even discuss options. She gave me a hug and whispered “you should be dropping me off now”. After that, she could move on.
Sources like this forum have been, in our case, priceless. It has put us in touch with people, that put us in touch with people, or it can inform you about a program and suddenly possibilities exist where there were none before. As information from here often kept me sane “back then” maybe someone will learn something from what we have been through so I thought I would share. You never know. We are still hanging on for that elusive medical waiver
. (And just to be clear I am NOT bashing DodMERB here). She is a college programmer with NROTC putting her heart and soul into the unit. It is nerve-wracking knowing that she could still have it taken away, but with every “kick butt dodge ball” story I get I know how happy and thankful she is to be there with not one whit of regret for what might have been. Thanks for all the help.
her Great Lake's date set in January. She got a 95 on the military ASVAB test and not only that a 136 on the Defense Language Battery Test. At LAST Navy folk there in that Recruiting Office were whooping and hollering and giving her battered ego huge bursts of support over her achievements. She heads to 63 weeks of language school ( Farsi?Arabic?Japanese?Chinese?...her language aptitude is able to take any one of them.) after Basic Training.
to relay the outcome of my daughter's story. She is 2nd semester, - NROTC. After 18 months *yes, I'm soooo sorry for all of you who are waiting on med waivers, I said 18, eighteen, long, long, long MONTHS she got her medical waiver WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!