I actually went in and talked to them before I ever posted this. He only knew it was a DQ for MFF and Diver. He had no idea about selection.
It amazed me throughout my 23 years of active duty military service and subsequent 17 years of retirement of how little military physicians know of medical classification standards other than the Class I, II, and III standards for flying duties. Medical prerequisite standards for courses that have such standards are lass known than classification standards. I posted link to Army Regulation 40-501 for this reason. BTW this is the source standard for all enlistment and inductions but not necessarily for classification into a specific military occupation (MOS, AFSC, NEC) as each service determines specific occupational requirements. The Army actually relies more on course medical and fitness prerequistes than on occupational standards.
The U.S. Army Special Forces MOS is the prime example. All the precise standards are applied to the Special Forces Qualification Course and not to retention to perform Special Forces Duties after MOS is awarded. See par 5.5 and compare to initial qualification standards. In considering this perspective awareness is needed to be had that performance of frequent and routine static line parachutist duties, military free fall duties (may change) , and Combat Diver duties has no bearing on award and retention of MOS and to perform duties of MOS. Also unlike Ranger duties and Infantry MOS the "demand" rating for 18 series MOSs is not applicable. The reason the military physicians are aware of DQ for MFF and Diver is because of the medical exam prerequisite imposed on persons attempting to get such qualification training and the lack of annual medical exams for retention of MOS or to remain in such duty positions.
The physical demands rating for an Army MOS indicates the physical work requirements of a soldier performing the MOS in a combat environment. The physical demands rating is determined via the military enlistment physical strength capacity test and is designed to assign soldiers to jobs for which they are physically qualified and to allow for the gender-free screening of soldiers.
There are five physical demands ratings that are assigned to Army MOSs.
Light--Lift on an occasional basis a maximum of 20 pounds with frequent or constant lifting of 10 pounds.
Medium--Lift on an occasional basis a maximum of 50 pounds with frequent or constant lifting of 25 pounds.
Moderately heavy--Lift on an occasional basis a maximum of 80 pounds with frequent or constant lifting of 40 pounds
Heavy--Lift on an occasional basis a maximum of 100 pounds with frequent or constant lifting of 50 pounds.
Very Heavy--Lift on an occasional basis over 100 pounds with frequent or constant lifting in excess of 50 pounds.
The January 2013 policy decision to integrate women into all combat military occupations and participation in all direct combat duty assignments/positions caught the Department of the Army with to many standards with all the "i"s not dotted and all the "t"s not crossed. The Army's recent student prerequisite changes illustrate this.
1. Students will be tested on the flexed-arm hang. The student must maintain the flexed-arm position for at least 10 seconds to be admitted into the course.
2. Applicants must be able to complete a 5-mile run within 45 minutes 30 days prior to the class start date.
3. Students must weigh 110 pounds or more.
Several incidents resulted in these "course" standards changes. Course is emphasized as the performance combat assault necessities are not addressed. The flexed-arm hang requirement was driven by lack of upper body strength being causal for several mid air collision resulting from parachutes lacking the strength endurance need to pull risers for slip maneuvering - especially trying to avoid collisions. The must weigh 110 pounds or more was driven by a female parachutist using the T-11 canopy lacking body weight combined with lacking upper body strength that she could not or couldn't continue to slip dump air resulting in her rate of descent being so slow that she landed 1.5 miles off the DZ and from other jumpers into the trees.
The mass tactical parachute assault is dependent on all parachutist having the same relative rate of descent under canopy. This can be compensated by adding more weight to the lighter jumpers, but this unfortunately requires greater upper body strength for the lower body weight parachutist with more equipment weight to riser pull, air slip maneuver the non-steerable MC-1, T-11 canopy.
