Question for Recruiters

[Marauder06]

Recruiters and recruiting-knowledgeable members-

A friend of mine is a college undergrad and is contemplating military service as an officer. He is highly intelligent, physically fit, and motivated to serve. Unfortunately, he has what might be a permanently-disqualifying medical condition-- Crohn's Disease. I have discussed potential options with him before, but I have reached the end of my knowledge on whether or not he might be eligible to serve in the Armed Forces.

My friend has done research on his own, and has identified the appropriate reg:

AR 40-501 Chapter 2 §3c

"(1) Current or history of inflammatory bowel disease, including, but not limited to unspecified (558.9), regional enteritis or Crohn’s disease (555), ulcerative colitis (556), or ulcerative proctitis (556), does not meet the standard."

After his research, he had the following questions, which is where I hoped you might come in:

1. Has anyone ever seen a waiver for Crohn's for officers? If so, what were the circumstances?
2. Does the potential for waivers change based on source of commissioning?
3. Would direct commissions such as JAG have a better chance at waivers?
4. Do things like a 99 AVASB, 300 PFT, high college GPA, letters of recommendation from excellent sources, critical language skills, etc make waivers more likely?
5. If someone got a waiver, would the candidate be placed on a limited deployment profile?
6. Has anyone ever seen a waiver be denied for one branch but granted for another?
7. Any other relevant information?

I am going to let my friend know that I started this thread and will encourage him to join the site. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate it if any of our recruiters might come up on the net with their opinions on the questions listed below. Thank you.

-mara

 

[Lycurgus]

Not a recruiter, but I served with a guy that found out he had Crohn's disease once in the military. He got a medical discharge.

 

[Viper1]

I knew an LT who had Crohn's disease. He received a waiver after showing how he was able to manage it. He served his four years and left service.

After looking at the rest of the questions here is more detail. He attended ROTC and was commissioned in the IN. Probably not the best choice for someone with his condition and he admitted it as so but as I said, he was able to manage the condition fairly well. He did one deployment to Iraq and didn't have any major problems as I recall.

 

[goon175]

In the current climate, there is no way he would get in via the OCS route, as that requires MEPS, and MEPS docs are unreasonable assholes the majority of the time (sometimes with good reason, to be fair). There is a sliver of a chance that he MIGHT be able to pull something off via the ROTC route, as they don't go through MEPS, and sometimes get more leniency.

1. Has anyone ever seen a waiver for Crohn's for officers? If so, what were the circumstances? No. Never.
2. Does the potential for waivers change based on source of commissioning? Outside what I outlined above, not really.
3. Would direct commissions such as JAG have a better chance at waivers? Direct commissions still require a physical.
4. Do things like a 99 AVASB, 300 PFT, high college GPA, letters of recommendation from excellent sources, critical language skills, etc make waivers more likely? Not when it comes to medical.
5. If someone got a waiver, would the candidate be placed on a limited deployment profile? No.
6. Has anyone ever seen a waiver be denied for one branch but granted for another? Yes.

 

[Eagle76]

Thank you Marauder06 for that overly kind introduction.

Thank you Lycurgus, Viper1, and goon175 for your answers and information. Based on your advice, I am exploring ROTC options. I will follow-up if I have any more questions as things develop.

 

[walra107]

I know when I applied for OCS with the Marines (yes I am currently enlisted, long story) I didn't go through MEPS to do a Medical screening and that was to contract, They sent me to a private physician and that physical was the one they used to put in my application package and got sent for review when they did my selection, so you could get lucky that way. I'm not sure how frequent that is just giving my .02, and as always each branch is different. As always it never hurts to try, or ask, worst thing they can tell you is "no"...Best of luck on going the ROTC route!!