Can i get a waiver for asthma

Join your unit. In many cases, ineligibility means you will not be able to join in the Army or other military branches. However, in some circumstances the Army will provide waivers to help ensure potential recruits are able to join and serve.

For questions about specific Army waivers and your potential eligibility, talk to a local recruiter to learn more about available options.

The maximum age to join the Army as an enlisted Soldier is 35, and you must enter active duty prior to your 36th birthday. For Officers, you must accept your commission by age However, restrictions can be lifted based on the need for certain roles.

Recruits can receive an age waiver, so long as they can retire with 20 years of military service by age Talk to a recruiter to get a better understanding of the demand for certain roles. Yes, it is still possible to enlist with a medical disqualification. Medical waivers are issued on a case-by-case basis. If you have a medical disqualification or would like to learn more about joining with a medical condition, contact an Army recruiter today. Generally, felons and individuals who have several convictions are ineligible to join the Army.

However, moral waivers or felony waivers are available to interested recruits in some cases. Contact a recruiter for more information. Not necessarily. The easiest way to learn about your eligibility, the waiver process, and your next steps is to talk with your recruiter. In some cases, yes. Hearing, vision, and asthma qualifications are typically determined by medical exams and are not service-specific. If a doctor denies an applicant, that applicant can still request an asthma, vision or hearing loss waiver.

If you are concerned about ADHD medical prescriptions, talk to your recruiter about potential options. Yes, you can join with tattoos, as long as they are not visible above your collar or below your cuff. The Army does not typically accept individuals with tattoos on their hands, wrists, face, or neck. Tattoos anywhere above the neckline or on the head, including in the mouth, ears, or eyelids, disqualifies a candidate.

A tattoo waiver is available for candidates who have disqualifying tattoos. Yes, there are height and weight restrictions to join the Army, but they vary by age and gender. Reference the table below to find your minimum height and weight requirements. For the most up-to-date information on these restrictions, talk to a recruiter or calculate your BMI requirements. If you do not meet the specific requirements, you can talk to a recruiter about next steps and possibly submit a height or weight waiver.

Yes, there are physical fitness requirements to join the Army. APFT is a 3-part fitness event: 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups, and a timed 2-mile run. Recruits must pass the APFT to graduate boot camp. The APFT physical fitness requirements vary by age and gender. Reference the table below to find your minimum fitness requirements. If you have any questions regarding the APFT or your physical fitness requirements, talk to your recruiter.

It can take up to three months to fully process a waiver. I have seen great contacts made through employers, especially Department of Defense civilians and contractors, as well as university alumni networks and advocacy organizations such as the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. I strongly recommend applicants explore these paths.

One common approach is to try to get members of Congress or general officers involved to assist. While I have seen this work for some exceedingly well-connected individuals, I have not seen this strategy work too often. Most applicants I advise receive little more than an official inquiry from the Hill and bureaucratic response from the Department of Defense, resulting in no tangible change to their application status.

My engagement with Capitol Hill got me a phone call and a rejection letter. Thus, while I generally do not advise the congressional or general officer route, leveraging your network is an essential aspect of waiver innovation.

You would be surprised by who you know and heartened by the number of people willing to help. The medical waiver process is long, difficult, and not at all guaranteed. Every step in this process feels painfully slow — for example, transferring applications from the Army to the Navy took me over one month despite the offices being in the same building. If you require a medical waiver, it can take up to three months or even longer if you need to shop around across military services.

For me, the entire process took three years and included three medical rejections but ultimately did result in a waiver. If you are steadfast in your commitment to serve, it can be worth the wait. Since writing my last op-ed, over individuals have reached out to me asking for help regarding military medical waiver issues. I am very pleased to report that at least five of these individuals have gone on to receive a medical waiver and join the U.

I have no doubt that these individuals will serve honorably and contribute greatly to the defense of our nation despite their medical histories. Systemic changes and wholesale reform are needed to fix the broken military medical waiver process. Until then, I hope this playbook helps even more of my fellow citizens fulfill their dreams of service.

The U. In that capacity, he helped launched a suite of internship, fellowship, and government hiring programs, resulting in the government hiring actions of more than 50 individuals. Joe serves in uniform as a force support officer in the Air National Guard, coordinating manpower, personnel, and services within his wing and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He can be contacted at joeschuman gmail. Image: Airman Sara Kolinski. Joe Schuman. With the competition of benefits and pay in the civilian job market and ever-changing politics, branches like the Air Force and Navy decided to find ways to let more people in and essentially raise their numbers. One of the main ways they could still allow good people to join the ranks was by reevaluating the medical disqualifying factors.

Essentially, conditions like ADHD , Asthma, and flat feet were something that individuals had no control over. This decision was made after reviewing and observing how the disorder would affect a service member in training as well as the highly active lifestyle they are required to live. The change was made with other medical factors that barred many people from joining the Armed Forces. Asthma is essentially a disorder in which a person experiences trouble breathing due to the inside of your airways which carry air in and out of your lungs.

Source: Lung. The inside of your airways become sensitive to many different things and close which cause you to wheeze and cough. There are some things that can cause Asthma such as allergies, environments, and genetics. This is the reason why some people that have asthma get really sick in the springtime when pollen is in the air. They are experiencing an allergic reaction to the pollen which causes their airways to close. In light of environments, really dry areas such as the desert where many people are deployed to may cause individuals to experience major problems breathing.

Lastly, you may get asthma through genetics. Some people are in situations where all of their families experience asthma and there is nothing that can be done other than treatments after diagnosis.

The common triggers for asthma are actually things that are found often in military environments. Dust, smoke, exhaust and industrial emissions are all found in military environments.

On top of the allergens in the average military environment, exercise and fear can also trigger an asthma attack. As a safety measure, members that are allowed in under the new policy for enlisting with Asthma are not allowed to take on combat jobs or jobs that would require them to be subject to respiratory issues. There are many jobs in the military in which you are not required to be out in the elements. Some of the jobs may be in the information technology fields, medical fields, and administrative fields.

This allows members with medical issues to still serve their country while keeping their physical health in order. The Armed Forces previously restricted entering due to Asthma because of the requirements of the training environment in relation to fitness and physical health.

Also, some jobs in the Armed Forces require members to be deployed in areas where the environment may not be conducive to breathing issues. Moreover, in order to treat Asthma, individuals may be required to take a medication or carry around a steroid inhaler which may not always be available to them.

Applicants that have been diagnosed and experience asthmatic issues after they turn 13 can still attempt to enlist as long as they have all of their medical documentation, are in good cardiovascular shape and possibly be subject to a pulmonary function test in order for a waiver to be considered.