Knee injuries and waivers

[Arwen]

My older son, Chris, is currently in the Navy. My younger son, Sean, will graduate from high school this June and is interested in the Navy as well. He applied for NROTC but was not accepted. Without NROTC he can't afford college, so he took the ASVAB (scored a 93) and now plans to start out enlisted and try another route to becoming an officer.

Sean's knee was injured pretty badly in a football accident three years ago. He had full ACL reconstruction surgery that involved a screw (to anchor the new ACL while it was healing). It is completely stable and even stronger than before the injury. I heard he cannot get in as long as he has the screw in his knee (it can be removed anytime).

It is better to get the screw out now, before he starts the process to get a waiver, or should he wait until he is told he *can* get in with a waiver for his knee surgery? Our health insurance might not cover the removal, since it would be considered "elective" surgery and we don't want to pay for it if he has no chance of a waiver.

[Arwen]

It was a recruiter who told me metal screws are disqualifiers, I was just trying to figure out what the best timing would be to get it out. He's not quite ready to go to start the official paperwork part of enlistment, he has to concentrate on graduating high school, but we also want everything else to be in order.

Getting the screw out is a good idea even without the Navy in the picture. Screws and pins tend to work their way out of the bone and cause problems (which is probably why they are disqualifiers in the first place) so he would need to get it out at some point anyway.

If a waiver for the past knee surgery/injury isn't approved then we move to plan B: college with tons of student loans and the accompanying debt.

[Debby]

Arwen my step son tried the Navy he also has screws in his knee.. the recruiter told him it probably will get denied but he tried and it did get denied.He also said they take it on a case to case basis, where the screws are etc... he was in the same boat as your son with school and tuition.. My youngest son is also going to college he is working part time only taking 2 classes at a time and we help where we can with tuition.. so far he's taken no loans and is going to a community college where tuition is much cheaper. He plans to take out loans if he needs to but not until he goes to the univeristy, he's knocking out all the pre reqs he can at the community college first.. Don't let him give up on college it might take longer this way but its worth it... Good luck Debby

[Arwen]

The whole point of college was to become an officer in the Navy. College is supposed to be just the route to get there. We don't have a community college closer than 100 miles, so we're stuck. It will be an all-or-nothing deal. If he goes to college, even community college, he has to do the whole dorms and full-time student thing.

[CTT2 Medick]

As recruiters, we can not tell people they are not qualified due to medical reasons (unless it is something outrageous like one leg, one kidney, etc). We have to get their medical documents, do a Medical Prescreening form, have the applicant do a handwritten statement on the condition/surgery and send those documents to MEPS to be looked at by the Medical Dept there.

Do we know what is generally disqualifing? Yes. And if someone came in my office with a condition I knew would be disapproved, I would tell them that. However, technically we are still supposed to send the docs and have the actual doctors make the determination.

He can send in his docs with the screw in, and they most likely will tell him he is not qualified. Then, if he got the screw out, he could send it in again. Could he still be disqualified? Yes. But you won't know unless you do it.