Expert: Howard Lorenz - 3/20/2008

Question
I am a 27 year old female who was born as a premature baby. At 3 pounds and 1 oz the doctors felt that i was going to need a lot of oxygen.  But gave me too much in the neonatal unit. thanks to the military they caused complete deafness in my left ear.  After 26 years of being told you cant join the service i have attempted.  Now they are trying to tell me that they are disqualifying me because of that.  How do i go about fighting something that isnt my fault (military) and try to get in?  All i ever wanted to do was follow my dad and make him proud. I think that the military shouldnt dq me for their error.  also i wear a cross over system.

Answer
Catina,

The regulatins that the military uses to allow for entry were written in the 50s and just have been amended to suit. There are alot of good soldiers and airmant hat get turned away becasue of one reason or another. God dealt you the crappy hand of cards. But look at it this way...

just because you are deaf in one ear, does not mean that you can not work for the military in a civillian capacity. There are government jobs that you can get into, you just have to find them. A good majority of the Aif Force jobs have been civillianized anyway.

I am sorry that I can not do more for you other than offer this small bit of advise, If I could rewrite the regs...folks like you would be in...

You can find more info about government jobs at www.usajobs.com

And I can tell you from a father's point of view...It doesnt matter what you do Catina, he will always be proud of you...