Expert: Howard Lorenz - 9/1/2008

Question
Hello, My name is Matt. I am getting a little late start at joining the military,
as I am 30 years old, married with 2 kids, and have a great full-time job as a
firefighter (11 years). I hopefully will be joining the ANG shortly as a
Loadmaster. I passed the ASVAB, the recruiter did not specifically tell me
what I scored but he stated that I could get pretty much get any job that was
opened for enlisted personnel. I have a couple questions, I hope I can make
them make sense.
1. The recruiter told me as long as I pass the "Class III Flight Physical" I would
not need to go through MEPS. Is this true?
2. If this is true, what "Standards" will I be based on, Enlistment Physical or
the Flight Physical?
Since I would essentially be enlisting.
The reason I ask, I had surgery in 1980 to correct a common heart defect. I
had a VSD. The surgery was successful, and I have never had any restrictions
or any side effects except one, I have a RBBB. The RBBB shows up on a EKG. I
have read that for Flight Physical if a RBBB is detected and has no underlying  
cause, as in heart disease or heart ischemia. No waiver is needed. ( I have
neither). But if they go by enlistment standards it states a waiver will be
needed.
I was seen by a cardiologist from the time I was born until I turned 18. At 18
the doctor in essence stated that I was fine and that the only time I needed to
by seen again by a cardiologist is if I was having problems. I had not seen a
cardiologist until last year. Not because I was having problems, but because
my wife is a nurse and she thought I should get a check up, just to make
certain. When I went in, he did a series of tests. More than I remember ever
having as a kid. Everything came back fine. I went back to him last week to
see what his opinion was, about me joining. He gave me his blessing and
even gave my a letter stated that in his medical opinion, I was good to go. I
have copies of all my tests from him, from the past two years. The only thing
problem that I have ran into on this front is paperwork from my surgery that
happened in 1980. I contacted the hospital, they stated they no longer kept
the files from that long ago. I tried to contact my old cardiologist, well he is
retired. My parents only had a couple documents about my surgery left and
they have given me them. But it is only four papers, one is the actual surgery
report, and the others were tests prior to the surgery.
Can/Will this hurt my chances in getting a waiver if needed?
As a firefighter/paramedic I know how important it is to be physically fit. I
like to think that I am. I run and do cardio workouts 4 times week and
strength train at least 3 times a week.
I hope this all made sense and does not take up to much of your time.

Answer
I believe that there was a slight misunderstanding between you and the recruiter. As long as you pass the Flight Physical, you don't have to worry about getting thru MEPS is what I think he meant. The Flight Physical is at the MEPS....

The HIPPA laws protect your medical history...from everyone and all agencies to include the DoD. You sign a medical release form at the MEPS, but this is worthless because to get medical records from your docs, you have to sign a release from that hospital... So with that being said, the records that they have are just what you inform them to be.

Now the bigger question is ...Is it worth the risk....If by chance you have issues develop and you tell them that you had prior issues...YOU are the one that is going to take the fall....Not the Recruiter.  Your Call. There are many that have lengthy careers in the military that have had an issue that would have kept them out in the beginning.

The regulations for entry are based on standards that are WAY out of date. The regs were placed some 40 years ago and you and I both know that the times and technology have change 3 fold since. They need to be revised to include folks who have been healed and perform normally. WHen this will happen?? Hard to tell...mabe never until the DoD decides that it is necessary.....So its your call really...