Expert: Eric Ernst - 10/22/2009

Question
Hi again, I wrote yesterday about my son being disqualified from the Coast Guard for occasional heartburn. Someone at MEPS told him that the "heartburn" disqualify was "stupid, and to go see his recruiter. Recruiter said go back to doc. Doc said "get the F*** out of my office". My question is, should I encourage him to fight this thing? Go to another recruiter, what are our options? We are talking occasional heartburn after really spicy food. My son is painfully honest, and wouldn't lie on his forms.
We are all devastated at the doctors attitude. He would NOT listen to any thing my son tried to tell him. My Brother is Air Nat Guard in Il. and spoke with a MEPS Dr he knows, and the MEPS Dr said that was ridiculousness. What course of action now? This was not acceptable behavior.

Answer
Star,
My advice to you is to see if you can find the doctors name and bring it up through the recruiter anytime someone becomes hostile towards another individual it's unacceptable. Regardless of which recruiter he goes through he will most likely need to go through that MEPS processing station. Depending on which state you are located in they may have only one location to process individuals. The reality of the situation though is if your son can not get signed off by the doctor he will be unable to join the military. My advice is to contact his recruiter and start asking questions in regards to this and if need be ask to speak to your recruiters superior. Please let me know what they have to say in regards to this.
Thank You,
Eric