Expert: Aaron Shifferly - 3/17/2010

Question
My son received a waiver for his vision and was recently sworn into the Army. He will graduate from high school in June and will leave for basic training at the end of June. Due to his vision(they didn't give him the eye exam with his glasses) he wasn't able to go into the artillery, but will be doing radio repair, and was told he needed to go to MEPS to see a specialist. A few weeks later he went to MEPS, and after waiting for a few hours he was told the appointment was cancelled. Is there a possibility he could still be disqualified even though he received a waiver, and has his paperwork stating when he leaves for basic training and what his MOS is?
My husband and I were able to go with him when he went to MEPS because we wanted to witness the swearing in. When we saw the look of disappointment on his face after he was told he was disqualified, and they were trying to get a waiver; we knew then that he really wanted this. I'm just worried that there may be more problems ahead. We still don't know what the issue is with his eyesight.

Answer
I enlisted with glasses and can tell you that vision waivers are quite common. The military does restrict some jobs because of that, though. Whatever contract your son signed with the military will be honored by the Army. If, for some reason, they can't honor it he will be given the choice to either change to another job he wants or simply get out. They cannot force him into something not in his contract. The military will also do whatever it can to either fix or mitigate the issues with your son's eyesight. He will get excellent healthcare. Since he is not enlisted yet, he can also talk to his recruiter more and press for further answers. He is still under no obligation to the military.