Expert: John L - 6/10/2010

Question
Hi Sir,

I recently asked you a question but left out some of the important details you needed to answer and for that im sorry and will re ask the question in more detail.

My Army National Guard recruiter called me today to tell me that my waiver for refractive error has made it to the NGO office, it will be 2 weeks this Friday since the waiver itself was submitted for approval. The issue is one eye with 20/20 or 20/25 corrected vision has a refract error of +/-10.00.(Corrected vision is 20/20 in one and 20/25 in the other and 20/200 in both un corrected) Meps doc said its no problem and wrote down to consider a waiver and my Liason filled it all out. I was told the NGO office is the last stop for the waiver process and they give the final word. Is it good it made it that far? Do they go through other doctors before it reaches the final doctor? Thanks for your time and information provided.

Answer
I do not know what NGO is, I assume you mean NGB (National Guard Beureu) which is the one and only place that medical waivers go.  The chances of the waiver getting approved are slim, mainly due to the fact that recruiting is doing well without the waivers.  waivers are granted based upon the NGB Dr's feeling that you can perfrom the job of a soldier with no negative impact to the team or mission. If your glasses got broken in the battlefield, you would be esentially blind, not be able to perfrom your msiion or fire your weapon effectively.

There is still a chance, but not sure how good of one.