Expert: Rod Powers - 12/7/2007

Question
My son made it thru 6 (of 8) weeks of Navy boot camp last summer, but was discharged because of a "symptomatic left varicocele". He was hit in the groin area during boot camp and the medical condition resulted. The narrative reason on his DD214 is "Failed Medical/Physical Procurement Standards". There is apparently a fairly routine surgical procedure that can be done to resolve the varicocele issue. If he has this procedure, would he be eligible for re-entry either back into the Navy or into the Army?  His separation code on his DD214 shows "JFW" and there's a re-entry code showing "RE-4", but he doesn't know what those mean. He talked to an Army recruiter a few weeks ago and the Army recruiter told him there was "no way" he could get back into any branch of the service.

Answer
Hi Frankie,

I'm afraid the Army recruiter is pretty much correct.

The "JFW" means "Failed Medical/Physical Procurement Standards" (just what the narrative reason said). What this means is that the Navy determined medical condition was actually a result of a pre-existing medical condition that he failed to report, or did not know about at the time of enlistment. In other words, they determined that the particular condition did not really happen while in boot camp, but was existing before, and only "showed up" in boot camp.

I'm not a doctor, so I don't know what the medical significance is for a symptomatic varicocele". I'm guessing here (again, I'm not a doctor), but I'm guessing that the Navy doctors felt that the condition makes him easily suseptible to groin injuries, and therefore the condition is disqualifying for Military service. Again, that's only a guess.

The primary thing, however, is the "RE Code." There are four basic "RE Codes:" 1, 2, 3, and 4. An RE Code of "1" means that a person is generally eligible to re-enter the military with no restrictions. And RE Code of "2" or "3" generally means that it's *possible* to re-enter the Military, with a waiver, if the applicant can convince the service that the original reason for discharge no longer exists. An Re Code of "4" generally means that one is not eligible to re-enter the Military, and no waivers are possible.

The only possible way to change this is to apply to the Naval Discharge Review Board, and convince them that his reason for discharge was in error. Details about this can be read in my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/dischargeupg.htm

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my U.S. Military Information Site at: http://usmilitary.about.com Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com