Expert: Rod Powers - 5/24/2007

Question
QUESTION: My son was awarded a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship last year and it was subsequentally taken away when DoDMERB disqualified him for taking drugs and for treatment of depression when he was 14 years old. We applied for a waiver and they immediatly denied it. My question is: since he has been denied by DoDMERB for the scholarship will he be denied from ever serving in the military? His commanding officer has told him he would be eligible for OCS. It doesn't make sense to me that he could be qualified later and just not for the scholarship. Can you advise us? He has thought of trying to get in the Coast Guard now in the CSPI program. Will he have a chance? The Coast Guard recruiters told him that they don't use DoDMERB they use the FBI screening process. We need some guidence. He also just got a class two misdemeanor for fighting. How will this impact him getting in if he even has a chance?
Thanks
Bill

ANSWER: Hi Bill,

The waiver system is different for each branch of service, and -- within a specific branch, often different for different programs. In other words, within the Army, the waiver system for OCS is different than the waiver system used for ROTC Scholarships. One reason is that the ROTC Scholarship program requires the Army to invest big bucks in the candidate *before* commission, while the OCS program does not.

With that being said, there is no way to tell for sure whether or not a waiver will be approved or not by any branch, in advance. There isn't any "go/no go" list. Each and every waiver request is evaluated individually, based on their own individual merits, and includes several factors, including (but not limited to):

1. Is the condition progressive?

2. Is the condition subject to aggravation by military service?

3. Will the condition preclude satisfactory completion of prescribed training and subsequent military duty?

4. Will the condition constitute an undue hazard to the examine or to others, particularly under combat conditions?

5. Is the recruit *EXCEPTIONALLY* qualified, otherwise? (test scores, grade-point-average, etc.)

6. How are current recruiting goals? How bad does that particular branch of the service need this particular applicant at this particular point-in-time?

The treatment for depression is going to be a hard hurdle to overcome. Any history of treatment for any mental health condition is an automatic disqualifier for any of the branches, and requires a waiver. In my experience, mental health history waivers are among the hardest to obtain. Because of the high stress of military life (deployments, long hours, family separation, combat), the military is understandably concerned about any mental heath history, especially depression. Not saying it's impossible, but such waivers are tough to get approved.

Even though the Coast Guard doesn't use DoDMERB, doesn't mean your son doesn't have to disclose the information about his depression treatment or previous drug use. In fact, failing to disclose this information is a felony. For details, you may wish to see my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/falsestatements.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



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Rod,
Thanks for the information! I have two follow follow up questions. The first is: even though he did not get the scholarship he complete the first year of ROTC classes. His Colonel has told me that he is his top recruit and he is on their Ranger team. He told my son that he would give him a letter of recommendation and advised him to pursue OCS after college. Should he apply each year for the Army ROTC scholarship or do you think since he was denied once that he will continue to be denied. He has gone to the Army's psychologist and his report was there was nothing wrong.
Are we wasting time or should we pursue it? The second question is if he tries to get a Coast Guard scholarship does he have to answer the question about being rejected from the military as "yes" or since he was only rejected from receiving the scholarship he can answer it "no"?
I appreciate all your help. He really wants to serve in the military and is enjoying ROTC. We just don't want to waste time.
Bill  

Answer
Hi Bill,

Well, the letter of recomendation from the Colonel certainly couldn't hurt when it comes to applying for OCS.

My personal opinion is that, as he was disqualified for an ROTC scholarship, he probably wouldn't get selected if he reapplied later. However, all they can say is "no," so it probably wouldn't hurt to reapply.

For the second question, he wasn't disqualified for military service, but rather turned down for an ROTC Scholarship, so if asked if he was turned down for military service, an honest answer would be "no."

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