"Asthma and the Armed Forces..." Topic

Can you join the Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces in the US if you have a slight Asthma problem? Can the Dr. tell if you do have it if youre not having an attack? My younger Cousin wants to know, wants to join up but as you can guess….I told him to forget his problem, but he hates to lie.

I wouldn't like to have an attack while wearing a noddy suit

After his first 5mile run they'd find out. They have a punishment for fraudulent enlistment.

If he mentions asthma to the recruiter it is usually a guarenteed obsticle to enlistment. When I was in Army Recruiting from 1988 to 1991, even someone who had heard their grandma say "oh, the boy has the touch of asthma" and then, not wanting to lie, checked the box "yes" for asthma would never get passed thru the initial medical screening. We usually had to then apply for a medical waiver, which 99% of the time was denied. Things may have changed with us involved in Iraq and Afganistan.
As far as punishment, if he ends up having an attack during his initial training, he will be discharged, probably without any adverse action being taken. Sort of like the old events of kids lying about their age to enlist and getting caught, thanks for trying but you cannot participate. But, an investigation will be conducted against the recruiter to determine if the recruiter coached the individual to conceal items to gain enlistment. The effort behind the investigation is not focused on the individual, per se, but on the recruiter trying to enlist and individual to meet their "mission" (i.e. quota). At a minimum it could result in the recruiter being relieved from duty and at the worst (if determined to be a cronic activity involving more than one enlistee) it could result in judical punishment (court martial).

Asthma is a problem. Friend of mine had a minor asthma problem, but it showed up in boot camp and he was discharged. His recruiter told him to hide it so the recruiters numbers would be up for the month. The recruiter was punished.

In the Canadian army, it's a death sentence, career-wise.

On the other hand, my wife's son enlisted in the Marines and always had a slight asthma problem. I remember worrying about that whe he signed up but I suspect he didn't tell anyone about it and as long as your lungs are fine at the time, not the doctor won't be able to tell on your army medical. Bryan served with 26 MEU in Afghanistan and was WIA in January 2002 at Tora Bora. He served another tour in Afghanistan (Kabul embassy) before being volontarily discharged at the end of his engagement.

However, if you need to ask yourself if you get attacks on a regular basis, will fumbling for an inhaler at an inconvenient time have dire conequences for your buddies?

I was refused from every branch due to asthma. I really wanted to serve, but alas it was not meant to be.

I needed a waiver from my family doc to say I was in good health, etc. etc. after I truthfully answered the enlistment medical history questionaire – I checked that I had childhood asthma (which I did); but when I was trying to join I had been in excellent health for years (surfed every day, etc. etc.). I only found out I was initially disqualified when the Recruiting NCO asked if I was waiting for a ride to go home while I was in the waiting room (I was the first one there – before they even opened up; and was the last one there – like five hours later) – I thought that's how the Army was – first in, last out. Well, the NCO said, "Oh…didn't they tell you?" "What?" "You were disqualified" "Lemme talk to the doc, I'm in great health!" "Oh, he went home a few hours ago" "WHAT!?" Long story short, I later got a waiver and here I am…27 years later – still in pretty good health – and still in the Army. You can get a waiver for practically anything – especially nowadays.

The CS chamber should cure the asthma. I had to get a medical waiver when I enlisted as I had an ulcer while in high school. I would think that medical waivers are fairly easy to get now due to the low recruitment numbers.

In my platoon, in boot, we had a guy who had a slight case of asthma, but he was going into the Marine Band to play drums, so he was on a waiver. The only way I found out was that I was standing next to him before we were about to go into the CS chamber and he says, "Oh by the way…"

We had another guy who had an allergic reaction to ant bites after crawling through a hill of them. He was in casual platoon awaiting discharge before we got back from noon chow.

I did 4yrs in the Marines with no problems at all (runs and all that) and got out and found out 1 week later I have asthma. Dr. said it may have been dormant but who knows. I've had an Army recruiter tell me to "not mention" it when he was trying to get me to go in the service again. I'd have gone back in too, but with usual Gov't policies I could imagine being left in the cold if something went wacky and I came in on some kind of waiver or not telling them.

For US Army ROTC I have to get a waiver for a prospective cadet who's had asthma as a child. Any asthma after the age of 12 and there's no chance of a waiver. Officer standards are a little higher than enlisted. Don't know what kind of asthma waiver they can get.

Your cousin might want to serve in a non combat unit.

I'm sure he can contribute in the Intelligence branch or whatever it is called. Army is not necessarily field work only. We even had a guy who had some sort of allergy to the sun.

As for lying on his condition, it might be cool and all to serve in a combat unit, but your cousin might endanger his pals in the line. Not a wise move to hide it.

His best bet might be to try and join with a degree.

Your cousin might want to serve in a non combat unit.

This doesn't make a difference unless you're already in and develop some medical condition. If they don't throw you out, there is a chance to get transferred to a non-combat type unit with restrictions.

While in the Air Force there were a couple guys who had asthma. I have no idea if they had it befor enlisting or after. NEver asked and it didn't seem to effect them other than once in awhile you'd see them using the inhaler.

Well, given the rate at which asthma incidence is increasing in the population we might actually have to get out of the habit of fighting wars then…

I have a friend with mild asthma who has been in the US Navy for almost 22 years, beginning with his Plebe Summer at the USNA in '85. It has never, to my knowledge, impeded his career advancement whether it be sea duty or as a naval architect.

Apparantly it did prevent his being sent to Iraq last year, although I believe that was more his Admiral playing a trump card to prevent a talented and experienced naval architect being sent to work with the Seabees.

What's gonna happen if we reinstate the draft? Every other fat in America is on an inhaler, when I was a kid it was 1 or 2 kids out of maybe 40 in a class who used a puffer. Now, a friend of the family who works in a dentist's office sez almost half the kids are on inhalers, is this from pollution?