A former SO had been turned down - he apparently had a problem with his achilles tendon and always told me that he couldn’t “walk like a duck”. Never made a whole lot of sense to me, but that’s what he said.
I tried to join the Air Force when I got out of college. The recruiter recommended I apply to be an officer, and I went through the whole rigmarole, including the most thorough physical I have had in my life, only to be turned down because of the Gramm-Rudman cuts to the military, cuts which I supported. I felt incredibly frustrated about this, especially since it was the recruiter’s idea that I put in to be an officer, rather than enlisted. Then I found out they also turned down a guy with a degree in aeronautical engineering and a pilot’s license.
CJ
Walk like a duck.
One of the last physical tests you do, just before they check for hernias, is to have you strip down to your underwear. Then you are supposed to squat down, back straight.
Then walk forward. Because you are squatted down, it’s a little rough on the knees, and you look like you’re waddling. Hence, “walk like a duck”. If you fall over, you fail.
I had tried to enlist in the Air Force when I was in college (early 70s) but was rejected for various health reasons which, if they were explained to me at the time, I have completely forgotten. Shortly afterward I was notified by Selective Service that I had been reclassified from “student deferred” to “unfit for military service except in time of war or national emergency.”
I was turned down because I was 5 lbs over the limit, plus 20/300 vision.
I ended up spending 12 years working for DoD as a civilian before I was RIFed in the last round of base closures, so I did my time anyway.
Lorenzo raised a valid point. I can understand why they would turn down an older canditate with minor health issues when they can get perfectly healthy younger people.
But I’m an engineer and I was trying to get into the Navy. It’s not like I expected to lead bayonet charges or anything.
Arlo Guthrie. For litterin’. 
My husband was “invited” to join the military when he was a kid, due to a number of scrapes with the law. He signed on with the Marines '62 to '66 and did 13 months in Vietnam.
My kid, in 2001, wanted to join the military and was turned down due to two busts with pot. The recruiter gave him something to drink that would camouflage the pot in his system (which it did), but the two busts were one too many. I’m very glad he didn’t make it, in hindsight.
Exgineer, exactly in what capacity were you attempting to join? I know from your posts elsewhere that you’re an engineer with a wide range of experience in engineering and engineering management. Were you trying to sign up as an engineering officer? If so I think the reasons for rejection were weak to say the least.
Exgineer, when I was 18 I was also declared medically unsuitable for service due to a bum knee. The rational is that if it’s been injured once, it’s likely to be injured again. Like most enterprises, the military tries to avoid liability - if you get injured in boot camp it’s possible you could get a medical discharge with lifetime benefits. Obviously, this is not cost-effective, so the gov’t tries to select those men and women that don’t have any obvious potential predisposition to injury or illness. Obviously, you can’t predict what will happen to whom or when, but you can play the odds. F’rinstance: My FIL has HEP-C, and can’t get Life Insurance. That may be a clumsy example, but I think it’s valid.
As far as color-blindness goes, I just spoke to my boss, who was in the CG for 20+ years. He tells me there are a slew of jobs you would not be able to do being color blind: technical jobs that depend upon your ability to tell different colored wires apart, or any position in which you had to distinguish a red buoy from a green one - and since that’s a pretty universal indicator of right & left, that covers a lot of jobs. I don’t know what your engineering specialty is, but there’s a possibility you’d expected to do a great deal of hands-on work, as opposed to strictly administrative or design-oriented, so theoretically your specialty might qualify you for a position that color-blindness specifically disqualifies you for.
On the bright side, you could probably still be a cook, though. 
I remember how disappointed I was when they 4-F’d me, so I can sympathize with you.
I was almost refused because of my lack of hearing. Turned out all I needed was a good cleaning but I probably shouldn’t have bothered.
[hijack] I worked for several years in a pediatric cardiology office, and we nearly always called it an EKG. If I recall correctly, that’s the German acronym, and it just stuck for most cardiologists. We’d certainly know what it was if you said ECG, but most people in the field don’t seem to use the term, in my experience. [/hijack]
Disclaimer: IANAD/N.
You mean an R-prime (R’) spike. That’s an indication of a bundle branch block (among other things I think), which is an indication that part of the impulse put out by the heart’s “pacemaker” (sinoatrial node) may not be getting to where it’s supposed to go in the heart. This could be caused by coronary artery disease, valve disease, cardiomyopathy - or it could be present in a normal heart. You’d need a more full workup to be sure.
I still have my draft card from the Vietnam War—I had to register when I turned 17. I was classified 1-something or other, meaning I would be 1-A when I turned 18. By that time, the war was over, and a few years later, Uncle Sam wouldn’t have Wanted Me, anyhoo.
Out of curiosity, Eve, did you write about that somewhere? Sounds familiar. Maybe CajunMan told me about it.
Still, after all you folks have said the irony to me is my back is now totally frigged-up and the stinkin’ Army won’t let me go.
I’ve been on a medical board for more than a year.
That’s the reason for this thread, actually. I figure if they took me at all they’d stick me behind a desk somewhere. I just couldn’t see how my knees would be a serious problem.
Thanks for the information, Ferret Herder. They told me at the time that it wasn’t serious, but it was an additional reason for disqualification. They didn’t tell me what it actually meant, is all.
Maybe I’ll go see my doctor and get checked out, as you suggest.
I desperately wanted to go Navy OCS after college. After the most humiliating and frustraing application process EVER (they lost my application 3 times over the course of 9 months), I was finally told that I wouldn’t get a medical waiver due medicine I’d taken as child (at the time they thought I might be epilleptic).
So I basically gave up on the whole enterprise, which was a relief if life IN the navy was going to be like the chickensh*t crap just trying to apply.
I had decided I wanted to go SWO since I didn’t plan to make a career out of it and wanted the most useful skills.
So about 3 months after I’d been told that I wasn’t getting a waiver and that my security clearance had expired, I got a call while I was at work telling me in flowery gung-ho language that I was being offered an aviation spot. :rolleyes:
I never returned the call, and sometimes it still bugs me. If I’d gone in though, I’d never have met my wife, and that’s all the reason I need to know I made the right choice.