flat feet as excuse from U.S. military service

Factual Questions
21

this has nothing to do with the army. . .i had flat feet as a kid, but now i dont. i often wonder why.

mc

22

The first time I ever heard of flat feet was on Hogan’s Heroes. Sergeant Schultz said flat feet was a major reason they put him guarding a POW camp. (That and he was old and fat.)

23

I don’t know if my flat feet alone would have kept me out of the service. I considered the military, but I didn’t attempt to enlist because I had a myriad of OTHER health problems. I didn’t think I’d live to be 30 let alone be pushing 50!

Anyway, I wear prescription orthotics in my shoes. The arch support prevents knee and back problems.

24

I have no arch. When I get out of a swimming pool I don’t leave foot prints, I leave duck prints. So in 1980 when enlisting in the Marine Corps, at MEPS the doctor looked at my feet and frowned, and said I had flat feet. I told him I’d been on my high school’s baseball and track teams, we ran 5 miles a day and I had no problems whatsoever. And he passed me.

Six years later I was going for an OCS program and going through another military physical. That doctor said I could not join the military because of my flat feet – he apparently did not know I was already in. To be clear about the situation I asked a very specific question, “You mean, I cannot join the military at all because of my flat feet?” He said, that’s right. So I asked him to wait a moment, I got my ID card from the locker room, and showed it to him. My PEBD was clearly on there, 800126. He then passed me.

I guess it’s somewhat arbitrary.

wolfman wrote that back in 2004, but when was the military restriction dropped?

25

Flat feet are not a disqualifier but high arches are.

Here’s a list from the Navy of about 75 medical conditions that will make you ineligible for enlistment.

There’s also a pretty long list of behavioral issues that can keep you out, including criminal convictions, neck tattoos, or unpaid parking tickets.

26

Standards got pretty low during the war. They drafted my one-eyed uncle. But they used him wisely. He was an auto mechanic and a good one and they had him repairing tanks.