# I made a young woman cry today. (Recruiter related) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 6, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676 "2009-02-06T05:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/41 "2009-02-06T19:09:18Z")
> [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > What’s the rationale there? Clogs the government’s shower drains? Easily waterlogged? Might be mistaken for a Wookiee mercenary? Freaks out the ladies? [Pilonidal disease - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilonidal_cyst) (possible NSFW medical image). It’s what kept Rush Limbaugh out of VietNam. My step-dad was discharged from the Marines in the 50’s during boot camp for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/42 "2009-02-06T19:19:50Z")
> [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > Thanks for your support, **Rand** , but there are not many opportunities for young women here in Paris. She had but one chance to get out, and some doctor fucked that up for her. > > SSG Schwartz Not to be contrary, but how is this the fault of the doctor? Isn’t this the fault of the military bureaucracy? If the military can’t even read its own waivers, then the blame should be on their shoulders. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/43 "2009-02-06T20:07:02Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > … > > Does any one have any idea how any of these conditions could possibly hinder someone from serving in the Armed Forces? Admiral Halsey was unable to command at the battle of Midway because he’d been sent back to the states with a serious flareup of eczema. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/44 "2009-02-06T20:15:24Z")
From personal experience with my daughter. Take a little eczema flareup. Add a dash of staph infection. Spend two weeks in the hospital, some of it touch and go. Eczema itself might be just a little rash, it’s all the nastiness that it opens you up to that’s truly scary. Daughter is wonderful now btw. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/45 "2009-02-06T20:23:32Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Not to be contrary, but how is this the fault of the doctor? He diagnosed her with a condition she doesn’t apparently have? Seems like that part is in fact on his shoulders. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/46 "2009-02-06T20:37:38Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I am sorry for the young lady, but the Army is right. Not if she doesn’t actually have it, it’s not. :rolleyes: ETA- WTF happened to that coding? Oh, never mind… ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/47 "2009-02-06T21:20:07Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Admiral Halsey was unable to command at the battle of Midway because he’d been sent back to the states with a serious flareup of eczema. But Patton’s cronic and massive case of hemmroids made him the military man he was 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/48 "2009-02-06T21:27:20Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Not if she doesn’t actually have it, it’s not. :rolleyes: > > ETA- WTF happened to that coding? Oh, never mind… True. I mean if she has it. If she doesn’t, it should be reevaluated. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/49 "2009-02-06T21:55:53Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > MEPS processes recruits from all branches. There aren’t separate medical exams. The doctor who conducted my exam at MEPS was Joshua Perper, who at the time was the coronor of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He would moonlight as a MEPS examiner from time to time to pick up extra dough. Guy struck me as a first class creep, a perception confirmed by my uncle, who has done a lot of work in medicine in the city of Pittsburgh. He appears on the news from time to time - he last reared his strange misshapen head when Anna Nicole Smith died and he got the call to do the autopsy. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/50 "2009-02-06T23:06:35Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > He diagnosed her with a condition she doesn’t apparently have? Seems like that part is in fact on his shoulders. …which the OP said was later amended by subsequent doctors, plus a waiver submitted to acknowledge that. Corrective measures were taken and a correct diagnosis given, so it is now an army cock-up at this point. If a nurse had mistakenly written “Number of legs: 3” on her chart, the army would supposedly then perpetually believe the chart regardless of how many legs the girl really had or how many doctors it took to count her legs. She could look forward to a career full of disciplinary action from her superiors when she continuously failed to wear 3 boots during uniform inspections. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/51 "2009-02-06T23:54:02Z")
**Sarg** , she cried because you had to tell her about something you have no control over. My recruiter made me cry out of pure meaness. I was born in 1946. My mother wasn’t married. When the recruiter received her divorce decree, he showed me the date (18 months before my birthdate) and asked “So, do you know what that makes you? It makes you a bastard! Now, if you want to get into the Air Force, say it.” That was 43 years ago, and it still hurts. Your young woman will find a way around this, if she really wants it. She won’t blame you. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/52 "2009-02-07T00:22:54Z")
> [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > Thanks for your support, **Rand** , but there are not many opportunities for young women here in Paris. She had but one chance to get out, and some doctor fucked that up for her. > > SSG Schwartz My father is an identical twin, involved in the twin community a long time now, so I understand the wish for you and also for them to stay together, but still… Some **doctor** fucked it up? These young women are 18 years old, live in a similar shithole as I do, when exactly did they decide they wanted to get out? People who make it out of here are the ones who take advantages of whatever limited education opportunity they have for a long time before they turn 18. The latecomers might try to fix their errors at the recruiters office (here there are at least 3 all next door to each other in a strip mall). Maybe she can try another service, but you are not responsible for her life. Sheesh. Tell her to go back to school and cover what she missed for 12 years, which I bet was substantial anyway. Be honest with us about that, there is more then one way for her to be all she can be 🙂 Help her set some mid-term, non-impulsive and achievable goals for herself and I bet you will be doing her a kindness better then granting her a military career. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/53 "2009-02-07T00:36:17Z")
She’s 18 years old and has never heard of eczema? ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/54 "2009-02-07T00:56:49Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > She’s 18 years old and has never heard of eczema? I am telling you me, that young lady knows the heartbreak of psoriasis now! ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/55 "2009-02-07T01:00:12Z")
**Gargoyle WB** , that’s not all that far-fetched. A doc once mistakenly wrote a dx of cerebral palsy in my nephew’s chart, and we can’t get rid of it. Three neurologists have said “No, he absolutely 100% does NOT have CP” but he is still being denied services and coverage because of it. Idiocy in this area is not limited to the military. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/56 "2009-02-07T01:52:29Z")
First, thanks all for your support. Sometimes I need to vent, and this is one of my favorite places to do it. Currently, her mom has made a phone call to her congressman and plans to follow it up with a letter. We are still trying and I told Donna to stay positive. > [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Oh, and a totally random question – do psych disorders disqualify you, too? This has been answered, but I will add my .02 as I should be working in the Mental Health field right now. A personality disorder will D/Q you. A condition which requires medication will D/Q the applicant. There are many other conditions that a person can have and get in. Then the person will be sent to see me to get help. > [@Furious\_Marmot](#): > > Not so fast on the ‘only one way out’ angle. Sure, it might seem that way, but she’s a kid who’s just had her plans smashed. > > I seem to recall that Paris has a sizable community college. If she’s smart and motivated enough for the Army, she’s smart and motivated enough to go there. In-state tuition at CC in Texas is pretty cheap, as state education goes, certainly doable with the kind of crap jobs an 18 year old can get. She can learn a trade or, if she’s really smart, go on to state college. If she is dead set on serving the armed forces in some capacity, she can learn to be an electrician or somesuch, and work as a contractor. > > There are lots of ways ‘out’ for young people in small towns, if they are driven and willing to leave it all behind. Yes, the military can be a very good option, but it’s not the only one. She can go to college. I won’t argue that, but Donna is not the brightest of the bunch. It isn’t laziness or lack of trying on her part, but she will require a lot of work in order to be successful in college. Donna also has a brother, two sisters, a cousin and her mom and dad that served in the Army. I know realistically there are other ways out, but this is the one that she wanted. Donna did not slack off because she was planning a Military career. She worked harder than most to make that happen. The other problem is that is will cut her off from the independence she was planning. She was to be on her own at 19 and not still living at home. There ain’t that many crap jobs that she can get where she can afford PJC and rent. > [@levdrakon](#): > > I’d tell the young woman in the OP to possibly try another MEPS. Is that something you could make happen, **Schwartz**? What you propose is called MEPS shopping. If I do that and claim that she has never been to a MEPS before she will be permanently disqualified. I will be reprimanded at a minimum, breaking rocks at the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/57 "2009-02-07T02:12:45Z")
An off-the-subject question, **SSG** - what about sober alcoholics or clean addicts? Is there a length of time that would be acceptable to the army? What about long-ago DUIs or other offences of moral turpitude? Just wonderin’… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/58 "2009-02-07T02:16:29Z")
> [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > What you propose is called MEPS shopping. If I do that and claim that she has never been to a MEPS before she will be permanently disqualified. I will be reprimanded at a minimum, breaking rocks at the worst. Isnt there something that isnt shopping? You dont ignore/hide the first diagnosis, but have others take a second look? Where perhaps a few others look at it and come to the conclusion (gasp) that the first diagnosis was bunk? ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/59 "2009-02-07T02:31:06Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > An off-the-subject question, **SSG** - what about sober alcoholics or clean addicts? Is there a length of time that would be acceptable to the army? What about long-ago DUIs or other offences of moral turpitude? > > Just wonderin’… 🙂 There are actual paragraphs in the Recruiting Regulation that cover those topics. I.E. you can get in with a DUI, and you can get in with two, provided that there was at least a three year gap between the first DUI and the time of application. Sober alcoholics and clean addicts could be seen on a case-by-case basis. Moral Turpitude, I would suggest you look at [this page](http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/publications/army_regulations/ar-601210.shtml) for the reference AR 601-210 and see chapter 4 for disqualifying conditions. They are many and some are just no brainers, but apparently, someone has tried to enlist with some disqualifying conditions. > [@billfish678](#): > > Isnt there something that isnt shopping? > > You dont ignore/hide the first diagnosis, but have others take a second look? > > Where perhaps a few others look at it and come to the conclusion (gasp) that the first diagnosis was bunk? I understand what you are saying, but look at it like this. Say you are playing in a MLB game, the umpire calls a balk, an appeal is made, and the line judge honestly says, “I wasn’t looking at the pitcher.” You can’t call for a new officiating team to review the call, but you can appeal to MLB. That is the step we are trying right now. Any other MEPS that looks at her will see the d/q and end the physical right there. If Congress asks to see the records, something may get done. She went to another dermatologist today and he said that he does not have enough evidence to overturn the previous diagnosis. I am still hopeful. SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676/60 "2009-02-07T02:40:42Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > … > Too hairy. Not kidding. Granted, the guy looked like Ookla the Mok, but come on. > > Fucking MEPs. This is why when asked if I’d consider recruiting again I either burst into laughter or give an icy stare. I’ll let you kick me in the nuts before I do that job again. Hope your day goes better, man. Thanks, Sargent for your views in this and that other thread. What is really odd is that a couple months ago, I put in an applicant who had hair everywhere but on his goddamn head. He was balding at 25, but looked like Chewbacca in every other place. When I first met him, I thought he had a wool sweater on and then I realized he was shirtless. Fucking MEPS will enlist freaks, but not committed applicants. SSG Schwartz [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-a-young-woman-cry-today-recruiter-related/484676.md?page=4)