Need opinions from USAF Dopers w/knowledge of recruiting policies

In My Humble Opinion
1

Earlier this week, I went to the MEPS in Beckley, WV to enlist into the Air Force’s Linguistics program. I passed the hearing test, the blood test, the drug test, and the physical. Then came the vision test.

I wear contacts, and I told the test administrator so. He instructed me to remove them, and proceeded to test my vision. Now, without corrective lenses, my vision is something akin to 20/600. My lens prescription is L -9.0, R -9.5. In other words, I can’t see jack. With correction, however, I am a solid 20/20, and various opthamologists have assured me that this will always be the case. Nonetheless, they ship me off to the eye specialist, who performs a best refraction and reports back to MEPS Medical…where I am informed that my eyesight disqualifies me for enlistment. Apparently there is some sort of “bad eyesight” ranking system in place, for which the maximum allowable is an 8 and I personally score a 10. (The really odd thing about this is that a friend of mine is currently enlisted in this exact program, and his vision was tested while wearing his glasses.)

The Air Force liasons at the MEPS told me that they’d have to send my file to the Surgeon General’s office, who will review my file and determine whether to grant me a waiver. Nobody I talked to, however, was willing to express even an off-record opinion either way about the likelihood of this happening. The closest anyone came was my recruiter, who told me that given the AF’s currently desperate need for linguists and my test scores (99 ASVAB, 150 DLAB), she believes an exception might be made. Thing is, with all respect to my recruiter, I don’t think she’s in much of a position to know, as on our first meeting she had to make three seperate phone calls before she could give me the basic gist of what a linguist even did, let alone the specific requirements.

So, anyone out there have any idea of my chances here? At the very least, can someone explain to me what’s up with the vision rankings, and why my friend was tested while wearing his lenses and I was tested without? All responses appreciated.

2

If you’re serious don’t give up. You’ll never be a flyer, to be certain, but I don’t see how that would be a problem with linguistics.

The rule, as far as I know, is that the vision must be correctable to 20/20. I’d pursue it on that basis alone and see where it gets me if I were you.

3

If it’s correctable to 20/20, you haven’t got a thing to worry about. The impressive test scores are just a bonus, especially if you’re going to be a linguist.

4

Thanks, guys. It is indeed correctable, and don’t worry, Doors, I never wanted to fly 'em anyway. :slight_smile:

The main reasons I asked were 1) the AF liaison admitted he was new to the job, but said he had seen the SG reject a waiver for an 8.5 whereas mine is a 10, which made me a touch paranoid, and 2) I still want to know what’s up with my friend getting tested with his glasses on.

As a side note, it’s still weird to me even to be asking this sort of thing in the first place…never in a million years did I ever see myself joining the military, especially under Bush. I’m an introverted abstraction-oriented philosophical libertarian ideologist. I don’t think the military gets many of those. Nonetheless, I’ve given it a lot of thought and a lot of research, and my current course of action will be an invaluable aid to my lifetime goal while not directly clashing with any of the principles I hold highest. So, the Air Force it is. Wish me luck.

5

Oh, I wish you the very best of luck. I wouldn’t worry about a thing, unless you get stuck learning Arabic. Even then, just think of how many thousands of people have been and gone without any problems. The odds are tremendously in your favor. I made it back, and I fly in an unarmed, 42-year-old slow moving C-130 doing radio and television broadcasting.

Good luck, and if there’s anything I can do for you or help you with let me know.

6

Your vision shouldn’t be a problem since it’s correctable. However, with your scores [depending on which version of the DLAB you took] you are pretty much certain to be learning Korean, Chinese or Arabic fairly soon. On the good side, Monterey is a pretty nice place to spend a year and a half.

The down side, some twat decided he wanted us all in blues.

7

Yeah, I have a friend in Monterey, and he’s learning Chinese, which is what I hope to do as well. Korean would be my second choice, for obvious reasons.

Chinese is my number one for two reasons. One, it would be interesting, challeging and highly useful, and two, to the best of my knowledge, the only possible duty stations for Chinese linguists are Okinawa, Hawaii, Alaska, and Baltimore. While I wouldn’t mind any of those, I’ll be hoping for Okinawa, so I can learn Japanese on my own time (USAF won’t teach it to me unless I’m an officer, which I may or may not try to do; it wouldn’t make much sense to plan that far ahead when I don’t even know if I can enlist yet). Besides, I hear Kadena is awesome.

8

Roland, the US military is extremely good about providing information on the web. Best source I know for “business organization methods” as well, if I’m doing a search for those and one of the first pages is .mil I pick it - the poor guys have had to deal with every organizational method ever invented, to judge by the richness of their info.

Find the official document. You can find things like the whole military code of conduct, policies for recruiting (which you need), etc. Arguing with the papers in your hand is a lot easier. Just remember to argue politely :slight_smile:

9

Unforunately I’m going to have to burst your bubble on this one. While Kadena [Okinawa]is indeed pretty decent [though humid as hell] it’s also a flight-only assignment. With the exception an occasional joint-spouse assignment or an MPF screw up a ground linguist has little to no chance of going to Okinawa. And of course as previously stated, with your eyes going flight is unlikely. Sorry.

On the other hand, if you get Korean you’ll spend about half your career in Korea and frankly speaking, Korea rocks.

10

This probably won’t help you, but the AF is pretty good about offering corrective eye surgery to people already in the service - pilots and special operators (IIRC) are restricted to the older PRK method, but a version of Lasik is now allowed for aircrew who operate exlusively below a certain altitude. The policy for non-aircrew is more liberal; the bite is that as I understand it, you can’t get this surgery from the service until you’re already in. The screening program is strict enough to ensure a high success rate, so I was told that my eyes will never be bad enough to be eligible for surgery - but I’m on contacts now.

(Damn near) everything in the AF is waiverable. Additionally, there may be a provision for you to pay for an acceptable corrective procedure out of pocket prior to entering/re-applying, but be careful not to do something disqualifying. As mentioned above, do your homework and keep asking until you get a good answer. Good luck to you!