# What health problems make you ineligible for military service? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765 "2003-01-31T00:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/41 "2003-01-31T21:10:13Z")
No offense, **Tranq,** but if we can get excited about the idea of winning the lottery or getting together with our celebrity crushes, we can _certainly_ get excited about the possibility of being drafted. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/42 "2003-01-31T21:16:04Z")
None taken, but there’s a damned better chance of hitting the lottery than there is of being drafted. Lotteries at least actually _happen_. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/43 "2003-01-31T21:25:02Z")
Yeah, **Tranquilis** , you seem a bit more excited about the subject than anyone else. 😃 Even the OP. I don’t believe that only one in four who apply are accepted. Three of my co-workers sons have applied over the last several years, and all were accepted. Is it true that if you’re a recruiter, they put stuff (saltpeter) in your food? 😉 Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/44 "2003-01-31T21:31:56Z")
Yup. One in four, give or take a percentage point or two. It’s the mental and moral qualifications that kill: Legal involvement and the ability to take the ASVAB with qualifing score. Finding qualified applicants was a bitch, and in many cases, people doging the Recuiters wasted both their own time, and that of the recruiter. If they’d only held still long enough to answer a few questions, they’d have been found inelligible, and the Recruiter would’ve gone off after other aplicants. Happened to me more often that I care to remember. Simply because one family, or one group of families, has a good run, means _nothing_ in the over all numbers. Some areas are rich grounds for recruiting (High “Propensity to Enlist”), and some suck. More suck than not. Saltpeter?! That old chestnut still going 'round? _snerk_ I got a bridge I wanna sell you… 😛 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/45 "2003-01-31T21:38:41Z")
The old chestnut concerns recruits. I’m wondering about recruit_ers_. If we’re counting those who drop out before honorable discharge, then maybe so. My friend’s son has been in the Navy about two years, and he’s on his way out. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/46 "2003-01-31T21:44:14Z")
Bridge? Those _are_ original miles, right? ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/47 "2003-01-31T21:53:25Z")
Oh, that’s an even older one! Nah, they rely upon the old “paycheckectomy” means of deterrance. Get a little out of control, and watch half your paycheck magically disappear. * * * Yes, those are original miles. Only ever been used by little old ladies on their way to church, too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/48 "2003-01-31T22:11:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mangeorge \* > \*\* Does that include people who’s enlistment is up? I don’t know what ETS is. \*\* ETS - Expiration Term of Service Yes, that’s your normal “gettin’ out date.” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/49 "2003-01-31T22:31:42Z")
The recruiters in-process a lot of people with marginal, at best, abilities to pass bootcamp. The recruiters call this “giving them at least the chance.” The instructors at boot camp who have to out-process them call it “the recruiter making his quota.” The Army had a catch-all “inability to adapt to military service” discharge, while the Navy required a specific condition. Alcoholism, as well as various other conditions, will result in either discharge or treatment, depending on your level of expertise in your MOS/rating, and their need for people in that MOS/rating. I doubt that’s written down anywhere, but everybody’s seen it in practice. Sleepwalking will result in discharge, as will bedwetting. Thumbsucking is okay as long as it’s your own. Colorblindness will keep you out of the Air Force and Naval Aviation. Halitosists will result in your being advanced to Drill Instructor. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/50 "2003-01-31T22:44:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by japatlgt \* > \*\*ETS - Expiration Term of Service > > \*\* I thought ETS stood for Estimated Time of Separation. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/51 "2003-01-31T23:01:20Z")
Will a broken leg in Basic result in a discharge from the Army? A friend of mine enlisted some years ago and returned in awfully short order; explanations ranged from the leg, to his having gone AWOL, to having tested positive for some drug or another. Are any of these particularly unlikely? ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765/52 "2003-02-01T00:41:43Z")
**Eva Luna** : Depends on how long he was there, and how bad the break. Maybe so, maybe not. If he came home without a limp, I’d take the busted leg story with a bit of salt. **Slithy Tove** : 😃 Actually, it’s so damn tough (until 9/11, when _everything_ changed) to find qualified bodies, that anyone that _might_ stick gets thrown to MEPS. Some call it making quota, some call it giving them a chance. I usually called it “giving a kid who needs it, a break.” Oddly enough, all the borderline cases _I_ sent turned into at least average sailors. A couple have turned out spectacularly well. - Tranq, who was proud to give good jobs to hard-luck kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-health-problems-make-you-ineligible-for-military-service/151765.md?page=2)