Recruiter problems/MEPS problems

[worriedmom]

Hi,
Back in December 2008 my son enlisted in the air force while we were stationed overseas. My son was given a guaranteed job, and was scheduled to depart from a stateside MEPS station on 30 June. The recruiter overseas failed to send the appropriate paperwork in on time, and my son was told the day before he was supposed to leave that he had lost his job because of this error and basically they had to start the whole process over. The stateside MEPS doctor refused to sign off on paperwork until they had my sons medical records. We requested them, had them sent to the MEPS station and believed that all was going to be fine since my son had already been cleared by the overseas MEPS doctor. The dr. here has just disqualified my son for what he calls a chronic shoulder injury. I have a copy of his medical records, he was seen in October 2007 for hurting his shoulder. Because he was a wrestler, he failed to comply with resting it for as long as the dr recommended and it was still bothering him in March 2008. He saw the dr for that again, and followed up 1 month later after resting it and was cleared with no problems. He has not been seen for his shoulder since, nor does it cause him any problems. We took him to a military dr last week who said that he does not understand why the MEPS dr has disqualified him. Apparently they have sent a request for a waiver for him, but this takes another 45 days. All my son ever wanted to do was join the Air Force. We moved back to the US in July and my son has had to move in with us, which we had not planned on since he was supposed to already be in boot camp before we arrived.
So, my question :) Does anyone have experience with these sort of waivers? We are not really getting answers from anyone. My son doesnt know what to do. He has already missed deadlines for college, we live in a very remote area without availablity of jobs, and he is sadened because he nor I understand what exactly has happened. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[ringjamesa]

Something doesn't add up here. There aren't overseas MEPS...

[Seasons]

Something doesn't add up here. There aren't overseas MEPS...

I didn't even know there were overseas recruiters, honestly.

It sounds like your son got a raw deal, and was possibly lied to. I don't know how long the waiver takes, but it sounds likely he'll get it.

[worriedmom]

The recruiters overseas take care of all the MEPS paperwork, and the military doctors are who clears the recruits. Yes, there are recruiters at overseas locations. Not at all bases, they are assigned areas. They are there for military children that want to enlist, like my son. My husband is active duty air force as well.

[dan5522]

There are no MEPS over here. The recruiter sends them to Germany for the phyiscal and does the rest of the MEPS process himself. The recruiter here sends down a bunch every week or 2. As far as the process according to the AD recruiter here AD is actually "closed" for the rest of the year, meaning till Oct 1they have enough recruits. As far as the waiver getting done it may have been processed though the AF docs, there is a difference between them and MEPS. MEPS is sometimes based off of Army standards, sometimes they differ. I am not making excuses for anything but that could be the issue as well.

[Smeghead]

Something doesn't add up here. There aren't overseas MEPS...

Yeah there are. I enlisted through Rhein Main. The recruiter flew over to Mildenhall once a month. I took my ASVAB and did all the other stuff at Mildenhall and then shipped from Rhein Main to Lackland.

@ OP, I'm not a recruiter but I'd bet that the fact that your son was given doctor's orders to rest his shoulder after the injury and ignored those orders doesn't bode. These days the AF is not an easy guaranteed job, any recruiter will tell you "you need the AF the AF doesn't need you." Hopefully someone here can help you out.

[dan5522]

I can tell you currently there are no MEPS over here at all. Especially at Mildenhall..... As I said the Recruiter here sends his people down to Germany and gets their physicals done there. The ASVAB is done here locally in England. Years ago there was a processing center here similar to a MEPS but not an official MEPS. By here I mean Mildenhall/Lakenheath.

[ringjamesa]

Yeah there are. I enlisted through Rhein Main. The recruiter flew over to Mildenhall once a month. I took my ASVAB and did all the other stuff at Mildenhall and then shipped from Rhein Main to Lackland.

@ OP, I'm not a recruiter but I'd bet that the fact that your son was given doctor's orders to rest his shoulder after the injury and ignored those orders doesn't bode. These days the AF is not an easy guaranteed job, any recruiter will tell you "you need the AF the AF doesn't need you." Hopefully someone here can help you out.

And that proves there is a MEPS overseas how? Not once did you mention MEPS. I know there are recrutiers but the is no MEPS.
As far as the difference in standards. It isn't really so much an Army/AF thing as it is a MEPS/everyone else thing. Think about it. If you work at MEPS, your entire purpose in life is to keep people that are not qualified to be in the military out of the military. If you are a Military Dr. at a MTF, you job is to keep those on AD in good enough condition to stay on AD. Yes there are DoD standards but when you "play in the gray" a Military Dr. at a MTF is going to give someone the benifit of the doubt on somthing that a MEPS Dr. would send a kid home for. The problem seems to be that at Basic, they go pretty much by the MEPS mindset (as they should) and this kid got caught in the middle. Doesn't seem like the Recruiter did anything terrible...stuff happens...

[Jwake22]

Actually there are overseas MEPS. Ik this because im currently at the MEPS station now. I work as an Aerospace medical Corpsman in the US Navy. Im currently stationed at Naval Hospital Guam. I have been processing recruits for over a year now and we are a fully functioning MEPS station. Yes Guam is a territory but the Island is still an overseas billet. Guam is considered an overseas duty station. You also have to complete an overseas screening just to get here. So trust me, there are MEPS overseas. If anyone wants to tell me i'm wrong, I will be more than happy to give you the phone number of a recruiter on island and you can ask them. We process all rucruits and MEPS physicals for all of the pacific islands and all of Asia. Very busy MEPS station and hospital. We also have recruiters from every branch on island and 4 naval bases, one national guard base, and Anderson Airforce Base. We are a 2 hour flight from Japan.

In regards too the questions on waivers... There are many reasons why applicants are dq'ed. Your son should of listened two the doctor and stayed off his arm. There are reasons why we tell patients information like that. But most important, the military sees that injury or chronic injury as $$$$ there gonna have to spend on fixing him etc. We also look at that injury as being not worth the benifit of his service. Yes he can get a waiver. Thats what waivers are for. We get parents call and yell at us all the time about their child. All the medical team is trying to do is keep your child safe and save money for the military. If your son's shoulder is better, then now he can get a waiver. Thats why we have waivers.

[Pullinteeth]

Actually there are overseas MEPS. Ik this because im currently at the MEPS station now. I work as an Aerospace medical Corpsman in the US Navy. Im currently stationed at Naval Hospital Guam. I have been processing recruits for over a year now and we are a fully functioning MEPS station. Yes Guam is a territory but the Island is still an overseas billet. Guam is considered an overseas duty station. You also have to complete an overseas screening just to get here. So trust me, there are MEPS overseas. If anyone wants to tell me i'm wrong, I will be more than happy to give you the phone number of a recruiter on island and you can ask them. We process all rucruits and MEPS physicals for all of the pacific islands and all of Asia. Very busy MEPS station and hospital. We also have recruiters from every branch on island and 4 naval bases, one national guard base, and Anderson Airforce Base. We are a 2 hour flight from Japan.

In regards too the questions on waivers... There are many reasons why applicants are dq'ed. Your son should of listened two the doctor and stayed off his arm. There are reasons why we tell patients information like that. But most important, the military sees that injury or chronic injury as $$$$ there gonna have to spend on fixing him etc. We also look at that injury as being not worth the benifit of his service. Yes he can get a waiver. Thats what waivers are for. We get parents call and yell at us all the time about their child. All the medical team is trying to do is keep your child safe and save money for the military. If your son's shoulder is better, then now he can get a waiver. Thats why we have waivers.

Technically you are right. There are MEPS in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii (according to MEPCOM you are not working at a MEPS; http://www.mepcom.army.mil/meps/index.html

[Bunch]

Your sons case resembles a case that I had. I recruited a kid in Puerto Rico and pass physical and everything... He wanted to ship from Michigan where he had family... When his paperwork arrrived to the MEPS in Michigan the CMO DQ'ed him for something I can't recall right now. A waiver was recommended that waiver is called an "SG waiver" because it has to go to the AF Surgeon General for approval.

It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to get the outcome of it. Best of luck to your son...

[Jwake22]

We are considered a MEPS station however we are not funded by MEPCOM. We report to MEPCOM and follow all regulations set by MEPCOM. If being funded by MEPCOM is needed to be considered an actuall MEPS station, then no we are not a MEPS station. However, we get inspected by MEPCOM and are periodically visited by official MEPCOM staff members. On an annual basis we medically process an average of 1000 applicants into the military. This number is just the applicants qualifed for military service. The number of applicants we process in general is significantly higher. Roughly 70% of the applicants processed at our station are either medically disqualified or never return to finish the process. With that being said, we see ALOT of applicants on an annual basis. I believe that constitutes us as being a MEPS station. Any recruit training command would tell you the same. We are a MEPS station by morning and active duty clinic in the afternoon. The MEPS station is part of Naval Hospital Guam so we considered part of the hospital. Thats why we are not on the list of MEPS stations. Were owned and operated by NH Guam. I'm an expert in this area. Its my job every day.