Question:
My son had several pulmonary episodes diagnosed as asthma attacks prior
to the age of 9. He is now 18. For the past 4 years he has successfully
competed in high school track and cross-country running, finishing in
the top 80 in the state of Florida this year for high school
cross-country. He has shown no signs of asthma for 9 years. He was
recently awarded 4 year ROTC scholarships by both USAF and Army, only to
be disqualified due to a "history of asthma". Can anybody suggest
sources of information or example cases to help me reverse this
disqualification?
Answer:
Asthma is an automatic disqualification for all the military services.
I don't know of anybody who has managed to get a waiver for his
asthma. I was diagnosed with asthma last July and my military career is
hanging by a thread (I have almost 16 years in service so far).
Your only real hope is to find a doctor who is willing to certify that
your son never really had asthma. I have had several patients in my PFT lab with similar problem. You will
need to check with your local military recruiter to be sure, but they will
sometimes take somebody with a history of "asthma" if you have a negative
Methacholine Challenge test. Other than that, if you have asthma the
military is not interested in you and there is no recourse that I know of
(I've had patients whose parents had significant political "pull" and that
did not help!).
