Recruit Medical Waivers Waived
DoD program makes it easier to enlist with ADHD, asthma, other medical conditions
A pilot program has allowed recruits with a history of medically disqualifying conditions to enlist without getting waivers.
Jeff Schogol
More than 5,600 people with previously disqualifying medical conditions have been allowed to enlist in the military without having to get a waiver under a pilot program, a defense official said.
The Medical Accession Records Pilot, or MARP, is meant to “address the changing health landscape,” said Lin H. St. Clair, the Pentagon’s deputy director of accessions policy.
“MARP is a procedural change to medical accession standards and not a change to the underlying medical accessions regulation,” St. Clair told Task & Purpose.
Since its inception, the number of ailments covered by the program has grown from 38 to 51, St. Clair said. Under the most recent additions to the medical conditions covered by the program, recruits can enlist without a waiver if they have not been treated for dyslexia and other learning disorders in the past year, and if they have not been treated for airway hyperresponsiveness, including asthma, in the past four years.
Between July 2022 and August 2024, the program medically qualified more than 9,900 applicants, of which 57% ultimately enlisted, St, Clair said.
About 60% of the recruits who processed under MARP conditions had a history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, St. Clair said. The pilot program allows people with ADHD to join without a waiver if they have not been treated for the ailment in the past year.
Stars and Stripes first reported the changes on Tuesday.
Only about 23% of young Americans are eligible to enlist in the military without some sort of waiver, Dr. Katie Helland, the Pentagon’s director of military accession policy, told reporters on Wednesday.
Initial results from the program have been positive, Helland said at a Pentagon news briefing.
“We’ll continue to monitor the data, so ultimately, again, to make that decision about these conditions and whether we can build them into our standards instruction,” Helland said.
One of the top recruiting problems that the military faces is that the MHS Genesis system, which uses private medical records of potential recruits at Military Entrance Processing Stations, requires recruits to get waivers for relatively minor health issues, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
By eliminating the need for recruits to get waivers for 51 medical conditions, the Defense Department is recognizing that the waiver process is taking too long and that most of those recruits who apply for such waivers get them in the end, Kuzminski told Task & Purpose.
The pilot program also allows the Defense Department to see if it can allow people to enlist who have medical conditions that the military is prepared to treat if service members develop them after joining, Kuzminski said.
“I have a feeling this limited group of 51 conditions are probably things that there’s already infrastructure within the military services and the military health system when it occurs in service,” Kuzminski said.
Great idea! Let’s add dyslexic ADHD to a Cat 4 ASVAB failure with a criminal history to the mix for a new recruit trifecta. Just the type I want wrenching on my helo for that post-maintenance check flight.
Category: Big Pentagon, The Stupid is Strong
DOD needs to make sure Gender Dysphoria is added as an exemption…so it can accommodate the long line of them begging to join.
Gotta be inclusive, right?!
Fuckers.
I cannot make the run, Sergeant. No, its not that I am a giant pussy, sandbag who is not in shape, its the asthma!
They have lost their damn minds.
Hell, 5Guy, you gotta wonder if they had a mind to begin with. I think I’ll just roll up in my DD-214 woobie and take a nap.
There’re reasons why physical and training requirements were set. Grant threw heavy artillery men into the assault at Cold Harbor and lost thousands in less than 18 minutes. At Bastogne, clerks, cooks, truck drivers, and the walking wounded were thrown into the line. “But, Sir…I’m in the Air Corps!” “Well, you’re in the infantry now, get a rifle.” History is replete with other examples.
Are we sure we can’t put this Good Idea Fairy Tale back in the bottle?
We can put the GIF back in the bottle but; give her a penis first.
The fat, asthmatic kid with ADHD and gender dysphoria is about to realize his/her/it’s dream of serving in the Army for all of 48 Days until he flunks BCT, I mean if he/she/it even makes it that long.
Oh, THIS is gonna end well in times of war (high stress)
(partially sarc)
I guess this would be one way to reduce the population and clean the gene pool at the same time, let those with “disabilities” (real or imaginary) enlist, then send them off to battle.
Illegals next
Used to be if you signed up, deployed and had an honorable discharge, you had a pathway.
I think that only applied to green-card holders.
I think it is a good path too. One of my interpreters I had in Iraq that I sponsored to come to the states (I sponsored 3, and didn’t charge a dime lol) enlisted as soon as he was eligible. This was in 2009.
He signed up as 11X and deployed almost immediately. His Brigade commander found out he was a native speaker and made him his personal terp. He did four years, got out, took the GI Bill, got his citizenship and earned an MBA. He was drawing big dollars in DC working various agencies. Last month he was selected for a doctoral program.
We are all really proud of him. Now with a wife and a couple of kids he is the realization of what many used to call the American Dream.
He got there through drive, discipline, hard work and service to country. He never asked for a handout and never shirked. The others guys are doing great too although neither joined the military as they had enough of Army life working for us and had a different plan.
Immigration can be a good thing. Uncontrolled immigration not so much.
Transformers, who are undeployable, encouraged
So when a recruit has a fatal asthma attack while falling into formation, will they render full military honors at his funeral?
Hack Stone is well aware of the challenges today’s US Armed Forces are encountering while trying to meet recruiting targets, and the just as proud and eager to serve transgender Americans are not flocking to Basic Training for some reason, but the military looked at medical conditions to determine which would medically disqualify someone from enlisting because the return on investment with preexisting conditions does not contribute to the mission. How are they supposed to complete the requisite training regimen when they are spending 60% being seen by medical specialists?
I was thinking the same thing.
Imagine how the conversations will go between drill instructors and recruits:
DI: “Recruit Speedbump! Why did you miss the obstacle course yesterday and the confidence course today?!”
Recruit Speedbump: “Sir, this recruit was told she had a medical consult for her transition!”
DI: “Oh, SHE, Huh? I don’t fucking think so Speedbump. You’re a HE. Medical or not, either way you’re still going to be a male even if you get your trash tucked in! Now get the fuck away from me, Maggot!”
Recruit Speedbump: (Now crying like a little bitch.)
(Or something like that…)