Enlisting with a fragile retina ?

Question

I wasnted to enlist in the army or air force.My medical waiver got denied because my retina was fragile and refractions is over 8. The doc the air force sent me to, told me that he couldnt get me to see 20/20. Now i want to get a lasik surgery to retry. Was I denied due to the weak retina or b/c of my limited vison.20/400 uncorrected. 20/30 corrected.

Answer 1

Simple answer is yes to both.  Unfortunately lasik will most likely not correct the issue you are having.  It will (potentially) correct the vision issue but ultimately your refraction will still be treated as being over 8.  I am assuming you are near-sighted so that is a >-8.  The issue is that you are much more likely to have a detached retina.  The -8 standard has been in existence for at least 20 years (since I had to get the same waiver in 1989).  At that time I was -10.  The only thing that saved me was that the Navy was hurting for people at the time so they granted a waiver.  As an example of how hard that waiver is to get:  I was the first one to get approved out MEPS in New Orleans in over 5 years.

Your best bet would probably be the Army because they are hurting for people.  USAF is going to be very difficult in that they are not having issues hitting their recruiting targets.

Good luck but you need to have a plan B!