PRK study almost full?

[kevin]

meridiani: your recruiter is mistaken, i think (IS THIS AN ONGOING THEME OR WHAT??!?!?). you run into the same damn thing with air force you do with any other branch....talk to 10 different recruiters and get 10 different answers. it's like playing that telephone game for God's sake. a good friend just got accepted into af pilot from rotc who had prk 1.5 years ago. two of my other friends in af pilot training said there are numerous people who have had prk (and one with lasik if i remember, dont know how he swung that). but remember the stipulation...10%. the nontech major is a guideline as i understand it..not an absolute. it just makes your chances that much smaller. timing is key too. they just took quite a number of pilots into ots due to a large number of pilots about to retire. but a year ago they hardly took any (if at all). but like i said, if you dont have the eyes of an eagle it's the only chance now (besides army).

mimisoko: please let me know what that af general says. i would venture to say if you qualify for snfo do that...at least at this point i think the chances are greater of getting sna from snfo than getting an af pilot slot outright. but that's just my opinion. and keep in mind that once you're in the service you can often find loopholes that arent available from outside. if i dont get a pilot slot anywhere im going to tend sheep.

 

[kabttu]

I just got off the phone with an AF recruiter about 10 minutes ago. I asked him specifically about PRK and vision requirements, he said right now, PRK is a disqualifier in the AF. He also said that it is possible to get vision waived for pilot, but rare. And like all things military, he also said that it's all subject to change.

 

[mimisoko9]

Kevin-

I will let you know what the general's feedback is. I meet with him on Friday. NFO will probably be my first option now if I am, in fact, still physically qualified. Yes, I want to be in the front seat, but it's the service aspect of the whole pursuit that's most imporant to me.

Also, a while back I obtained contact info for the the PRK study point man in Pensacola. He was helpful with waiver info at the time, so I tried him again today. If/when I hear back and his information is useful, I'll post his feedback.

-Mimi

 

[Meridiani]

kab, that's exactly what I was told. So, I guess that's 2 recruiters. Now, if we can talk to 8 more, we might be able to verify Kevin's theory.

 

[Jim]

i can't verify kevin's theory about getting different answers from different af recruiters, but i can tell you that some of them are idiots. thats part of the reason why i settled on the navy. the navy was straight forward with me the whole time. one af recruiter i talked to told me that i needed muliengine time to be competitive and that a flight instructor rating wouldn't hurt. he also said that it didn't matter what my major was in as long as my gpa was high. he basically said a 4.0 in basketweaving was the same as a 4.0 in aerospace engineering to the air force. he also said that he wouldn't let me apply for just pilot and that i was required to apply for navigator (the officer first, pilot second deal). He also said he wouldn't even work with me if I was applying to other services at the same time. One final thing was that he wouldn't even let me take the AFOQT until I was within a year of graduation because he claimed that there was a waiting list to take the test and graduating seniors had more priority than me. Granted all of the above happened to me a year ago, i still can feel your guys pain in dealing with these guys.

-jim

 

[jrklr]

Jim:
NFO= no future outside is false. Your career is what you make of it and what you choose to do with it, it's not determined by what seat you ride in. If you play your cards right you could have the same exact job as pilot may have after the service (and yes I know that the NFO's don't log any hours). They also just selected some NFO's for astronauts, if that's any kind of future. Just my two cents, I just didn't want you to think that your doomed as an NFO.

 

[stevew]

Jim,

Did NOMI specify if the study was full for people with a high refractive error as well as for those with a low refractive error? PRK for people with vision better than -5.50 have been allowed to apply to the Navy for quite some time, however people vith vision poorer than -5.50 have only been allowed to participate in the study since this past July. Is the study closing for them as well?

Thanks

 

[theblakeness]

about the NFO=no future, i also wanted to add that I gave a presentation once for a project i did in my major (aerospace egineering). One of the guys I presented it too currently works for NASA-Ames and is a former P-3 aviator. After the presentation I was talking to him about the Navy and I asked him how hard it would be too get back into industry after im done in the Navy. And he told me that the industry loves military officers. So you may not have Britney Spears asking your to fly her private jet, but I assure you, you will find good jobs out there.

 

[hobe]

Any idea how all this affects us who are waiting for our OCS date? I am supposed to be down there for OCS at the end of May, had PRK and it was approved with my application package, but my understanding is that I need to enroll in the study at NOMI when I get down there and have the physical. Anybody know?

 

[uncledave]

hobe,
I wouldn't worry about it if you already recieved the waiver for PRK. The person I talked to said they are just going to stop granting the waivers to get into the study program. Since you have it already, you should be good to go. I may be wrong, but I would be surprised if I was. Good luck!

"beware of what you wish for" -what the Chinese say....

 

[Jim]

stevew,

from what i undertand they are going to stop granting waivers for everyone that wants to get prk, regardless of their refractive error. i'm not 100% on that so you might want to check. i know my refractive error is relatively low and nowhere near the -5.50 point, but he still more or less told me that if i got prk now, i would end up being screwed because they're not going to issue more waivers. the best thing to do is contact them by email to be sure. when i emailed them they got back to me within a day.

-jim

 

[mimisoko9]

This is the e-mail I got back from NOMI this morning. Not too informative, but I guess the most important takeaway is that interim waivers might be considered for when the study closes:

Your recruiter has complete current information regarding your eligibility for various Navy commissioning programs.

History of PRK with outcome meeting required standards is recommended for waiver for commissioning in most warfare specialties.

Enrollment in the PRK Avaition Accession Study is nearly complete. Interim waiver policy during analysis of Study results is now under discussion. Changes in policy will be announced by Navy message available to your recruiter.

The following websites contain accurate information regarding Navy policy with respect to PRK:

http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/Nami/WaiverGuideTopics/ophthalmology.htm#lasik
http://navymedicine.med.navy.mil/PRK/refractive_surgery_information.htm

 

[txpike]

jim, who did you talk to at NOMI? I talked to CAPT Jay S Dudley,
Director of Academics, and he said they are currently still granting waivers for PRK but did not mention if they were going to stop. Did he say when they might stop granting waivers? I think they would let everybody in the naval community know it something like this were to happen.

 

[mimisoko9]

I also just talked with someone at NOMI. He confirmed the study is full, but followed by saying the Navy had not decided what they're going to do with people who have already had the surgery.

Of course, no telling how long they'll deliberate over that one.

 

[Jim]

txpike,

i emailed a captain anderson. i'm pretty sure he's the head of the opthamology department at nomi. i imagine in matters as important as this though, more than one docotor is involved with the final decision on the prk policy. good luck.

-jim