No Aspies in the military?

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THAT IS THE MOST IDIOTIC, DISCRIMINATORY, F***HEADED RULE I HAVE EVER COME ACROSS!! !

I am an Aspie/high funtioning autism. I served 4 years in the army and was discharged honerably. It was years ago before I even knew I had an ASD. I had a lot of problems in some areas and I did well in others! The routine makes things easy, but the surpises were difficult to deal with much of the time! I found it difficult to work in a group and have listen to some one who outranked me who I disagreed with or did not respect! I do know from history that the military is less picky about who they let in if they need people desparatly!! When a person is in the military, the government owns you! You may be forced to do things that you would not want to do that go against your personal ethics and morals! I'm not sure what to think about the military changing thier policy toward Aspies being unfit to serve in the armed forces, so I did not vote in the poll. What it does indicate to me is that they are not having any major problems finding enough recruits!

I think what we all need to keep in mind here is that on the US Military's list of conditions that are disqualifable everything and anything is included, even the most benign things. For example, such conditions like acne, warts, bad teeth etc. are included on the list of things that wouldn't qualify an individual to serve. However, these things are very often waviered, for instance I was reading a report that stated over a majority of enlisted recruits between the years of 2008-2009 needed a wavier for something, and waivers for perspective officers and cadets usually for physical conditions or things like learning disorders are quite common. The only conditions they won't wave are those that so severally interfere with military service or pose undue risk, or those that are extremely serious like cancer, diabetes, AIDS, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anti-social personality disorder, mental retardation etc.

This is only what I've heard and what I've been told so don't take my word for it although I hope and aspire to one day serve.

I think it has more to do with the fact that most aspies can think for themselves and are not sheeples

This rule is BS. I retired from the military and am HFA. I did a lot of high profile missions because I never failed to get my part done ahead of schedule. I could make almost anything work, even if I had to steal stuff from the chow hall to fabricate what I needed. The military will lose the best specialists across the board when they figure out who is on the spectrum. I know the best guys in their fields were always a little strange.

I don't think they'll have a witch hunt for those arleady in that have Asperger's unless they want to get rid of them on and individual bases for other reasons and need a hard reason. As long as those who have AS are doing their jobs and staying out of trouble the powers to be will let sleeping dogs lie.

I plan to write to my elected officials about this one. It's discrimination at it's highest.

Anything else the United States government can't let me do? I'm probably not going to be able to get a pilot's license.

That is wrong. One can be objectively tested for flying in a competent manner. It should not matter whether one is an NT or an Aspie. Flying right is flying right.

ruveyn

on the one hand, i think everything military is vile, murderous & coercive & as long as there are hungry people we are sure wasting money on toys that make a big loud boom & nothing more.

on the other hand, i suspect they're going to exclude some of their best troops.

but on the balance, this does set a precedent for discrimination that is going to seem rather authoritative when people want to do it again in another context.

m.

Do they do a medical background check on all past records? If not, you could probably lie and say you don't have it, or you can go to Canada, and join the Canadian military.I don't think there is an anti-AS policy with respect to Canada's miltary.

People forget that the U.S. military discriminates against many conditions both physical and mental. There is no "right to serve" when it comes to the military.

The U.S. military currently doesn't even allow open homosexuals to serve. What it comes down to is what upper-level brass thinks is in the military's best interest, and seeing the list of possible complications that can arise from Asperger's/autism, they're not far wrong.

And no, just because one Aspie did well in the military it doesn't follow that all Aspies will do well in the military. If you're diagnosed and want to join, apply for a medical waiver.

Leadership roles as specialty does not sound like a good idea. Leadership in the technical specialties was not a big deal., I could not rise to the highest ranks because I would not accept staff positions, and my bosses knew it would be a waste of talent to take me out of the field.

In the field I chose the best natural leader out of the people working for me to run the team oriented tasks for me. Delegating others to lead the tasks I was not good at, increased my reputation as a very effective leader. My teams ran faster and more smoothly than those of my peers becasue everyone on my team had confidence to lead the group when it was their time. They also learned to make their own decisions instead of wasting time asking what to do. After a lot of practice, my subordinates would take over tasks automatically improving their own leadership skills.

"Leadership" in my technical speciality is a big deal.

I direct large groups of people, in chaotic enviornments, and I'm not allowed to "delegate."

It would be a bad idea to enlist in the military, technical specialty or otherwise, thinking you'll only ever have to interact with people in a manner you're comfortable with.

--XFG

twice in the last century, the american army had the good idea, that there should be a separate but parallel set of technical or specialist ranks, to keep in-service bright GIs [each one representing thousands of dollars invested in training] who could do their jobs well but were not leadership material. but in 1985, uncle sam's army decided that it only wanted to recruit and retain leaders, and mere technicians who could do their jobs well were no longer considered up to par. so some specialists above the paygrade of E-4 was made a sergeant or staff sergeant, and if the Qualititative Management Program [QMP] decided the rest just weren't leadership material, they were given orders to ETS rather than re-up. the army could have saved lots of money on recruitment if only it decided to keep their specialists [at least the Spec 5s, 6s and 7s] rather than get rid of 'em like they did. this was such a waste of money and human resources on the part of the army, in that they lost thousands of good GIs [of which i am positive that some were aspie] doing this. i wonder how many aspies got thrown out with the bathwater? this aspie simply got rehired as a civil servant working in an army hospital, doing largely what i was doing as an active-duty army specialist.

I like the idea of specialists / technicians. I retired from the Air Force as a "super technician". Starting as an E2, I was put in charge of the technical work over E4s and E5s becasue of my mad technical skills. After making E5, I ended up being sent to work for one 4 star after another because they liked that my bluntness combined with my technical skills covered their backs and made them look good. I interacted with the generals, ambassadors, heads of state and other VIPs the only way I knew how. I treated them like people. I argued when I was right and gave in when they said they were the boss.

The most I had at one time was 40 people working for me, but we went out in groups of 10 or less. I did delegate personnel management and counseling, because no one ever told me I could not. Delegating did not mean I was not responsible for what happened. We all had to handle the chaos, and my subordinates almost always made the right choices. My section got outstanding inspection reports, so I guess I did it right.

I think its stupid. Not every aspie is the same. Only way to get in it is to not have the diagnoses.