Jamie Barkshire: "Why won't they let me join the army?&

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This story strikes a raw nerve with me, as it reminds me of how I have been dealt with by the armed forces at various times during the recruitment process or whilst actually in there. For instance, the RAF said that with my strange mannerisms, I was not worth considering. Also, I was frequently victimised during my time in the Marines, most probably for aspects of my Asperger's syndrome. I was blatantly used as a scapegoat by training teams unwilling to accept their own failings, who would instead tell people further up the chain of command that I was the sole person responsible whenever their troops were behind. Eventually, they got me kicked out on a bunch of lies. Now that I am gone, they will have to account for their poor performance, as they can no longer blame everything on me. The reason the armed forces are so short of recruits is their severe lack of professionalism. In times of high unemployment, people would join them because they had little alternative, but in the current economic climate, where people see no reason to suffer unprofessionalism for relatively little money, they have to change their attitude.

They turn down anyone for the army who might be a sensitive moralistic human being, not easily corruptable typical muscle fit gun-a-holic killer

My brother has ADD or ADHD and managed to get in. I guess he isn't on meds so was able to slip between the cracks. But if they insist on all recruits being perfect, I don't see how they could ever reinstate the draft. Every other number that came up would be a person labeled unstable.

How do they know he was refused just because he had Aspergers? There's a chance he just... failed the mental test. Lots of people do.

I only have a problem if the employers took one look at the word 'Aspergers' and immediately threw his application in the bin. I think that people should be judged as they come. Deciding that somebody wouldn't be able to come with something because they're aspie is no different from saying that somebody wouldn't be able to cope with somehting else just because they're NT.

You can say that most aspies aren't suited to life in the military, but some are. People are more than just their neurotype.

OK, its my turn to input my 2 cents now.

I am the "guy" this topic is talking about. First, the real reason is not what this story suggests, the real reason has been discoverd and I am now suing the MoD for defamation of character amongst other things. The facts here are that the MoD did not reject me based on being diagnosed with "Aspergers" in October 1998. They rejected me based on assumption rather than fact. They have no proof to support the "unstable" comment, they have also used the word "ret*d", again, they cant prove it. The reason is because that although I have "Asperger's" The discription of my character that they have given does not apply to my circumstances. this has been confirmed by 2 independant experts in these conditions. I have resorted to getting a name chnge to remove the label off my name. Clearly, I have not been treated in a fair and reasonable manner. The comments that users have posted in this topic, although blunt do go some way to explain the ongoing severity the MoD are facing.

I would like to thank the posters who showed thier support in this matter.

On another note: When I wrote to them and told them that I intended to take legal action to be compensated for the treatment I have recieved, they completely stoped communicating with me altogether. I suspect that this is because they know they are guilty and have no evidence to support thier claims in any way.

I hope that this post goes some way to explaining my position with the MoD in regards to this matter.

I failed the medical here due to a diagnosis of an ASD (Oz army). I've wanted to be in the army before I could even say soldier. But, O well.

It doesn't take a genius without a single mental disorder to run, listen to and follow orders, move from cover to cover, and squeeze off aimed rounds. But again, O well.

I was in the military and I have Asperger's Syndrome. Of course I don't have a paper trail that says that and I was lucky enough to have a very sucess driven recruiter with an overworked paper shredder. I don't understand why the military should have an issue with Asperger's Syndrome. They should be judging people on a case by case basis. I'm willing to bet that alot of AS people would do better in the milityary than the average NT. Personally I thrived and I loved it. I scored a 90 on my entrance exam (you only need a 35 to join the military, the average for the city I joined out of was 18). I had the highest ASVAB score my recruiter had ever seen. Boot camp was like a vaccation to me, I loved the structure and the predictablity of each day. I didn't have a social life before joining the military anyways so my social skills actually improved (and I didn't experiance as much home sickness as my peers). At bootcamp the akward person is usually well liked because there's no tv so the weirder you are the more entertaining you are. In job training I was the top of my class (I went in for Aviation Structural Mechanics and Hydraulic Systems)... I was one of two females in a class that was mostly male Marines... I was top of my class (and one of my classmates had 5 years of previous civilian experiance). After training I was quickly the go-to person in my unit because the mundane jobs like cleaning, organizing, and gaurd duty that other people hated I loved. I got along well with my superiors because in boot camp you learn exactly how you're suppost to treat and interact with people based on rank so there was never an issue about "well how am I suppost to act and what am I suppost to say to this person" which was always an issue in my personal life outside the military. It was one of the few jobs that i've had where things made sense. My only down fall was that I sucked at PT and when rules are set forth I stick to them, so while my command was fighting to try to keep me in despite me not being able to run I stood firm to the fact that I knew what was expected of me and that if I couldn't preform to the physical standard of running that they had no option but to discharge me (because that's what the rules say). That was my only down fall in the military was that I held myself to a higher standard and I never wanted to be an exception to any rule.

So as I said, I think that people with-in the spectrum, so long as they meet all other requirments of joining the military, may actually adapt to military life and thrive more so than NTs. If the military is rejecting someone just because they're in the spectrum then it's the military's loss in my opinion.

That was suppost to read-

(you only need a 35 to join the military, the average for the city I joined out of was 18 ).


Oh, and alot of jobs in the military if not all of them, require a certain degree of obessiveness and attention to detail... so if someone in the spectrum is really interested in let's say planes, or parts of planes, or nuclear reactors, or explosive devices, or parachutes, or filing, or computer systems, or finding things in photos, ... or thousands of other things that military jobs are based on... On top of that the jobs that the military has the hardest time filling are the ones that are repetative, require the highest level of attention to detail, or require a person to be obessively interested... rejecting otherwise qualified people just because of AS is, like I said, the military's loss.

"Face it, having a diagnoses keeps you out of the military." That's not completely true. In the US, you can join the army even if you are diagnosed as on the spectrum. But you cannot seek any sort of treatment for it for at least one year to be considered. You won't get any treatment for it in the military and they want to see how the recruit will act. They've had many people will similar disabilities that have not done well, so they are leery to accept people with syndromes and disorders. Heck, you can't be a pilot if you're colorblind.

I have not required treatment for well over 15 years, I am currently 23, thats if I was treated at all. So long ago, hard to remember.