Disabled people fight US military disqualifications

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Defense Department regulations rule out military service for a range of medical conditions, from deformed eyelids to malignant tumors to a history of frostbite.

But the way is not completely barred. The DOD will waive any of those conditions, provided the applicant justifies the waiver with medical documentation or mitigating circumstances.

On Okinawa, Marine Sgt. Joshua Martinez, 22, is training for a new role in defensive cyber operations. Before arriving at Camp Hansen, he was a network administrator aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America, homeported at Sasebo Naval Base, Japan.

Marine of the Quarter three times and Noncommissioned Officer of the Quarter once, Martinez as a lance corporal was chief of networking for Marines in Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines, according to the Marine Corps.

“There are very few excuses in the world, there are very few reasons in the world why anyone can’t be great or can’t do great things or represent something great,” he told Stars and Stripes by phone Jan. 28.

At age 4, Martinez was diagnosed with brain cancer, he said. Chemotherapy failed, but neurosurgery saved him.

Just months after the operation, however, doctors diagnosed him with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, developmental disorders that often result in impaired social and communication skills.

After that, Martinez said, very few people outside of his family expected much from him. One teacher even told him that he’d never graduate high school.

Despite that, Martinez set out to join the Marine Corps. Among other requirements, he had to undergo a year of psychological evaluation and track down the neurosurgeon who operated on him as a child to confirm that Martinez’s childhood cancer would not interfere with his ability to perform as a Marine.

“It was pretty arduous,” he said. “And it was difficult, because to get those medical records all the way back from 2001 or so, we needed to provide so many different types of identification and proof.”

Military life tends to agree with autistic people, who are typically focused and hardworking, said Arzu Forough, the president and CEO of Washington Autism Alliance. Her late son, Darian, was autistic and served in the Army National Guard, she told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

“The structure of military life — the predictability and the fact that expectations are very clear — is a really, really good thing for a person on the spectrum,” she said. “They thrive in that type of structure. The more predictable things are, the better they thrive.”

The military also provides an autistic person with camaraderie and social support, Forough said.

Martinez said that becoming a Marine profoundly changed his life, especially his ability to communicate and pick up on social cues.

“I feel like I’m more of a normal person now because of my interactions with Marines,” he said.