Posted on Feb 14, 2021
What are the chances my son could join the Marines or the Army with a hand injury from his early childhood?
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All, I have a serious question I need some advice on. My son had a severe injury to one of his hands when he was 5. Missing half a little finger and some damage to 2 more although he uses it well. My question is does he have a shot at either the USMC Or the Army these days? He really has his heart set on it but i don,'t know if he can clear MEPS. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I would like to here from any current or recent recruiters of either branch on this. Thank you in advance for your input.
Recruit
Medical
Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 6
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He needs to speak with a recruiter. There are medical waivers for many things but without an assessment, there’s no way to answer this question with any accuracy.
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Sgt Ryan Reber
Thanks for the response. He has been to the Marine Corps recruiter who had interest but i had reservations about the validity of said interest. I guess I'm just looking for some concrete yes or no before doing the recruiter dance just to get to MEPS and he is let down. At any rate thanks again.
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SFC (Join to see)
Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be able to get answer without him going to MEPS. There are waivers for missing digits. It depends on the digit. It depends on how much of the digit is missing. It can depend on what other damage is done. The MEPS doctors and guidance counselor will be the best ones to tell him what can be done. Sgt Ryan Reber
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Sgt Ryan Reber
That sir i believe is what i was looking for. I appreciate it immensely. Ill pass the info on to him and we will go from there. Thanks so much again.
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As a recruiter for the Marines I can say it depends mostly on the function of his fingers and hand. If he still has full or mostly full functionality of his hand and fingers he *should* be good but at the end of the day it will be up to MEPS.
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Sgt Ryan Reber
Thanks SGT for the info. I am passing all of this along to him and hoping all goes well for him. Ive been out of the game 11 years and he is asking me all these questions and i have no proper answer so i reached out here, Thank you again for your help. It made him feel better to know he may have a legitimate shot at it. Semper Fi.
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Only people who can make that determination is MEPS. But, in my mind, can he squeeze the trigger or put someone in a rear naked choke?
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Sgt Ryan Reber
He can shoot no doubt and shoot well. He is a scrapper so i imagine he could hold his own. We will see what MEPS says but i agree with you 100 percent. I would think with the generation today and the problem i hear they have with finding fit recruits i would hope they would overlook his hand. We will see..
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