my son was misdiagnosed with a heart condition 3 months ago from MEPS, I fought it with his recruiter. He was told in 3 months they will preformed an EKG , today nothing was done, but they added a Psych evaluation plus a cardiologist consult within a month or two. I am very upset with the doctors they have at MEPS.  My son never had a heart problem nor a murmur in hised. life.. Never seen a shrink for no reason.. Do they don't want him in?? very puzzled

All they would have to do is key in your full name, place of residency, email address, and social security number on the form of any online medical history check-up. I don't think that the webmasters would know if it were the military or the actual person who was looking up that info. I am not sure if it is illegal to do that, if you had to give the military permission to check your medical history on a security clearance. Also, I don't believe that the military is 100% honest with its recruits! If they wanted info on a soldier badly enough, they could look up that info through legal or illegal means. It is also possible that they have the right to not tell you how they got your info, if you were to ask.

Couldn't they just use your social security number to check into your medical history online. Civilians can use their social security number to check their own medical history online. Can they do that or would that be illegal.

Your medical history is what you tell them it is.  They won't know who your doctor is unless you tell them and they certainly won't call every doctor in your are to see if your were treated.

The military background investigators are nearly omniscient when it comes to your background. Top Secret and Secret Clearances mean most likely the investigator will be asking everyone about you including your dog.

Eric

While at MEPS, while filling out the medical pre-screen, you are to be totally honest with basically anything that happened medically that you have seen a doctor, counselor, therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. The reason why is that the military will check civilian records, especially medical, if you get sick or ill. Lets say you get the flu, and it bothers you, and you get medicine. Well, Dr. Charlie is going to request your medical records to see how you were treated or such to get a reasonable diagnosis.

He is going to see that you denied ever having such a condition to the MEPS personnel but your doctor said you did have. Your military doctor is going to listen to your doctor over your coverup. You won't be able to get yourself out of that one, my friend, and you will most likely (I repeat most likely) be given a dishonorable discharge that will carry with you all your life.

The recruiters or other military personnel saying you such not bring it up at MEPS is total BS. 

So, my friend, be honest with your depression and medicine since you went to see a doctor about it. 

By the way, the Coast Guard will pretty much disqualify you on the spot with no explanation from you. The Army, Navy, and Marines might be able to give you a PSYCH eval based on their criteria:

6 months is the min. time you must be off medication for the Navy
1 year is the min. time you must be off medication for the Army or Marines
Pretty much never get depressed if you want to get into the Coast Guard or Air Force.

Yes, you are disqualified because of your depression considering the Department of Defense Medical Standards but most of the Services can give you a waiver dependent of you pass a psych eval.

Eric

Here's the story.  As a sophomore in college I attempted to join my school's Army ROTC program. I admitted right up front that I was on antidepressant medication; the staff sergeant told me this was an automatic dq.  I went away disappointed. After 
getting some more info I realized that the scenerio created at the ROTC 
didn't need to stand for all time.  The fact is that I misdiagnosed 
myself as a depressive (never been to a psychiatrist or hospital or psych 
ward), got meds from my physician, and stayed on them out of habit (and a desire to maintain positive sexual side effects!).  I don't even believe anymore that depression can truly be categorized as a medical condition, but that's another discussion. 


I've been off meds for quite a while now and am in perfect mental and 
physical health, and in good condition too.  I'd love to take another shot at joining the service, this time as a Coast Guardsman, but I've received conflicting advice on what tack to take with my unfortunate "medical" history.  My recruiter, through a complex series of word games, suggested not mentioning anything about it.  I have already been through MEPS and qualified without disclosing the information.

One Army vet and two Marine vets told me that 
they did not disclose info on their med forms, with no adverse results.  In fact, I would bet no one that I spoke to at the hotel before going through MEPS was planning on telling the truth on the med forms. 
A Lt. Colonel in the Army, though, recommended that I try to get a waiver; he seemed to be trying to tell me having my med history in the dark would be a bad idea because someone could use it to blackmail me. 


I'm 110% sure that I want to serve, and will be crushed if I can't, 
but I don't want to ruin my life over 
it.  Several of the individuals mentioned above say that I would have 
no chance of getting a waiver if I disclosed the info on the meds, and 
even if I did, the resulting time consumption and paperwork would not even be worth it, given that they wouldn't have cared anyway. 

Compicating things further is the fact that I will probably have to apply for a Secret Security Clearance.  I have passed FBI Background Checks (for guns) before, but how similar are the military's bg checks to them I wonder?

Lying about this makes my skin crawl, but if I told the truth, the military would label me mentally ill, which is also a lie.  So someone's not being honest no matter what.  It's a mess. 


So should I 
a) Present myself as a perfectly healthy individual (which I am) and 
run the risk of getting in 
deep trouble
or   
b) Avoid military service altogether?

Thanks a million for your time.