Medical Screening

Today I sit in my office wondering what the long term effects of working with the Army will have on me. I have heard horror stories from a few guys who have returned from IAs, and combining that with my own limited interaction with the Army in Kandahar and an exercise in Korea, I now come to the stark realization that it is going to suck. Now I have to sit here for 30 more days until I depart stewing on this epiphany. The imagination has a way conjuring up all kinds of crazy scenarios, I am sure it can't be as bad as I think it can, and I will just keep telling myself that over and over again.

I am going to comment on the medical aspect of the ECRC checklist. As an aviator there is a yearly flight physical that is very comprehensive. It covers all areas of the body and on special years it covers areas that should not be looked at. For an IA you need a PHA, I am guessing that stands for Physical Health Assessment, and it is required within six months of deploying. After calling medical and leaving several messages I was awarded the elusive appointment, I arrived ten minutes early on the big day with medical record in hand. The Corpsmen walked in ten minutes late and said he had cancelled my appointment due to the fact that I had a physical six months ago and did not need one for another six months. I patiently explained to him the IA process, which he seemed unaware of, he handed me some paper work and told me we could get phase one completed today but the next appointment for phase two wasn't available until next week. I set out on Phase one, which consisted of a few shots a cholesterol test, and the HIV test, it took about ten minutes to complete, I then filled out a HRA (Health Risk Appraisal) which is a questioner that asks questions like how much do you drink and how often. I had no supervision and could answer what ever I wanted, it seems to me, if they want the truth this appraisal should be administered by a trained lie detector tech, no self respecting aviator is going to tell the truth, if he did he would be kicked out of the Navy. A trained professional then counsels you on your responses, even after my manipulation of the truth I was still vigorously counseled in several areas. At this point I have completed phase one and have total time input of about 40 minutes.

A week later I arrive for phase two, the corpsmen meets me and we go back into the exam room, he takes my blood pressure which looks good, looks at my cholesterol results, which looks good ,and asks me if I am in pain or have any issues. I respond that I am not in pain and I have no issues. I am sure some of my friends would disagree on the issues question but again this guy was not a trained lie detector tech, I was not even hooked up to a lie detector machine, plus I really didn't lie I have no medical issues. HM1 gave me the thumbs up, I was good to go after a two appointments and a total of 45 minutes, and I had met the ECRC checklist standards, it took two weeks for a total of 45 minutes of medical screening.

One problem I did encounter, there is no proof of Anthrax shots in my record, I have been administered 4 of the 6 shot series, somehow they were not recorded or the sheet they were recorded on was lost. I am preparing myself for the fight that looms in the future over this Anthrax issue, I am sure this battle will provide me with some good material later on.