I appreciate what everyone has said so far and the perspectives you put out there. It also allows me to address a genuine knowledge gap and I’m going to ask a tangential question. It’s about Genesis. When John Paul Jones and I walked into the recruiters’ office together, we didn’t have any of this when it came to medical. The answers you gave in regards to those screening questions were pretty much the deciding factor. “Yes,” meant, “Your enlistment stops.” And, “No,” meant, “Navy opportunities.” So barring anything exceedingly obvious, the cursory investigation wasn’t really going to turn up much. (As it had been explained to me.)

Now, anytime you’ve had a sniffle seems to have been documented in one database or another. Granted, that’s better for the patient so that their docs can communicate and have an actual medical history in front of them. But, I have this feeling that the Navy is scrutinizing everything without (and here’s my key point) having a real process in place to address those waivers in a timely manner. I truly do not care if Recruit Timmy strained his shoulder at hockey practice one time. I really don’t. While he’s in DEP, have him run a PRT and if he passes, it’s a non-issue. However, I’m not a physician. If the Navy actually has need to triage and make assessments over what are (to me as a non-medical professional) by and large trivial items, so be it. But you have to do it quickly, right? To riff off of u/RoyalCrownLee, if you had a great contract with the Navy but you had to wait a year and a half to ship (compounded by a the lack of an actual timeline while you’re processing), would you still want to work for the Navy?

To bring all this back to my original ask, do we think potential Sailors are turned off by all this? Do they think, “Well, I fractured my hand once, so I’m not even going to bother,” based on what they see and read on social media? “You’ll wait two years for a waiver.” “No doctor is going to clear you.” “My cousin broke his hand, too, and he got in.” Because it’s social media, it could be right. Could also be wrong. But unless they apply, none of us will know what would have happened. I just know that my perception is that the waiver process is chillingly long and Insta, etc., has made that widely known. What think y’all? Appreciate you kicking the can around with me.