US Armed Forces ( Navy ) and Aspies

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Hello, first post here, just wanted to say hello, and to ask a question on whether or not I should join the USN or not. I really like being in NJROTC as it gives me a very nice sense of, more or less, structure, in an otherwise anarchic school-day in HS. I want to join their Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate School, as I already design somewhat rudimentary nuclear reactors, even dabbling in the emerging fields of pebble-bed reactors, much to the distress of some teachers who simply conclude I am designing a munition of some sort ( I kinda like it, due to explaining what it is and how I know about it ), and am already studying a great deal of theoretical Physics, namely by Dr. Michio Kaku, who, at my age, built a friggin Beta-Tron Particle Collider, with several miles of HAND-CURVED copper wiring, and it was for a simple Science Fair Project on creating anti-matter. Yes, really. In this note, I always want(ed) to be a theoretical physicist, but money is sparse and far between, les you work under the US Military, which, in turn, is a highly selective process where they are EXTREMELY likely to be dis-interested in the event-horizon of a micro-black hole being more deadly than that of one on the scale of a galactic center. So, closest thing that the US Military has to offer is NUPOC with the USN. ( I still have desires to be the guy who fires the huge arse main guns of the AGS or CIWS/Phalanx on a Heavy Cruiser ) I am stuck on a VERY tall fence on this, as it requires a commitment of at least 8 years continuous service, with at least 5 being active-duty, which I find, quite frankly, frightening when I think of the Chinese Carrier Killer SSM with 1,100 tons of HE, not to mention taking medications, with/without them, not stepping on higher Ranked Officers' toes so-to-speak, as I am not one to deal with those kind of situations very well, and I doubt that being an Aspie will due much in a positive manner, matter of fact, they will likely view it as a crutch or excuse for mis-behavior, however much un-intended it was. Then I have to worry about anxiety, ADHD,ADD,OCD, and generally cramped quarters being shared with, at the very least, hundreds of people. I mean, who dafuq is important enough to warrant sending out a supply cache of Respirodol and Focalin just to keep a single sailor straight on course, or at least hope it does. Heck, I would say just tough it dafuqwa out, and filter everything you say, and stay in line. Thing is, I am also VERY opinionated in regards to most everything, such as my "un-patriotic" views that Communism was a great idea, but nearly everyone after Josef Stalin really f-ed it up. I doubt that would fly in the USN, let alone from an Officer, **** would hit not only the fan, but every fan on the ship. Then again, I could *try* and filter it, but, one must enjoy their job to do it well, or so it is said. I don't want to be miserable being on a 2-3 football-field sized nuclear ship, going around the world in a matter of days or weeks, only to have to be always looking over my shoulder, so as to not say the wrong thing. I mean FFS, what is the point in committing a good chunk of my life to a rare job, in exotic locations, with free schooling whilst getting paid to GO TO SCHOOL with a FULL salary of at least $168K up to 30 Months PRIOR to graduation, only to step on the wrong toes, just once, and then be in debt more than the average college doctrate graduating.
All in all, there are pro and there are cons, I jsut don't know if the USN or ANY branch of the US Military is right for me or Aspies in general.

when I was in high-school a military recruiter came to my school to recruit for one branch or another. I was called into the room and he was very happy to see someone over 6 feet tall. He started talking and after a bit I interrupted him and said "I find this is very interesting, but I have an autism diagnosis, would that preclude me from military service?"

He ended the meeting and called for the next person.

I don't know if that was his preference or policy.

My understanding is that the military does not want people on the autism spectrum within their ranks, for exactly the reasons you mention. If you could find a way to be hired as a consultant after graduation.... I look at those words and think, "Why don't I tell him to go climb Mt. Everest?" Yeah, hard. But a few people have done it. Theoretically, you could. I wonder if a research tank wouldn't like you, such as Bell Labs. And, oh, who are the guys who put their little approval tags on electronics? One of their labs is in nearby Camas, and when I took a tour there, I thought that would be the coolest place to work. You get to blow up or melt stuff all day long in the name of testing.

Whether it is official policy or not (I assume it is, the military has a fairly comprehensive set of protocols for mental, emotional and behavioral sorts of things, most any abnormal issue with a potential recruit is ground for disqualification it seems), it could have just been as simple as the word autism scaring the recruiter, maybe he didn't even really know what autism was, but just assumed since it was something he never heard of, that it must be serious enough to not want to have to deal with it.

Also, at least for the Army and Marines, they seem to love just recruiting normal jock types in the US, because they tend to be obviously in-shape and competitive, which is ideal for a military life. Air Force is more open to..."different" people, there are many geeks and techies in the Air Force, but I still think ASD would make any military life difficult, you can get in a lot of trouble in the military for missing social cues or details like wearing a uniform properly. Also, it is a hyper competitive environment, you may be intended to have a closeness with fellow service men and women, but most will not hesitate at the chance to use your shortcomings to make THEM look good, they want the rank promotion or more job responsibility and probably won't care if you get screwed or get a bad reputation as a result. This is very similar to the business world, it is very dog-eat-dog and nice people or oblivious people make perfect easy targets for those alpha types.

I know I'd be awful in the military because of my terrible experiences early in life with the scouts or with sports teams. If I could not handle the scouts as a child, I'd never handle the military as an adult. Despite that, I think the Air Force would be capable of providing some really cool stuff related to my special interests and if my eye sight were good, I could potentially be a pilot of some sort, but again, these fantasies are dashed by the reality that military life is not really a good environment for anyone with ASD.

I joined the air force when I was 22. It was VERY hard for me to hold myself together through basic training. A couple months into tech school, the stress and complete lack of privacy finally got to me and I was sent to have a psych eval. After many tests and interviews I got an administrative discharge. (It was first suggested that I may have aspergers at the last meeting with the psych.) I was in for a total of 4 months. I'm proud I made it through basic training, but there was no way I could have done 4 years in the military.

Well, I met with the recruiter today, and he says that the USN is very open to people with AS, as long as I don't go berserk or anything, so, I think all is good, now to wait for the reply from DC whether or not is a go or no-go on the official side, but, as you said, the recruiter said that he had never encountered someone with AS, and that it was an interesting subject to research into.