Navy rescinds student's ROTC scholarship because of autism

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It only goes to show that even misfits can serve in the military as long as they do not know that they are supposed to be too handicapped to do so.  I say this out of knowing someone who was told at the age of 5 that his heart was too weak to sustain athletic activity, only to find out in his junior year that there was nothing wrong with his heart at all -- he then earned his varsity letter in track during his senior year.

No matter how you slice it, the military is dead wrong on this.

I borrowed your metaphor

Well the military shouldn't exist in the first place, so I don't see any reason to be too upset about this.

Most likely the criteria have no been updated or reevaluated in a long time. They really need to do that considering the last year the CDC estimated the prevalence of ASD in the adult population to be 1 in 45 or 2.2%.

However, the changing the criteria should not be assumed to be a forgone conclusion. Combat is highly stressful and has many serious sensory inputs--you can't ask the enemy to turn down the explosions. Combat is also not very predicable.

However, in this case, the Navy should evaluate this candidate. To get someone that is so passionate about the service is always worth considering.

I think you will find that more of an issue with the NT population. Once we have a cure for that, perhaps we will see a decrease in violence...

We sleep soundly in our beds, because rougher people stand ready in the night to do violence against those who would harm us.  Please do not hate the people in uniform who guard you while you sleep.

Maybe there could be some kind of vaccine that caused Autism?