they didnt take my dad because he had bad eye-sight! and just recently they accepted my friend into the marines even though he to had really bad eye-sight! did standards chang since then? i see marines with glasses all the time! by the way, now my dads eye-sight is -300! i dont know what it was back then!
2006-08-10 23:00:17 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Times have changed in the past 30 years. We have contact lenses and laser surgery for our eyes, which weren't available back then. Not to mention better prescriptions on glasses. The Marines still have a limit as to how bad your eyes can be though, your best bet to get all the info is to talk to you local recruiter.
2006-08-10 23:16:00 · answer #1 · answered by rocknrobin21 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Recruiting levels are pretty much like a sine wave. Lots of people means stricter requirements. A few years later we'll swing to the other extreme and see that not enough people means relaxed requirements.
When I came into the AF, I wanted to be a pilot. However, in 1995 when I started ROTC, the AF was still in the midst of post-Cold War down-sizing. You had to have a 3.5 GPA in an engineering or technical degree and perfect 20/20 vision to become a pilot. Virtually anything could get you disqualified. By the time 2000 rolled around, the AF realized that it didn't have enough people and the requirements were much looser. By then, you needed vision _correctable_ to 20/20 and a 3.0 in _any_ degree, and there were waivers for all kinds of other problems.
We're going through the same thing right now with the AF cutting 40,000 people by 2011. Promotions are tougher to come by and we're not taking as many people in, so requirements are stricter than they have been for the past 6 years.
2006-08-10 23:34:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would say the invention of the contact lens has changed warfare.
The Marines are the most selective service. They take fewer recruits in the first place, and every macho high school kid that wants to carry a gun and kill bad guys and all that stuff want to join, so the Marines can filter out who they don't want.
Another service that is hard to get into is the AF.
2006-08-10 23:06:54 · answer #3 · answered by powhound 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Things have changed a lot, and not entirely because of the war. There was a different mindset back then that someone with less that perfect vision wouldn't be capable, Doctors just didn't know as much then as they do now, the criteria was a lot stricter. Add on to that the desparate need for soldiers, and I think they would sign up Mr Magoo!
2006-08-10 23:07:19 · answer #4 · answered by Sidoney 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The standards are actually tougher today than they were in '76 from what little I know.
I joined the Navy in 1975 and I saw many Marines in the mid to late seventies who wore glasses.
2006-08-10 23:12:48 · answer #5 · answered by abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We're in a war now and they need marines. In 1976 they didn't need recruits as bad, so they could be picky.
2006-08-10 23:03:56 · answer #6 · answered by sneezewhiz 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ask the captain ,not people
2006-08-10 23:06:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋