Recruiter told me to lie at MEPS...?

Question

Before I went to MEPS my recruiter told me to say NO to every medical question that was asked...so I did... and everything went fine. I got in. But now I am about a week away from my ship date and I am getting really nervous about this. Has anyone else been in this situation? When I was young I broke both of my wrists & sprained my ankle. Nothing major but it still has me worried. What are the P-Days like at Navy boot camp? Is any of this likely to come up? Am I worried for nothing? Any answers will be helpful.

Answer 1

You are asking about the Navy so I am not sure why people have answered you with information about the other services and what they do. As far as P-Days in the Navy are concerned they are called P-Days meaning preparation days. This is the time that they do a complete medical screening of you above and beyond what you went through in MEPS. If there is anything that will keep you from being able to serve in the Navy they will catch it during this evaluation. Or at least they should. While I personally went to Navy boot camp in the wintertime I cannot say what the P-Days are like during the summer months. However, obviously since it was winter we did very little running outside. In fact if I remember correctly we did no physical training during the P-Days. This is because the RDC's must get a clean bill of health from medical before they are allowed to make you do all the crazy exercises. In any case again if there is some limitation that will keep you from serving fully in the Navy they will catch it during the P-Days medical exams. While I don't agree with the recruiter telling you to lie or at the least telling you what the answers should be in order for you to enlist. The only thing I am wondering about is if there was a question that you answered No to that you believe you should have answered Yes? If this is the case you may want to mention it to someone at MEPS before you ship out. You will ship out from MEPS, and again if I remember correctly they will go through a brief questionaire about anything that may have changed since your initial evaluation at MEPS. You may be able to mention it at that time. If it is something serious but something that won't affect your service in the Navy, then the worst that can happen is your ship out date gets pushed back some. If it is something that will keep you out of the Navy then the worst thing that will happen is you can't join. While it may make you feel upset for not being able to serve, just know that you at least made the effort of trying to serve. Many many people won't even go that far.

Note: I totally forgot about the "fess up" period. This is where they sit you down and go through everything that you told to the recruiters that went in your records. Trust me, they make you feel like fessing to stuff you didn't do, its just a tactic. Kind of like being in the interrogation room. Best thing is, if you don't say anything before you ship out, is to make sure you tell them during this time. Again you aren't trying to get the recruiter in trouble or anything but you want to make sure that everything you tell them is the truth. As mentioned earlier by another answerer, you won't be able to get the recruiter in trouble anyway since there is no documentation. Something I learned in medical, (lawyers will tell you this too) If it isn't written down it *never* happened. No matter what you think you may have seen or heard.

Answer 2

You'll get the chance to 'fess up' the first day or two in basic training. Take the opportunity. Come clean. The sprained ankle is irrelevant, but tell them anyway. The broken bones are more important, but if you've healed properly, then you have no worries.

Don't bother 'reporting the recruiter'. If you don't have documentation that proves he told you to lie,then you'll lose that argument, because you obviously misunderstood him, because recruiters would never, ever tell their recruits to lie.
Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but all that will happen if you report him is you'll look like a whiny chump. Take personal responsibility for your actions. The recruiter didn't hold a knife to your throat and make you sign the bottom line, and they weren't there at MEPS when you made the CHOICE to voluntarily provide false information to a military official.

Best course of action is to 'fess up' once you're at basic training. Just tell them your recruiter said 'not to worry about it', but you want to CYA (Cover Your @$$) and get the straight scoop. They'll probably give you a blanket opportunity to come forward and clearthe air, but if not, talk to your platoon NCO (or wahtever the squids call their boot camp trainers, we called them DIs) privately.

Best of luck, kid.

Answer 3

What my recruiter told me (I eventually decided not to join the Army but I did go through MEPS) was to think about this question: Will knowledge of (blank) hurt the Army in any way? I sprained my ankle pretty badly in high school. But today I run and jump on it just fine. The injury is not in my medical record, doesn't show up on x-rays, and doesn't impede my performance in any way. So I didn't mention it at MEPS.

My recruiter told me that the Army's goal is a "perfect" military force - one with no physical infirmities at all. However, when you get right down to it, very few people are absolutely perfect. So if your medical problems won't slow down the Army, they aren't worth mentioning.

Answer 4

first of all.... breathe... you're panicing over nothing. like everyone said before, you'll have your chance to come clean. take it. tell your rtc. if you happen to slip up later on and they find out about something you ommited to say... you don't wanna be in that situation. sprained ankle - they really don't care. broken wrists - as long as they're both fine now, it's ok. my boyfriend tore his acl right before bootcamp and they still sent him off. as long as they heal properly and you're ok right now, don't worry about it.

p-days - days between the time your bus rolls into chicago to the first week of actual bootcamp. p-days don't even count towards the bootcamp time. a lot of registering and stuff. the fun stuff happens when rt actually starts. ;) actually, it should all be in that hand book they gave you when you signed in at MEPs. if you don't have it, ask your recruiter for another one.

don't worry. recruit training shouldn't be too hard. a current seal described it to me this way: back then, they'd beat you, hit you, and abuse you. now, you can raise your hand and call time out. it's still gonna be a challenge, but just be respectfull, shut your mouth, do as your told and you should be fine.

Answer 5

As long as it wasn't like surgery, you're cool. If it was surgery, they'd just want to make sure you didn't hurt yourself again somehow.

"P" days are just your introductory days before you start counting your weeks. Like week 1, week 2 ect.

You'll be fine don't worry. It'll be kinda scary the first couple of days, but it's not hard. You just won't get to sleep that much. The no-sleeping things sucks the most!!!! haha! But you'll do just fine. Be safe and glad to have you aboard!

Go navy!!!

Answer 6

i don't think they would have denied you entry into the military for your former injuries, and Basic Training is very strenuous on your body, a lot of people came up with stress fractures, mostly in thier shins. You may have nothing to worry about, but when i was in boot camp thier was a lot of circuit training.

Answer 7

It is the recruiter's job to get you to sign the line. Unfortunately they choose to lie to accomplish their goals. I had a similar experience.

Soooo anything they promise you have them put in writing. If they won't do it, don't sign. Talk to people who have been in.

It would be my recommendation to you to investigate The Air Force. I was in the Navy so I would have to say The Air Force is a better deal. Unless you would enjoy seeing the world through a port hole.

Answer 8

Every recruiter tells every recruit to lie at MEPS. Its a common practice. To my knowledge nobody has ever been in trouble for telling them that you've never been "not perfect". My opinion is not to worry about it. If your wrists and ankle starts to bother in Basic get it documented.

Answer 9

Report the recruiter TODAY.

Simple as.

If you followed his advice, and was later found to be invalided out of the Military, and sought the advice of a lawyer, I'm sure he'd think his birthdays and Xmases had all come at once.

I hope you made contemporaneous notes of everything that was said at that interview.

It isTHE BEST ADVICE I WAS EVER GIVEN - ALWAYS KEEP CONTEMPORANEOUS NOTES.. of all instructions and buisness phonecalls.

INVALUABLE... particularly if dated and timed !!! BUT, they have to be made at the time, or within minutes of the incident to e of any future use... Always make sure you have the basac facts - name, address, number, rank, etc..


If you don't have time to write these notes, invest in a dictaphone making sure you date the recording !

Answer 10

first of all you should have joined the army but that is beside the point. dont worry you will be ok. everyone hides something from meps.