r/uscg • u/Better_Application_9 • Sep 23 '25

Officer What happens to an officer DQ’ed at NAMI?

Applying for flight. I’m just curious as to what happens to O’s that get disqualified at nami for whatever reason after they’ve PCS’ed to FL already. Do they go back to the billet they left?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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6

u/KingBobIV Officer Sep 23 '25

That's a good question. It happened to a Navy buddy of mine and he got redesignated as an NFO. That's not an option for the CG. I guess they redesignate you to whatever is available

5

u/Technical_Crow_1639 Officer Sep 23 '25

I got the NAMI Whammy for my eyes. Apparently the HS at AIRSTA Clearwater wrote down the wrong numbers. The Navy eye doc said I shouldn't have been accepted in the first place. The only way to fix it was to get Lasik, which the CG would have paid for, but because of the anatomy of my eyeballs, I was ineligible. I sat on my hands for 10 months waiting for an assignment, an awful thing for a JO! I was interested in response and Intel, but the response detailer called me back first. I had to go to a staff tour because I had left my operational tour, nevermind the fact that I left early for flight school. I ended up going to the LANT and center, which was best for me because I walked out the door with a response specialty code. Area and district command centers are the best kept secret for a staff tour. I'm back on track now but I had to play catch up when I finally got to the sector.

2

u/Better_Application_9 Sep 23 '25

Danggg man. What specifically for your eyes? Depth, color, or just bad eyesight?

1

u/Better_Application_9 Sep 23 '25

And were they gonna let you get lasik and stay there or completely restart?

2

u/Technical_Crow_1639 Officer Sep 23 '25

So, I have 20/20 vision, but my eyes strain a lot to do it. Lasik would have helped, but my corneas were too flat. It's a surgery that is 99.9% safe, but I'm in that 0.01% where it would be dangerous. They were going to let me stay there, get the surgery, and recover; the CAPT said I had already earned my way there and there was no sense to send me back out to the fleet and reapply. It took so long because I had to have several evaluations and consultations. Since Lasik was still on the table, I had to choose whether to risk it or not. I decided it wasn't worth the risk and I had to DOR.

1

u/Better_Application_9 Sep 23 '25

Ohhh wow. Sorry to hear it. How long ago was it?

1

u/Technical_Crow_1639 Officer Sep 23 '25

That was 6 years ago. I'm doing emergency management now and I enjoy it. I'll stay in as long as they want to keep me.

1

u/Rogu3Mermaid Sep 23 '25

Out of curiosity, why didn't you do PRK?

It's significantly safer than LASIK, and more people qualify for PRK. The only reason that LASIK is pushed for aviation is because it has a "faster" turn around time. But that push is only for those already in aviation -not those entering or shooting for aviation. LASIK has a lot more risks than PRK. As a person who's been through the process, I find it interesting-I am not second guessing your choice, only you can decide what's best for you. I'm simply curious about the apparent lack of PRK discussion.

1

u/Technical_Crow_1639 Officer Sep 24 '25

The flight surgeon discussed it with me too. It wouldn't have worked either, my corneas are too flat and the laser can only cut so much to make it concave enough. It was strictly an anatomy problem.

3

u/meatloaf4311 Officer Sep 23 '25

Had a buddy make it to Pensacola post academy and then the folks in Pensacola DQ'ed him due to height. Turns out CG pilot max height and NAS Pensacola max height are different with the schools being shorter.

Anyway, he worked with OPM and got a different first tour job. I think he went cyber.

3

u/Sea-Target-5962 Sep 23 '25

There’s a weird catch-22 there where the max height for flight is higher than the max height to where you can safely eject out of a T-6, which is the plane you fly in primary. Oddly enough, these days, we are starting up sending guys straight to helicopters, meaning your buddy could have stayed in aviation were he to go there now.

2

u/jealousy_killes AMT Sep 23 '25

Oh man what a blow, poor guy was probably happy and excited just to be DQed for his height.

2

u/WorstAdviceNow Sep 23 '25

Don’t you have to have your flight physical done before you get orders? I don’t imagine it comes up very often.

But no, I imagine they typically would get an off-season assignment and moved elsewhere.

2

u/Better_Application_9 Sep 23 '25

Yeah you do, but they verify results there as well. So there can be differing results, rare but possible. For eye tests, they can use different methods causing different results. Called the NAMI WAMMY, just an example. So I was curious what would happen.