Let This Young Man Serve His Country. Approve a US Navy Medical Waiver for Mild Psoriasis.

Dear Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Waiver Approval Department,

My name is Chris Lockhart (Formerly Seaman Recruit Christopher A Flynn prior to a name change) and I am writing in regards to a denied medical waiver that changed the course of my life forever. I enlisted in the United States Navy on 03/03/2009 here in Denver, Colorado as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman. I was substantially over qualified for this position as my physical fitness standards were equal to or greater than special operations requirements, and my ASVAB score qualified me for your Nuclear Engineering program. Despite a strong advantage I may have had, I chose to enlist as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman because I wanted to help make any difference I could overseas.

After many going away parties, financial arrangements, emotionally detaching myself from my friends, family, two dogs, and my home, I left that morning of 03/30/09 to fulfill a life long dream of becoming a soldier in the United States Military. Little did I know, soon my dreams were soon to be shattered. Excited, anxious and incredibly nervous, I entered the pre-deployment physical; the last step before I received my plane tickets for basic training.

Upon examination, I was pulled into a private room and questioned about a mark on my left posterior aspect of my lower leg. It was a minor patch of skin irritation I had suffered the night before due to my ice skates rubbing during a playoff ice hockey game, my last obligation as a civilian. This was when I felt the world come crashing down. I was denied my plane tickets to basic training and forced to see a dermatologist immediately to confirm the suspicion of a psoriatic patch of skin where my leg had been rubbed near raw from my ice hockey skates the night before. The Dermatologist stated that upon visual interpretation, it looked psoriatic in nature but mild and acceptable per DOD guidelines.

I rushed this document back to Denver MEPS and we submitted an application for a Medical Waiver to you, the Bureau of Surgery and Medicine, or BUMED for short. Shortly after, I received confirmation back and my waiver was denied. I was given a discharge letter, I was released from my contract and I was driven home with absolutely nothing but a crushed dream, severe mental anguish and extreme disappointment. This marked one of the most unfortunate events in my lifetime.

I am writing you now in a desperate attempt to seek an approval for this once denied medical waiver with the support of thousands of Americans just like me that believe that I should not be punished for a non-transmittable condition as minor as dry skin, that I in no way had any hand in contracting. I was told I would be overseas in a combat zone within my first year and I gladly accepted this challenge because I knew I would be part of something greater than myself.

Hopefully through the prayers and signatures here on this petition, I can get an approval on this waiver so I can serve my amazing country, as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman in the United States Navy.

Sincerely,
Chris Lockhart (Formerly Seaman Recruit Christopher A Flynn)