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My 18 yr. son has CD and has been GF for 2 years & is doing great.  He just
went to college and he is also going into the Air Force which is giving him
a full-ride scholarship. He just had his ROTC training and did great. He won
the "Most Fit" award.  This is ironic as you will see.  He is at Duke
University and they have been great about working with his dietary needs.

BUT, the Air Force just rejected him because of a history of dietary
problems.  The military doctor does not know anything about CD and even
though our son's recent Ttg was negative (<3), the main problem appears to
be deployment.  The MRE's (meals ready to eat) could contain gluten and
every person accepted into the military must be able to be deployed, even if
they are not going to be which is the case of my son. We have been doing
research into the MRE's and found that they all contain gluten but that may
mean the there are crackers in the meal which are wrapped separately and can
be removed.

We have been asked to write a letter to explain our son's medical history,
why he was diagnosed and what happens when he is glutened.  He has always
been asymptomatic and was diagnosed because of my CD.  It appears that we
are breaking new ground with the Air Force and could possibly have an big
impact on policy and CD awareness at the DOD.  There are 6 known people with
CD in the Air Force but were diagnosed after they were admitted.  

We sent a rough draft to the Lt. Col. Who is pushing for our son's
admittance with the DOD, and this was part of his response.

"One question that comes to mind when reading this is, how many people are
admitted into the AF each year with an unknown condition of Celiac?  Based
on your statistics you told me, it could be 1% of the population.  I really
don't think that the initial DODMERB physical checks for this.  This would
mean Riley's Celiac is under control, whereas those that have it and don't
know it are becoming more and more debilitated each day.  Because your
family was proactive in investigating this, treating this, and subsequently
reporting this to DODMERB, Riley should not be "punished."  Possibly, if
your gastroenterologist can cite some of these national Celiac statistics,
it may make the case more compelling to qualify Riley." 

Does anyone have any experiences or advice about how we should proceed. 

Lizzie 

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