Many factors, including anemia and hemorrhagic disorders, can cause military recruits to be turned down. You may be prevented from enlisting, but did you know that having flat feet and displaying symptoms of them can do the same? Despite how absurd it sounds, it is entirely true.

You cannot enlist if you experience pain in the heel or arch region or have swollen ankles due to flat feet. Additionally, this affects about 25% of the population.

So why are flat feet prohibited in the military? The rest of this article will go into more detail. For more information, keep reading!

What Are Flat Feet?

When one or both of your feet have little to no arch, you are said to have flat feet, also known as being flatfooted. The result is that when you stand, the bottoms of your feet are in contact with the ground. Unless you lift your foot or feet, you won’t be able to see the arch.

Flat feet are a birth defect that affects everyone. Usually, we start to form arches around the age of six. While some of us have high arches, others have low or essentially nonexistent arches. But about 2 out of 10 kids still have flat feet as adults.

Leg cramps, muscle aches or fatigue in the leg or foot/feet, pain in the ankle, heel, arch, or outside of the foot/feet, pain when changing your gait or when walking in general, and toe drift—where the front of the foot and the toes point outward—can all be signs of flat feet.

Can Flat Footed Join the Military?

Having flat feet used to be a requirement to join the military. It isn’t any longer unless you have symptomatic flat feet, in which case you exhibit negative symptoms like those mentioned in the previous section. You can still enlist in the military if you have asymptomatic flat feet and can carry out routine physical activities without any pain or discomfort.

Generally speaking, the severity of your condition will determine whether or not you can join the military if you have flat feet. Visit a doctor and talk to a recruiter if you are currently concerned about this. Your question will be answered exactly by them.

However, keep in mind that even if you do not have a flat foot when you join the military, you could still get one while serving. Being in the Army or Marines, both of which require a lot of physical exertion and have MOS that can be hard on the feet like pararescue, can make it difficult to handle.

It is best to think twice about enlisting if you do have flat feet and believe they could one day develop into symptomatic flat feet.

Why Do Flat Feet Disqualify You from the Military

The anatomical structure of the foot changes when rigid fixed flat feet replace soft, reversible flat feet. The foot has more than 20 bones. Each bone has an odd shape, so a different kind of rope must bind them together so they can form and move.

These cords are ligaments, which are also called tendons. These ligaments or tendons are loose in people with juvenile type or flexible, reversible flat feet, for example. The bones have remained the same, but there are still some tight areas and an imbalance. Therefore, in the initial stage, the foot deformed when applying force but appeared normal when at rest.

Some tendons that could not be repaired slowly broke in the late stage. Deformity stabilizes as a result. Here, if you continue to use it, it will cause bone grinding, which will eventually cause bone damage. In the later stages, it will then transform into rigid flat feet. Flat feet, therefore, become worse over time, and they manifest pathologically in various ways at different times.

Flat Feet Military Disqualification

Whether You Can Serve as a Soldier Depends on the Severity of Your Flat Feet.

The main factor is the severity of your flat feet: If you have mildly flat feet that do not interfere with your ability to exercise, you can join the army.

It is primarily important to take into account how flat feet affect the body. Few people will allow you to participate in regular sporting events if you have severely flat feet, let alone if you are a soldier. Of course, the doctor who assisted you with the physical examination also has an impact. You are welcome to participate if the doctor determines that it won’t have an impact on you.

There is no way the doctor believes that having flat feet will have an impact on your body. There’s no need to worry about this. While exercising, we can gradually reposition our flat feet. Make changes as soon as you can if you want to serve in the military.

The Impact of Flat Feet on the Body

After serving as soldiers, we must put our bodies through demanding military training. Daily physical activity is substantial. It also entirely depends on your physical condition whether you can handle the intense amount of exercise.

Without an arch, flat feet are unable to touch the ground when you run in running shoes and are unable to absorb the force of your body. Exercise will be painful for those with flat feet. It includes calluses and corns in addition to flat feet. Additionally, they don’t meet the standards for the conscription medical examination.

Summary

As you’ve read, symptomatic flat feet prevent you from the military, but asymptomatic flat feet do. Consult a healthcare professional and a military recruiter to find out for sure if you are ineligible for service.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the restrictions on flat feet in the military. Thanks for reading!

Tags: Flat Feet, Military