Is a military career possible for someone with Asperger's?

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For the past few months (actually years, though mostly these past few months) I've been toying around with the idea of joining the Navy, partly out of a desire to travel, partly out of a desire to work aboard a ship and handle vehicles I have always held a romantic fascination with, and partly to put in a certain amount of military service, which I believe should be required of all Americans in a certain age range. In fact I wouldn't mind if the United States adopted a system similar to Israel's, which requires a certain number of years of military service.
The routineness of military life has a certain borderline monastic appeal that sparks my curiosity and would be an experience that it would probably be both challenging and ultimately rewarding to adapt to, and would help instill a sense of discipline that is important in every aspect of life.
However, I'm more than a little concerned that having a diagnosis of Asperger's would somehow prevent me from enlisting, and that aspie habits would be a huge drawback in such a profession.

Has anyone here ever served in any branch of the military?
How was your experience? Is it something you would recommend for someone with Asperger's Syndrome (I'm predicting a lot of "No"s) and/or did that hinder your performance in any aspect of your duties?

Edit to add to title: Is a military career possible or suitable for someone with Asperger's Syndrome

I am an Autie who has the most severe form of autism, and I managed for almost a year and a half before being medically discharged. If you are an undiagnosed Aspie, I think you can get in. However, I think the military is rejecting diagnosed Aspies. I know of a couple of undiagnosed Aspies who are serving in the military. One is in the Air Force, and the other is in the Navy. I believe that the Air Force is the most Aspie friendly branch.

At the time, they didn't ask (about autism), and I didn't tell.

Last edited by cyberscan on 15 Sep 2009, 6:18 am, edited 2 times in total.

Hmm. As a diagnosed aspie I'm probably disqualified. :/

The IDF drafts AS but it give them a lot of say on how and where they want to serve and the more "severe" cases have the option of not serving at all
They can volunteer to a units where they get the support for their special needs
AS are very useful in a communication and IT units as many of us are very talented in those fields

Like u i have a fascination with big machines and vehicles and wanted to join the navy but was instead assigned to and trained to be a tank commander and turned out to be very good at that
perhaps because we have an intuitive understanding of machines and tactics(was ranked the top of my "class")
naturally i got some difficulties with the hierarchical facet of the army life but the IDF tend to be very lenient on such matters(at least compared to other armies) and if u r good at what u do the u can get away with almost anything
(naturally,the chain of command is not a big thing in an army of very opinionated Jews and i think that one the things that make the IDF very effective and dynamic)
any way,structured life is not something that goes against the AS fiber,nor does no BS professionalism and life in the army involves much less of the politics and "social skills" needed in a civilian career so people tend to accept u as u r and i had some nice friendships developed during my service
the downsides are obvious and the actual fighting can scar u for life
because killing another human being is horrible
watching your friends explode in front of your eyes is horrible beyond any words
getting shot at is very very frightening though u don't feel it during the actual combat as u r filed with adrenaline u get to feel it later,big time.

In Iran yes, they do not discriminate.

Was your diagnosis before the age 18? If so, you do have the right to destroy/remove/hide those records. I would not recommend the navy... Your best option would be to join a Reserve Officer Training Core unit in an engineering program at your local university. As an engineering candidate they don't expect you to be overtly social rather they want sound judgment and self initiated decision making abilities. The great part about ROTC is that there are no commitments attached the first two years. In the navy expect 12-16 hours days, living and never leaving the ship (even while you are port in those neat places)... Honestly, you would make more money working fast food with those working hours.

If you want to know anything more just ask .

Some military jobs are well suited for an Aspie, sitting around alone with a bunch of radios or computer equipment for months on end. Just have to learn to deal with the head games when around people.

I just signed up with the army reserves as a medic. Crazy stuff! No recruiter is gonna know you're an aspie by looking at you, most of them don't even know what that is. As long as you tell them you aren't, they'll have no way of knowing. I was diagnosed at 18 and nobody in the army knows.

Why would you want a job where you get blown up?

Because it beats masturbating to shiva-rea yoga dvds in your parent's basement.

I was in the Army for a little over five years, and this before I had ever heard of Asperger’s Syndrome. I would say I had a 10% love for the Army, and a 90% hate for it. I loved learning a foreign language (Arabic) and I loved that I got to live in Europe for three years. The rest pretty much sucked. I didn’t handle the criticism well at all. Even the little things, like, “Your hair is almost out of regs,” would send me into a tailspin of anxiety. As regimented as training environments are, the operational military can be anything but predictable. I was constantly on edge because I took comfort in my routines and the Army was always changing them. I enlisted in the Army with a graduate degree and so each command I went to assumed I was put together and would put me in charge of programs well above my pay grade. I had to learn coping mechanisms for not melting down on the inside when I had to brief higher-ups or visiting diplomats or foreign military counterparts. (But to be honest, I would still have meltdowns. I just got really good at masking my fear.) I had to walk around with my head up, on the lookout for officers in need of saluting. I had to learn how to look people in the eye and make small-talk that was appropriate for the other person’s rank and position, while at the same time appearing to be interested in what they were saying. I had to learn multitasking skills and how to resist the urge to spend hours on perfecting a task that would take someone else a few minutes to complete. I had to lead large groups of people in exercises or training events. I had to be confrontational with subordinates to keep them in line as I made rank. I could go on and on about all of the “awful” things I had to do while I was in the military. In hindsight, I have learned that those things were only awful to me because of my AS. (I’ve not been formally diagnosed, but I’m 99.9% certain I am indeed an Aspie. And quite frankly, this is the happiest I’ve been with myself in years.) I’ve been out for almost two years now and have chucked almost all of those coping mechanisms. I’m back to looking at my shoes when I walk, averting my eyes when talking to people, and generally avoiding strangers and making chitchat like the plague. And I couldn’t be happier. Being in the military and having to act “normal” was incredibly exhausting, mentally and physically. Sometimes my façade would crack and I’d blurt out the wrong thing in front of the wrong person. I was called in front of my commanders on a few occasions for this. I was constantly afraid of sabotaging myself on my bad days, when I knew my social awkwardness (stuttering; rambling, one-sided stream-of-consciousness “conversations” that barely made sense even to me; tripping, stumbling over my feet) was at its height and impossible to hide. I spent those five years hoping I would wake up one morning feeling confident and socially-adept, but that never happened. More than a few times, roommates or peers would tell me I was not military material. I have to say that now I agree with them, even as hard as I tried back then to just fit in.

If I had to do it again, I’m not so sure I would. I’m grateful for what I learned, but at the same time, I lived for five years on the edge of anxiety and that’s no way to live.

I'm retired military, 4 years Army, 20 years National Guard
On the plus side the military is a formal social organization and everyone starts pretty much at scratch it has lots of rituals especially in training units, once your in your permanent assignment socialization becomes increasingly important. I was a HAWK Guided Missile and Launcher repairer in the Army so we were expected to be a bit different from normal soldiers. In the National Guard I was an NBC Defense NCO in an Infantry unit so again it was expected for me to be a bit different. I did fairly well in the Military but I have some strong NT traits as well as some strong Aspie traits. If you like regimentation, pushing the limits of your comfort zones, and can be social in groups of about five people you might do Ok in the Military but YMMV, your mileage may vary. Did you love gym class, there is a lot of the same mentalities in the military and Military Leadership is the art and science of tell 5 to 10 people armed with rifles, pistols, bayonets and hand grenades to do something that could very easily get them killed or maimed and having them do it.

Oh about seeing the world in the Navy just remember it's 70% water and port calls are brief. On board shifts in the Navy are killer, 4 hours on and 4 hours off and you may be hot bunking, two people and one bunk you get out of bed and he gets in.

In the army you have little control over you are sent. They are not big on "accommodations."

This guy looks a little aspie: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMdJWKEFbg&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

I was in the Air Cadets as a teenager and thought about joining the RAF. I was unsuitable because of my Asthma. You have to go three years without medication before they can consider you. My AS didn't even come into the equation; if you are in the armed forces, they have every right to expect you to perform in a combat situation; if you have an Asthma attack on the battlefield, you're not only compromising the mission, you're putting other people's lives in danger. I can't imagine anyone with AS being able to function under that kind of pressure.

I spent 6 years in the Air Force Reserve. I would not recommend military service to aspies. The military is like one long gym class, with lots of bullies. A higher percentage of people in the military are NT than in the general population. A high percentage of people who join the military do so because they were in a tight clique of buddies in high school, and long to recreate that camaraderie afterwards. The military doesn't want introverts or quirky, creative people. It wants your average teenager who is anxious to fit in and be popular. Being in constant close contact with a lot of intolerant and judgmental people is not good for an Aspie. I was in an engineer Squadron, mainly construction and maintenance, but it was hard. I did get promoted to Staff Sargeant, and got an honorable discharge. I made a few friends, but they were often mercilessly ridiculed for hanging out with me.