Navigating Physical Evaluation Boards

Each branch of the military has its own Physical Evaluation Boards with its own complex governance and procedures. As explained on our website, Physical Evaluation Boards (PEBs) work in tandem with Medical Evaluation Boards (MEBs). The complexity of review process by the Physical Evaluation Boards has given rise to numerous discussion boards on the internet, where confused members often resort to trying to untangle their particular situation and navigate the process in a piecemeal approach.
The Navy, as one branch of Armed Forces, lists the following condition as defects or grounds for potential disability retirement or other separations:
• Enuresis (bedwetting).
• Sleepwalking and or somnambulism.
• Dyslexia and other learning disorders.
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Stammering or stuttering.
• Incapacitating fear of flying confirmed by psychiatric evaluation.
• Airsickness, motion sickness, and or travel sickness.
• Phobic fear of air, sea, and submarine modes of transportation.
• Uncomplicated alcoholism or other substance use disorder.
• Mental retardation.
• Impulse control disorders.
• Sexual gender and identity disorders paraphilias.
• Factitious disorder.
• Obesity.
• Over height.
• Psuedofolliculitis barbae of the face and or neck.
• Medical contraindication to the administration of required immunizations.
• Significant allergic reaction to stinging insect venom.
• Unsanitary habits.
• Certain anemias.
• Allergy to uniform clothing or wool.
• Long sleeper syndrome.
• Hyperlipidemia.

If you or someone you know has a medical condition that is likely to be permanent or chronic, and therefore unlikely that the individual can return to full duty, it’s in your best interest to seek qualified legal assistance to have the initial review of the PEB result in optimal preliminary findings. Should you disagree with the Physical Evaluation Board’s preliminary findings, it’s even more imperative to get legal counsel.
Troy Smith has represented hundreds of individuals at military administrative proceedings, including Discharge Review Boards and Physical and Medical Evaluation Boards and offers consultations that can be requested easily online.