Anna Viviano is my wife. I found this website while doing a search for the video of the original interview.
Several things to address:
This wasn’t an issue we were aware of. She’s always been physically fit. During her time with the Navy, she was consistently at the top of her class for PT tests. She’s worked as a life-guard in the past, and she even took one semester of marine physical training, just for the workout. There is no way we would have known about this. I guess the implication is that she intentionally got diagnosed to get out of serving her time. First off, why would she do that during her junior year? Wouldn’t waiting till the end make sense? Secondly, we have nothing against the miliatry. At this moment, I’m giving the Army Band a good hard look (I’m a musician). She grew up with a father in the Army, and so the military life has always been something she’s seen as a positive.
Why didn’t she take a desk job? She tried. She asked to remain in the Navy with some sort of land-based job, and they said it didn’t matter. No one in the Navy can have any touch of asthma.
I was at first angered by the people who said we owe the money to the Navy. The majority of people are on our side, so I’ll take this as a positive, generally.
During her time in ROTC, she took all the classes, served in all the required ceremonies, and excelled. In the event that an individual is fired from a job, the money doesn’t ask for its money back. I understand that the had to stop paying her tuition, even though it put us in a rough place financially. Asking for the money back that they’d invested, though, is unreasonable.
She had a Navy physical before enrolling in the program. This doctor did not catch the asthma. The fact that a different doctor later on said that she did have asthma means that the condition either didn’t pre-exist or that the Naval doctor missed something.
In any case, I remain firm in my belief that this is an outrageous charge. I, of course, am biased.
Thank you for posting more information on this matter. Th service branch rejected her due to medical conditions that would not have prevented her from fulfilling her obligations in other ways. That is their decision and one they should eat.
I wish you both good luck.
Good luck.
The LadyNavyVet had good advice; I was Army, and smoothing the COC is a key issue. There is a lot of discretion, and generally “doing the right thing” is the preferred path.
My first approach would be to demand a re-test of the asthma -— it’s obviously marginal, and I bet she can pass. That’s a win-win -— the Navy gets its squid, and you avoid the $$$.
I knew several MIT AROTC guys that developed problems (one hit by a car in Boston traffic, broke his hip) along the way — I don’t believe any of them had to repay the debt — but they were dropped like a hot potato from the program.
One comment: band?!@ Rotary or nothing.
as someone stated earlier, even if Navy restricts non seagoing personnel, why wouldnt DOD slot her into another branch that could use a qualified recruit ???
DOD runs the Navy afterall...