I’m Taiwan born American who’s considering doing military service.
So I’m 5’7" and 210 lbs, but I’m very fit for my weight. I can still run a 7 minute mile and can do 8 pullups. Used to do brazilian jiujitsu and boxing, etc., so though I’m overweight, I consider myself in good shape.
However, I have a medical condition: sleep apnea, which is a condition where your body is never able to fully fall asleep because of blocked airways. It’s treated through a CPAP machine, which is basically a machine that I breathe into that provides extra air pressure to keep my airways from collapsing.
So question for people who’ve done military service, if i wanted to do military service, what would happen? Do you think I’d be able to do the training during the day, but sleep with my CPAP machine at night in the barracks? Would this only be during boot camp?
Would they accomodate me or would they be more likely to put me in alternative service? I like the idea of teaching english. Not so certain about directing traffic for 2 years.
You may find that the sleep apnea disappears if you take off some of the weight (no offense, but my husband is in the same boat only heavier for the same height). AFAIK there is a correlation between weight and sleep apnea.
Unfortunately I can’t give any accurate information about military service, being a girl and not in Taiwan. Hopefully you won’t get too many snarky posters asking whether you’re sure it’s sleep apnea and not some sort of mental problem, if you WANT to do military service in Taiwan.
You can also volunteer for the missions abroad, helping orphans and/or technical mission support -agricultural, medical assistance. Alternative service, yep.
There is a weight limit to the Taiwanese army recruits -famous story about the guy who gained weight for his examination, then dropped it, as a way to avoid conscription- so you need to find out if you are “overboard”.
Son I am only 2 inches taller than you. and and though you can whoop my ass Roy Nelson(or barry Bonds). You should consider your health as well. You can do the army it will just be a menial desk job. Whether at foreign affairs or some other stuff. My friend is the army and he didn’t even fire a gun during basic. What is your reason for joining? You just want to get it over with or are you looking for some real challenge.
If you want a real challenge I recommend you go to goarmy.com where you will actually leave with better skills and government hookups to civilian jobs.
if you want to get it over with just go to military affairs of your local district. Where they’ll call your number up and most likely you’ll get alternative service options which is more or less a dead end job and an utter waste of time.
Hopefully you won’t get too many snarky posters asking whether you’re sure it’s sleep apnea and not some sort of mental problem, if you WANT to do military service in Taiwan. 