Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - September 13, 1986
However, enlisted men and women in officer candidate schools will be allowed to stay in the service if they show no signs of the actual disease, although they will be denied commissions.
The new policy is contained in a memorandum to the armed forces signed Aug. 25 by Deputy Defense Secretary William H. Taft 4th and made public Friday.
The directive was described as an effort to make sure the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps follow the same procedures in addressing the status of individuals who were previously enrolled in "officer-producing programs."
Only Exposure Is Indicated
The Pentagon is already conducting the most extensive testing program in the world for exposure to a virus associated with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, from which no one has been known to recover. Starting last October, it began testing every recruit for the AIDS antibody, and it is now expanding its blood-screening examinations to all personnel on active duty.
The blood screening the Pentagon uses can indicate only that a person has been exposed to a virus associated with AIDS, not whether he or she will get the disease. But it has been accepted by the Defense Department as the only tool available to chart the course of the disease.
Any recruit or new student at a service academy who shows signs of exposure is automatically blocked from military service. Since last October the Pentagon has tested 466,629 recruits, of whom 649 men and 40 women were found exposed to the virus and were denied admission to the military.
Men and women already on active duty who are found to have been exposed but show no sign of the disease itself may remain on active duty, but they are monitored.
Compassion Is Suggested
Before Mr. Taft's directive, the Pentagon had not addressed the issue of how to handle men and women who were in officer training programs before the AIDS tests began. Generally, the new policy says that commanders should exercise compassion in discharging such individuals, but it allows no challenges against the dismissals.
Men and women attending the three service academies whose tests for AIDS show exposure "may" be allowed to complete the academic year, the directive says. It adds that an exposed senior cadet or midshipman "may be graduated without commission and thereafter discharged."
Those already enrolled in a college R.O.T.C. program "shall be immediately disenrolled from the program," but "shall be permitted to retain any financial support through the end of the academic semester." The directive says the services may not demand that R.O.T.C. students discharged because of exposure to the virus repay any financial aid they received. The Pentagon said Friday that the new policy might affect "a very small" number of people because "we already test individuals seeking to enter these programs and reject those who test positive."
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