Most armies expect people to do basic training before they can be an officer. This is even if the person comes in with a degree.
Army life isn't my cup of tea but some people would like it.
If you're really keen to join, just answer the questions as honestly as possible and see what happens.
I've rung up recruiters in the UK to ask this question for various people, and the results I got were:
Army and Air Force - an ASD diagnosis is an 'automatic bar' to service
Navy - there is no set rule on ASD, but you will have to convince them that you can deal with all the aspects of the service.
All of them had to go away and ask someone what autism was, but when they came back with their final answers they seemed definite. However, this was over six months ago, and the way that UK forces are stretched they may have loosened up.
Also, I second being a reservist to see if it suits you. In the UK the Territorial Army (TA) pay you when you're on training or active service, which is a bonus. If you are at university (at least in the UK) then a lot of them have associated army-type things (I can't remember the name off the top of my head), which go out on training excercises etc. They give you an idea of the routine, without going on active service.
Well, I'm completely paranoid about being drafted.
Been there and done that, too, but a few days after my 37th birthday I am wondering why.
About.com has a link to some PDF on military enlistment qualifications, which I presume would be identical to qualifications for draftees.
Reading that really helped. Multiple disqualification criteria.
Physical: definitely Sleep apnea, possibly type II diabetes, cancer surgery or both. Morbid obesity, likely.
Mental: Definitely mental health treatment longer than six months, active major depression although usually controlled possible, food addiction I dunno.
All the same I wish we'd stop killing the National Guard and the volunteer army. Who is going to want to serve now? It is going to get as bad as my college history professor described the Russian army under Peter the Great. Gonna start telling our young adults Nas BeDonya or whatever when they enlist too?
History Channel not long ago: Civil War battle, Union troops faced Confederate men over 45 and teenagers. Consensus that either make poor troops.
Review the United States Code some time. We haven't had much to do drafting or registering men over 35 since the Second World War. The 1940 draft was up to age 35. So was the Rebel draft. Usually not till they run out of everyone else (think Hitler's army of 12 year old boys in the last month of the war).
But if some nuke goes off somewhere, it could start really scaring people. The Learning Channel (Doomsday, On The Brink, 1997): every weapon in the 30,000 years of history of Cro Magnon homo sapiens sapiens, proliferated, we might keep a lid on nuke proliferation for a few more decades but not centuries or millenia. Any possibility with a likelihood greater than zero will eventually happen.
On the other hand, if it comes to nukes, we're all dead anyway. Far too quickly for a draft anyhow.
Revelations discusses the kings for an hour, the kings and great men and slaves in the "caves" (what a first century observer would call bunkers, certainly Saint John would think NORAD looked like a cave, in a mountain). If you were the acting Commander in Chief in a bunker some where, you'd probably have an hour to live.
In order to become an officer, you have to go through basic training first and work your way up from the bottom.
No, and in fact most officer were never at any point enlisted. At least not in the US armed forces.
The standard way to become an officer is to do ROTC in college, and when you graduate you receive commision as whatever an O1 for your branch of the service is.
Going to OCS after being enlisted is unusual enough that the standard term for such folks is "mavericks"
In order to become an officer, you have to go through basic training first and work your way up from the bottom.
No, and in fact most officer were never at any point enlisted. At least not in the US armed forces.
The standard way to become an officer is to do ROTC in college, and when you graduate you receive commision as whatever an O1 for your branch of the service is.
Going to OCS after being enlisted is unusual enough that the standard term for such folks is "mavericks"
Or "mustang".
oops. brain fart.
not "or"at all.
been a while (and as you know, my carrer was quite short 
). Mustang is the right term, yes?
In order to become an officer, you have to go through basic training first and work your way up from the bottom.
No, and in fact most officer were never at any point enlisted. At least not in the US armed forces.
The standard way to become an officer is to do ROTC in college, and when you graduate you receive commision as whatever an O1 for your branch of the service is.
Going to OCS after being enlisted is unusual enough that the standard term for such folks is "mavericks"
Or "mustang".
oops. brain fart.
not "or"at all.
been a while (and as you know, my carrer was quite short ). Mustang is the right term, yes?