Lasik before the Military?
History of Ophthalmologic Disorders such as excessive refractive error: +/- 8.00 diopters sphere, +/- 4.00 diopters cylinder. LASIK and PRK surgery to include preoperative refractive measurements. Note: PRK, LASEK, and LASIK are disqualifying if: --pre-surgery refractive error was greater than +-8 diopters (I think it is +-10 or 12 for the Army) --less than 6 months have passed since surgery --you still need medications or treatment stemming from the surgery --your eyes have not stabilized --you have not had an eye exam measuring refraction at least 3 months after the surgery --you have keratitis --you have corneal vascularization or opacification that puts your vision below enlistment standards --you have uveitis or iridocyclitis
LASIK eye surgery before Military?
You should NOT get the LASIK now / your recruiter knows the rules. You will be so busy the first many weeks of basic training that the eyeglasses will be the least of your worries. AND the government will pay for your LASIK, so why incur the expenses now? If you want to get better ready for the military come February, then jog/run every other day 3 days a week; plus do push-up and crunch-exercises, too. Get some exercises from this video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JM-Sma6U...
Military lasik eye surgery?
Are you in Tricare Reserves? if so then contact the Tricare Office for your area to find out what providers are accepted. Then you speak to the providers and find out if they do a military discount. Even those who are Active Duty can not always get it done, the wait list for it can be long and many choose to go out in town and pay for it out of pocket.
Does the military pay for LASIK or PRK?
YES! (I know because I had it last February). But it is only for active duty, and it has to be available in you're area. I am stationed in North Carolina, and they have the refractive eye surgery program. I had to do a packet requesting the surgery, and I had to state that I will not deploy within 6 moths after the surgery. The packet had to get signed by my commander. Then I went to the eye doctor, they did an eye exam, and did some measurements. After that I had a briefing with the doctor, who explained the surgery. They give you some Valium before the surgery to calm you're nerves, and they put numbing drops in you're eye about 20 minutes before the surgery. Once you go into the operation room, they sit you down on the chair, prop your eye lids open, put the machine over your eye, do some measurements, and zap your eyes. they give you ocxy to help you get by the first week, and after a month your vision goes back to 100%. before the surgery i needed glasses to see any details 5 feet away from my face, now I have 20/15 vision.
I recently got disqualified from the military because of bad vision. What options do I have to get ahead in life before I get LASIK and try again?
The US Army's AR 40-501 says:"...Current refractive error (hyperopia (367.0), myopia (367.1), astigmatism (367.2)), or history of refractive error prior to any refractive surgery manifest by any refractive error in spherical equivalent of worse than -8.00 or +8.00 diopters does not meet the standard. However, for entrance into USMA or Army ROTC programs, the following conditions do not meet the standard: (1) Astigmatism, all types over 3 diopters. (2) Hyperopia over 8.00 diopters spherical equivalent. (3) Myopia over 8 diopters spherical equivalent. (4) Refractive error corrected by orthokeratology or keratorefractive surgery. e. Contact lenses. Current complicated cases requiring contact lenses for adequate correction of vision, such as corneal scars (371) and irregular astigmatism (367.2), do not meet the standard..."In other words if your presurgical refractive error did not meet the requirements for enlistment of for entrance into an officer program, you still won't be accepted. You can ask for a waiver. Be persistent.
Can you join the military if you had LASIK surgery?
You must wait until at least 6 months after the surgery and after any complications have been cleared up (like the guy who said he saw halos for a month - 6 months after that stops). LASIK is a DQ for certain schools and training, like airborne and diving. The military prefers PRK, so if you're going to do it, that's the better surgery to get. It doesn't DQ you from airborne or diving.
If I get LASIK or IntraLase before I go to US military flight school, will they disqualify me?
I would like to become an officer in the US navy and fly but my vision is horrible without correction. I wouldn't mind paying for it myself if I have to but Im not sure is getting LASIK now would be worth it or not. My number one goal is to become an astronaut.
Will the military pay for LASIK before you go to basic training?
Sorry, there's simply no avoiding the Birth-Control Glasses for near-sighted folks during initial entry training. That said, I got laser eye surgery (PRK, not LASIK) shortly after arriving at my first duty assignment and it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. So you know, clinics offer both types of eye surgery, but the LASIK will disqualify you from certain jobs and special schools, while the PRK won't.
LASIK before bootcamp?
You're in RPS? Are you going into the reserve or national guard? OR is this some kind of DEP RSP? If you're going USAR or Guard wait until you're done with your training. LASIK has a tendency to make patients eyes really dry for several months after the procedure and you can have "star-bursts" around lights seen at night, which might mess you up for night time training. (though not severely). If you're going Active, again, wait till after training. AD Soldiers can easily have PRK (the military prefers PRK over LASIK) done. Simply go to sick call and ask for a consult to the Warfighter Refractive Surgery clinic once you get to your first duty station. I had LASIK, but I should have gone with PRK. LASIK can disqualify you for some jobs in the Army like pilot, diver, high altitude parachuting, etc.
I'm enlisting in the Marines and want LASIK surgery. Will they pay for it? If so how and when should I request it?
The answers here pretty much covered it, but I have some things I wanted to add.I have a small amount of experience with this because I got LASIK while I was in the military but I wasn't able to get it through the military. I ended up having to go out-of-pocket to get it done through a civilian doctor because I didn't have the service requirements for it.If you are serious about getting LASIK while you're in the Marines, this next point is very important. To be eligible for government-sponsored LASIK, you must have at least 24 months time-in-service and no less than 12 months remaining on your contract. This means if you are only doing four years you have a window of 12 months to apply for the procedure and get on the waiting list. I am not positive on whether you have to reach the end of the waiting list before the twelve months are up or whether it is sufficient to be on the waiting list during that timeframe. Needless to say, the government is not going to waste the money on doing an elective surgery on you when you only have a few months left.As I mentioned, I did not get LASIK through the military because I did not make the time window. Obviously, if you re-enlist, that will give you plenty of time to get it done, which is kind of the point.Other considerations:Paying out of pocket is expensive, but still doable (I paid ~$3000 for mine)A military doctor is held to different standards than a civilian doctor. An eye surgeon working out of a private practice has to try to get total satisfaction from you because that's how he gets customers.If you decide to get it done through the military, you'll have to get command approval. Wait until you get to your unit, then go to an optometry department at a naval hospital and ask them about getting LASIK and they'll give you the forms you need.Make note of what I said about command approval. Your command has to decide whether it's going to be worth spending government money to pay for your surgery, so you need to show them that you're worth spending money on.Incidentally, even if you get it done through a civilian you still have to get command approval for the time off required to make your appointments. That's just how the military works.TL; DRTalk to your someone from the optometry department when you get to your unit. Make sure you get the timing right - you need at least 24 months time-in-service and no less than 12 months left on your contract.