According to my searching it looks like the latest information regarding LASIK is from 2009. Has the policy regarding this procedure been changed at all? I had the surgery back in 1998 and would be really devastated if this DQ's me from going CCT.

TE made a rather ambiguous post regarding this back on 09/05/09
when he said,

"As stated in the memos and posts LASIK is authorized for trained personnel, but is not authorized for MFF (per the Army Regulation):

(4) Any history of Laser-Assisted in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery is disqualifying.

A waiver may be possible."

So it is waiverable even under the current (2009) regulations, and if so, how attainable are such waivers?

Thanks so much for any information!

The post was ambiguous because the Air Force instructions are ambiguous.

I will check, but I do not think anything has been updated regarding LASIK and other eye surgeries.

I talked with a friend of mine just yesterday who is a PJ in the Air National Guard up here in Anchorage AK and he asked their recruiter about LASIK. He said that it is not an issue as long as your eyes remain stable (One year after surgery to be certain) and you must have documents showing you attended all of your follow up appointments and that there were no issues.

My PJ friend said he is working with at lest 3 or 4 other PJ's who have had LASIK.

The info you provide is sort of correct and has been in place since about 2007. The correct is the eye surgery must be at least 12 months in the past, stable and all documents of the surgery and follows showing no complication must be provided. But the unclear fine print is there is a limit on how much surgical refractive correction (diopters) needed to get 20/20 is acceptable (the lack of clarity is the more surgical correction needed the more area or areas of the eye under goes surgery and there is no easy way to describe it).

The other complication is most who get such surgery before enlisting or getting a military commission are unable to provide all the pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative documentation needed to get the waiver approval.

So the issue is stable one year after surgery, all pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative documentation is provided, and the refractive surgery is within the corrective preoperative and post operative values limits.

Thanks so much for the information. Hopefully once I track down all the documentation this shouldn't be a problem. If it is I'll deal with it one step at a time as I continue.

I believe he was using 'LASIK' as a general term for eye surgery as most people who have not looked into it might. Sorry for any confusion.

Also if you are able to find a clear-cut explanation of the documentation required please pass that along.

I would like to add something to this old thread which I believe to be pertinent to the discussion and the statements within the documents. Perhaps this will help someone looking at Lasik or whom has had Lasik.

I had Lasik surgery in both eyes in 1996, as I recall the date. I had the surgery done by one of the best surgeons in the SE, Sam Poppel of the Emerald Coast Eye Institute in Ft Walton Beach. Before the surgery I was legally blind without glasses, being extremely myopic with astigmatism and having an 8 point vertical dispersion between the two eyes. After the surgery and a 6 weeks recovery period, I had 20/30 vision in my left eye and 20/15 vision in my dominant right eye. I required light magnification reading glasses to see very close, small objects, clearly. I also used .50 shooting glasses to clear up the rear sights for open sight precision shooting as I shoot in competition (IPSC, IDPA, Plates, Pins, 3 Gun, Silhouette) and have since 1965.

Over the years my vision gradually deteriorated and I finally went in to see my eye surgeon last year, May of 2011, to see about the possibility or need for glasses. What I was told by the surgeon contradicts the USAF documents posted here in one way. The documents state that the excimer laser does not effect several items, including the lens of the eye. My surgeon told me in the fall of 2011 that the surgeons performing Lasik surgery, have recently found that Lasik surgery may well bring about early onset cataracts. In other words, the latest data according to my surgeon is that the lens may well be affected by the laser, on a long term basis.

So my trip to see about getting glasses ended up with lens replacement surgery. It was 16 years between events, but it should be noted that as you get older you may well be looking at lens replacement earlier than expected, after Lasik. There is a secondary effect as well. The formulas used to calculate the artificial lens needed to replace the natural lens, in the eye, for cataract surgery, is thrown off by the alteration from the Lasik. In my case the first lens had to be removed and replaced a second time to get me to a 20/20 point. The second eye’s lens then was replaced using the same adjustments to the formula as determined by the replacement of the first eye’s lens and it was a one shot replacement. But, I did have to have both lenses replaced at age 65 and after 16 years.

Your results my vary from mine but knowing all of the risk is better than going in blind, so to speak. Ask your surgeon first.