Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/vision requirements

Advertisement

Expert: Rod Powers - 10/27/2009


Question
I have terrible vision.  I wear contacts with a -10.5 rating for each eye.  However, this hasn't changed for over 15 years.  (I am now 35).  I am not sure what this means in normal vision terms (i.e. 20/800, 20/ten-million, etc)...  But I know it is really bad.  In fact, I know of nobody with worse eyes than me, aside from the blind.

10 years ago I considering joining the Navy and told the recruiter my eyesight was very bad.  She asked if it was "correctable" to 20/20 (and it is - so I said Yes), and she replied that it would be no problem in that case.  I chose a different career at that time, however.

Recently I have considered joing the Navy Reserves, but when I looked into the vision requirements, it says nobody allowed with a rating greater than +/- 7.0

Have things changed? Or was I misled in the beginning? I don't want to go through all the hoops to join the reserves (although I would like to!) just to get turned away because my pre-corrected vision is outside their limits.

Answer
Hi Rob,

I don't know what the standards were 10 years ago.

Today, the standards are that you must have that does not exceed + 8.00 to - 8.00 diopters. Anything outside of this range requires a medical waiver (see: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/medicalwaiver.htm).

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my US Military information site at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
About.com US Military Guide
http://usmilitary.about.com

Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Rod Powers

Expertise

Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.

Experience

Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.

Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.