David Y. Lee for The New York Times
Capt. Kerry Hunt, a Navy doctor, assisted by Sharon Thomas, an ophthalmic technician, performing laser surgery on Midshipman Colin Carroll.
Posted on 06/19/2006 10:21:54 PM PDT by neverdem
BETHESDA, Md., June 17 — Almost every Thursday during the academic year, a bus carrying a dozen or so Naval Academy midshipmen leaves Annapolis for the 45-minute drive to Bethesda, where Navy doctors perform laser eye surgery on them, one after another, with assembly-line efficiency.
Nearly a third of every 1,000-member Naval Academy class now undergoes the procedure, part of a booming trend among military personnel with poor vision. Unlike in the civilian world, where eye surgery is still largely done for convenience or vanity, the procedure's popularity in the armed forces is transforming career choices and daily life in subtle but far-reaching ways.
Aging fighter pilots can now remain in the cockpit longer, reducing annual recruiting needs. And recruits whose bad vision once would have disqualified them from the special forces are now eligible, making the competition for these coveted slots even tougher.
But the surgery is also causing the military some unexpected difficulties. By shrinking the pool of people who used to be routinely available for jobs that do not require perfect eyesight, it has made it harder to fill some of those assignments with top-notch personnel, officers say.
When Ensign Michael Shaughnessy had the surgery in his junior year at the Naval Academy, his new 20-20 vision qualified him for flight school. And that is where he decided to go after graduating last month ranked in the top 10 percent of his class, rather than pursuing a career as a submarine officer.
"The cramped environment in submarines is something that turned me off," Ensign Shaughnessy, 22, said.
For generations, Academy graduates with high grades and bad eyes were funneled into the submarine service. But in the five years since the Naval Academy began offering free eye surgery to all midshipmen, it has missed its annual quota for...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Want free universal health care you NYT puke, enlist you liberal bastard.
Ops, that would be suicide, I mean the NYT does things to help kill our troops like cut off intel gained by Al-Qaeda calls made to their sleeper cells in the US.
Stinking Liberal Bastrds.
Just figured it out, the NYT doesn't want TopGun to have 20/20 vision. All the better to stab our pilots in the back.
Just figured it out, the NYT doesn't want TopGun to have 20/20 vision. All the better to stab our pilots in the back.
Just figured it out, the NYT doesn't want TopGun to have 20/20 vision. All the better to stab our pilots in the back.
I don't see the downside the Times is complaining about here. So the students with improved vision are now able to pursue their "dream" careers. The one they quoted said he didn't like the confined space of a submarine anyway, so he wouldn't have been happy there even without the opportunity for another goal. So. . .I must be missing something.
I don't get it. Let's say there are 100 openings for pilots and 200 graduating cadets apply. Only 100 will get the job. Now with the new laser surgery, 400 apply. still only 100 wil get the job leaving the others to be assigned to other duties such as submarines.
"Wow. That is quite the spin. Leave it to the NYT to methodically search for a downside to this. As a side note, this is, imo, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century."
Oh, most anything is a negative if it allows for more servicemen to achieve their goals--but they'd NEVER be caught bitching about how their own lefty goals are promoted by technological progress. For instance, you'll never hear them bitch about how modern sanitation allows all those damnyankees to pile onto Manhattan.
Of those that qualify for flight school only 2% ever make it to carrier fighter qualified, the rest either wind up in choppers or transports or wash out.
Typical Times. If Hollywood actors were doing this they'd be praising them. I'll be glad when the entire Times building sinks into the Hudson.
LOL. Exactly.
Not nice to wish mass pollution on anything. The river, I mean.
Just another in a long line of problems the military has to face, according to the wacked out media. Too many people with good eyesight. Who would have ever thought that would be a major problem. But according to the slimes, not enough blind men to operate submarines. Thank God we have the media to root out these problems for us, to guide us, to lead us through life. (gag)
But the Navy and Marine Corps need a whole lot of pilots - not everyone gets to fly an F/A-18, lots of helos and P3s and S2s and E2Cs and ...... Personally, I don't see any downside here.
That's an incredible attrition rate: does that include all carrier-based aircaft like A-6s and S2s?
IIRC, submarine service is all-volunteer. You can't be assigned to sub service against your will.
Yes.
You are missing my point. I was trying to say that no matter how many apply for flight training only a fixed amount will get it. Leaving the others open to re-assignment or volunteer for other duties.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.