Priority Lasik surgery for Armed Forces

Special Forces groups and other units that are most likely to see combat in Iraq are being offered priority slots in free lasik surgery.

The Evans Army Community Hospital does about 500 lasik procedures a year.  The surgery must be done at least 90 days before a soldier deploys, according to military spokesmen.

There’s another eye clinic nearby, at the Air Force Academy.  This Academy recently became the first in the services to carry out Lasik procedures and then to allow pilots who had undergone the treatment to fly.

Pilots are not allowed to wear glasses or contact lenses.  There were also questions about whether pilots who had undergone Lasik treatment could safely eject from high-speed aircraft without suffering eye damage.

And at Fort Dix, a local surgeon, Dr. Joseph Dello Russo, is offering free Lasik eye surgery to soldiers going to Iraq.

Dr. Russo sets aside a day a month for these free Lasik surgery treatments.  He said that that any soldier wearing glasses would be under an additional handicap in combat.    Desert conditions would make contact lenses just as much of a problem.