Exercise Mountain Shield, Task Force 11, and visual readiness

This report, in an effort to assist in the development of future operational and planning guidelines, presents data from a no-notice exercise involving an aviation brigade in Germany preparing for possible deployment to Bosnia. One hundred twenty-two soldiers (of 918) requested vision screening during predeployment processing. Twenty-four possessed 20/20 vision or better and simply required duplicate orders of needed eyewear. Ninety-eight required an updated refraction. The three battalion-level units provided equal numbers of soldiers requiring screening and examination. Although the lower enlisted grades presented in the greatest numbers, the distribution in terms of percentage was equivalent across all ranks. Myopes outnumbered hyperopes with a spherical distribution peak at -1.50 diopters, and a majority possessed 1.00 diopter of astigmatism or less. Assuming 40% of all soldiers are spectacle wearers (ametropic), this brigade of 518 soldiers had, then, roughly 210 ametropes, with 60% of them (122) requiring last-minute ordering of required eyewear, 98 of those after refractive examination. Possible solutions to this readiness issue have been developed but require sufficient command emphasis to be effective.