Originally Posted by AZFlyer

Disclaimer: I am not a military pilot, but I had many similar questions as the OP.

About 5 years ago I had applied to an air guard unit, went to visit, met the right people in the squadron (a pilot in that unit was recommending me and he brought me around and introduced me to everyone). The visit went well and a week later my contact in the unit called me and said they would be comfortable just having me do a phone interview (I lived out of state at the time, but with intentions to be local to the unit). I took that as a good sign.

I then said to my contact that my eyesight was pretty bad, as in outside the 20/70 uncorrected, and would thus require a waiver. My intent was to get a foot in the door and then deal with the eyesight issue. My contact takes this info back and then returns to me with the news that they liked me, but they also liked others who wouldn't need any extra effort with eye-sight waivers, etc, and that I could voluntarily elect to obtain WFG PRK and apply again next year. Disappointing of course, but I graciously said 'ok, thank you' and began speaking with the units flight surgeon about the ins and outs of what is allowed for corrective eye surgery for UPT applicants. WFG PRK was the ticket he said, and I said 'ok, thank you' and knew that I wouldn't have a shot if I didn't try, so I had the procedure done and applied again next year.

Unfortunately by then, my contact had transferred units and the unit experienced a reduction in manning requirements, so no air guard for me as I would be too old to apply elsewhere next year.

I don't know if any other procedure besides WFG PRK is acceptable, but if nothing has changed, then you're good with that. It was highly successful, as I had 20/10 and 20/15 in my left and right eye, respectively. The healing and recovery process was also slow and quite painful (extreme dryness that for the first few weeks is very painful, like sandpaper being rubbed on your eyes). But the final results were worth it. Never made it into the guard/military, but I have perfect vision anyways, so it wasn't a total loss.

Anyways thats all food for thought. Hopefully you've got a few years longer than I had when I started thinking about the whole process. Good luck to you! Talking to the units flight surgeon and receiving the relevant regs for my own reading helped clarify things...but definitely listen to the guys on this forum, lots of good info from them.