Question About BCGs/Perscription Eyewhere in General

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Stormtrooper30

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I know that during West Point combat training excersices you have to where the required BCGs that they issue you. But after the initial summer training can you wear contacts or your civilian eyewear during classes?

I was looking at the 2009 CBT photos on USMA's website and I saw cadets wearing shooting glasses while they shot. Is it possible (either while at West Point or when you actually enter the Army after graduation) to get perscription shooting glasses for use on the range/during combat situations? I beleive I read somewhere that contacts are not allowed while out in the field, so can a soldier wear perscription sunglasses or shooting glasses instead of the God-awful BCGs?

Just wondering as it is something that bugs me about USMA. The training and rigor I can do without complaint, but those BCGs just irritate me. Call me crazy.
 
During the academic year you can wear your own glasses or contacts. I don't know about the sunglasses or shooting glasses.
 
For the field you wear BCG or the attachments with prescription to the standard eye pro. Basically no normal glasses since they don't offer decent protection but you can find other things besides BCG that can protect your eyes.
 
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For CFT (cadet field training after plebe year), cadets wear eye protection over their contact lenses. BCGs are not worn after beast, or at least they were not worn by my nearsighted cadet.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I'm on the trap/skeet shooting team at my high school and I wear my contacts with standard shooting glasses. The reason I asked is that one time I was shooting a slug from a 12 ga. shotgun with my glasses on. The kick was so hard that my glasses actually cut my face in two different places. Now I understand that the only weapons being fired at CBT are rifles, but that one accident concerns me.

But enough of my blabbering. If you don't have to wear then again after the first summer then I'm happy.
 
Stormtrooper30 said:
Thanks for the responses.

I'm on the trap/skeet shooting team at my high school and I wear my contacts with standard shooting glasses. The reason I asked is that one time I was shooting a slug from a 12 ga. shotgun with my glasses on. The kick was so hard that my glasses actually cut my face in two different places. Now I understand that the only weapons being fired at CBT are rifles, but that one accident concerns me.

But enough of my blabbering. If you don't have to wear then again after the first summer then I'm happy.
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Actually they changed CBT this year. We fired machine guns (M240B and M249) and even M203 (grenage launcher on the M4) as well as the AT4 (anti tank speaks for itself) and claymores so who knows what the future CBT will hold.
 
America's Finest said:
Actually they changed CBT this year. We fired machine guns (M240B and M249) and even M203 (grenage launcher on the M4) as well as the AT4 (anti tank speaks for itself) and claymores so who knows what the future CBT will hold.
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Haha, claymores in basic training eh? Sounds like you had a chance to have a little bit of fun.

Are there any vision requirements to branch aviation and fly helicopters? I've got a slight stigmatism in both eyes and where contacts to correct them. I've read somewhere that you need to have really good eyes to play planes in the Air Force. Are there strict eyesight requirements to fly with Army, or does a clearence from DoDMerb allow you to do everything?
 
Stormtrooper30- If I remember correctly, you need 20/50 vision correctable to 20/20 (I can't recall the regulation that governs this). That's not to say, however, if you have vision worse than 20/50 and wear glasses/contacts that there's no hope. Now the Army is granting waivers for LASIK, LASEK, and PRK and eye surgeons at the academy are actively performing these procedures on hundreds of cadets per year (at least they were as of 2007...current cadets feel free to correct me or provide updates). I and many of my peers are examples of cadets who had less than adequate vision, had eye surgery, and are now Army Aviators. As far as astigmatism, I'm not sure how that impacts passing a flight physical. If it's just slight, it might not even come up. But to answer you question, no- passing a DODMERB physical does not qualify you for everything, just entrance into the academy. There are more stringent requirements for some things, like aviation.
 
I believe you are eligible for the surgery after the cow committment.
 
Thanks TPG for clearing up the perscription shooting glasses.

KWpilot said:
Stormtrooper30- If I remember correctly, you need 20/50 vision correctable to 20/20 (I can't recall the regulation that governs this). That's not to say, however, if you have vision worse than 20/50 and wear glasses/contacts that there's no hope. Now the Army is granting waivers for LASIK, LASEK, and PRK and eye surgeons at the academy are actively performing these procedures on hundreds of cadets per year (at least they were as of 2007...current cadets feel free to correct me or provide updates). I and many of my peers are examples of cadets who had less than adequate vision, had eye surgery, and are now Army Aviators. As far as astigmatism, I'm not sure how that impacts passing a flight physical. If it's just slight, it might not even come up. But to answer you question, no- passing a DODMERB physical does not qualify you for everything, just entrance into the academy. There are more stringent requirements for some things, like aviation.
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Now this eye surgery thing is completely new to me. I had no idea that the Army was willing to correct vision surgically. My parents briefly talked about getting me laser eye treatment, but that was 5 or 6 years ago and they couldn't correct astigmatism. That may not me the case now. If I could see correctly without glasses/contacts... I would be so happy.
 
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