A PRK (flapless LASIK) patient from Santa Maria that I saw in my San Luis Obispo office last week who is in the Army reserves told me he felt he was a far better soldier with his new “phenomenal” eyesight after his laser eye surgery and with his newfound freedom from glasses and contact lenses. Interestingly, a new study confirmed that this is very typical. Rose Sia, MD authored an study that recently was presented at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery international symposium. Dr. Sia noted that while several previous studies have demonstrated the objective outstanding visual performance of modern LASIK and PRK laser vision correction, no study had really looked at the on-the-ground, real world impact of these surgeries in a military readiness setting. Although most people do not realize this, the US military is one of the largest providers of laser vision correction in the nation, performing approximately 20% of all laser vision correction surgeries. In Dr. Sia’s study, 360 active duty members of the military were given performance questionnaires before surgery and 6 months after surgery. The military tends to prefer not to make a flap and, reflecting this, 66.9% underwent PRK laser eye surgery. Eight categories of actual military performance were studied, including “weapons sighting ability”, “overall individual readiness,” “ability to contribute to the unit’s mission,” “ability to utilize night vision goggles,” and “ability to function at night” using a 5 point scale, with 1 being worst and 5 being best. In all 8 categories, the average score after laser eye surgery was a perfect 5. 86% said this was an improvement compared to pre-operatively with glasses or contacts for “ability to utilize night vision goggles,” and 65% said this was an improvement compared to pre-operatively for “ability to function at night.” 77% of respondents said their overall visual capabilities and military readiness had improved compared to before surgery with their glasses or contacts. 98.8% said they would have the surgery again if they were in the same position as before surgery. This is an important study given the number of military personnel having LASIK or PRK. It is consistent with previous studies as well as a study I presented a few years ago at the same meeting as well as other meetings showing 96% of our patients subjectively say that their vision was better both after custom wavefront LASIK and custom wavefront PRK than it was with their glasses or contact lenses.