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Eyes see danger

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Valerie Hosea
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  When Airman deploy, they must stay vigilant at all times, relying greatly on sight.
 
Sheppard AFB is home to a course that teaches Airmen how to care for fellow Airmens's eyes to maintain good health and mission readiness.

Airmen in the Optometry and Ophthalmology course receive more than 450 hours of instruction where they learn about everything from a general optometry check-up to assisting with surgery.

Master Sgt. Michael Wild, 383rd OOC instructor, said 58 to 75 Airmen graduate the course each year with the critical skills to keep the Air Force mission-ready.

"We're not your traditional medics," he said. "We deal specifically with the anatomy and physiology of the eye. We make gas mask inserts and eye wear; we use eye care equipment and we provide care for Airmen's eyes."

Sergeant Wild said while Airmen in optometry and ophthalmology treat the eye, the eye-safety gear they produce is just as important for eye care.

"The Air Force Ballistic Eye Program was created to protect Airmen from preventable eye injuries," Sergeant Wild said. "When I was overseas in 2005 before the program began, there were a lot more injuries. We performed about 500 eye surgeries with most of them caused by flying debris.

"When I went back in 2008, we only performed 120 surgeries with most of them caused by facial lacerations. The eyeball was much more protected then," he said.

Sergeant Wild said graduates from the OOC course who know how to use the eye-care equipment can be very beneficial to others, especially in a deployed location.

"When an aviator was involved in a laser incident, they had to be sent to Germany to be checked out, even though sometimes they were perfectly fine," he said. "Now, we have the technology to create and send a digital record of the concern we're looking at to Germany. That process prevents the need to send the individual, saving the government millions of dollars each year."

Sergeant Wild said OOC has an impact on the entire Air Force, no matter what the career is.

"Everyone, from aviators to flightline drivers, rely on their eye sight and that affects every part of the Air Force," he said. "If an Airman can't see, they're not able to function and they're not getting the mission done. We help to prevent that."