(807th Medical Command) — At the Gualo Rai Children’s Park Youth Center, four service members from the Naval Ophthalmic Readiness Activity of Yorktown, Va. are assembling eye glasses for the residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota as part of the Innovative Readiness Training-Operation Wellness CNMI from June 12 to 19, 2023.
Two Army and two Navy opticians are working together as a Mobile Optometric Support Unit, which has all the equipment required to assemble approximately 150 pairs of glasses per day.
In the first four days of the IRT mission, the team fabricated more than 450 pairs of eyeglasses. But because of the high number of eyecare providers at the IRT’s three sites, optical orders exceeded 730 within the same amount of time.
Due to the rapidly declining on-hand inventory, capacity limitations, and pack-out timelines for fabrication, the optometry clinics will curtail transmitting optical orders on Monday, July 17, and will transition clinical operations from ordering eyewear to providing patients with eye health exams and a full optical prescription to purchase glasses if desired.
The most common request on the islands are eyeglasses for near vision. Low-cost “readers” can typically be the ideal solution as they are readily available at most variety stores or optical shops.
An Army optician performs the final check on eyeglasses fabricated at no cost to the community on Saipan during the Innovative Readiness Training-Operation Wellness CNMI on July 16.
