YORKTOWN, Va. — The eclipse on April 8 has many people talking about eye health. That's something Yorktown military members prioritize.
Roughly 3,000 pairs of glasses are made each day by men and women at the Naval Ophthalmic Readiness Activity (NORA) in Yorktown.
Their mission?
"Providing the sight to fight," said Capt. Brian Hatch, U.S. Navy, Optometrist, NORA.
It starts with education at the Tri-Service Optician School.
"We train future opticians," explained LPO Joshua Garnes, instructor at Tri-Service Optician School. "We teach them to make glasses."
"Surfacing is what we're in right now," added HM Tanner Steward, Tri-Service Optician School. "That's where we're actually making the lenses."
At NORA folks prepare prescriptions, and sort, verify and assemble eyewear.
The products are shipped all over the world to service members.
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It's the largest fabricating lab of its kind in the Department of Defense. They make everything from standard-issue frames to firefighter and gas mask inserts.
"Even the new F-35 pilots have a special device that was researched and developed by us here in conjunction with NAVAIR," added Capt. Hatch.
Capt. Hatch told News 3 that improvements in vision technology are helping more and more people in the military. And, he said, there's a reason why eye health is taken so seriously.
"In the Civil War days [it's said] if you didn't have three opposable molars you weren't physically qualified to be in the Army because they had to use teeth to bite the paper cartridge off the gunpowder cartridges to load their weapon," said Capt. Hatch. "Well we don't use our teeth to fire weapons these days but I don't know of any weapons system where you don't need good vision."
The glasses are given to other people on medical missions too. On each trip, Capt. Hatch estimates they bring along roughly 30,000 glasses.
"We like to [bring glasses to] communities that can't really afford healthcare," said HM3 Maxwell Church, U.S. Navy. Church said those trips are especially rewarding since they're helping many people correct vision issues for the first time.
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Those at the operation expect the need for eyewear to continue to grow.
A Vision Atlas report from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness predicts vision loss to double by 2050, impacting some 600 million new people across the globe. Much of that's due to aging populations and lifestyle changes, according to the report.
Corrective eyewear is just one step to eye health, optometrists said, they added it's important to have regular checkups with your doctor to catch vision problems before they get worse.
