DD Form 771, the military eyewear prescription, is the Department of Defense document your optometry clinic uses to order your spectacles, combat eye protection inserts, and gas mask inserts. You do not fill it out yourself. After your eye exam, an optometrist or technician completes the form, a prescribing officer signs it, and the clinic transmits it electronically to a fabrication lab. Knowing what the form captures and how the ordering process works helps you show up prepared and avoid delays before a deployment or training cycle.
Who Can Get Eyewear Ordered This Way
Active-duty members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard have full access to military eyewear services at no personal cost. Reserve and National Guard members qualify when called to active duty for 31 days or more.1United States Navy. Department of Defense Offers Refreshed Frame of Choice Eyewear Program Trainees in basic, recruit, ROTC, and academy programs receive standard-issue frames as part of initial processing.
Retirees can order eyewear through the Naval Ophthalmic Readiness Activity in Yorktown, Virginia, but they are not eligible for the Frame of Choice program.2TRICARE. Glasses and Contacts Prescription inserts for combat eye protection and gas masks are free to active-duty personnel. National Guard members, reservists not on active orders, and deploying civilians can get inserts on a reimbursable basis through their unit.3Navy Medicine. Inserts Your local optometry clinic verifies eligibility, so bring your military ID.
What the Form Contains
DD Form 771 is a single-page document with administrative and clinical sections. It records your name, pay grade, DoD ID number, unit address, phone number, service component, and duty status.4Washington Headquarters Services. DD Form 771 – Eyewear Prescription
The clinical section holds the prescription for each eye:
- Sphere, the base corrective power in diopters.
- Cylinder and axis, the astigmatism correction and its orientation.
- Horizontal and vertical prism, used when the eyes don’t align properly.
- Pupillary distance, which centers the lenses correctly.
- Near add and segment height for bifocal or progressive prescriptions.
Below the prescription, the form specifies frame style, eye size, bridge width, temple length, frame color, lens tint, and lens material. The prescribing officer’s signature validates the whole document.4Washington Headquarters Services. DD Form 771 – Eyewear Prescription Without the signature, the lab will not fabricate the order. Glance over these fields at your fitting so you can catch a wrong pupillary distance or cylinder value before you walk out.
What Eyewear You Can Request
Standard Issue and Frame of Choice
The default is the 5A standard-issue frame, which replaced the older brown S9 spectacles around 2012.5United States Army. Bye Bye BCGs New Glasses Issued to Trainees Trainees receive 5A frames automatically.
Permanent-party active-duty members, and Guard or Reserve on orders of 31 days or more, can choose from the Frame of Choice program instead, a selection of civilian-style plastic and metal frames.1United States Navy. Department of Defense Offers Refreshed Frame of Choice Eyewear Program Frame of Choice orders are always routine priority. If you need glasses before a deployment, go with standard-issue frames so the clinic can put you in the readiness lane.
Combat Eye Protection and Gas Mask Inserts
Prescription lens carriers for Military Combat Eye Protection systems are ordered through your local eye clinic. You need a current prescription and must know which MCEP spectacle or goggle system your unit uses; the clinic supplies the prescription insert only, not the protective frame.6DTIC. Military Combat Eye Protection The XM50 optical insert for the M50-series Joint Service General Purpose Mask and the UPLC insert for compatible ballistic eye protection can also be ordered through the Naval Ophthalmic Readiness Activity website.3Navy Medicine. Inserts
Polycarbonate is the standard lens material across military eyewear because of its impact resistance.
How the Order Gets Submitted
Once the prescribing officer signs your DD Form 771, the clinic transmits it electronically through the Spectacle Request Transmission System (SRTS), the sole DoD system for ordering and tracking military eyewear.7Military Health System. Spectacle Request and Transmission System Fact Sheet As of March 31, 2026, SRTS integrates directly with MHS Genesis and the Reserve Health Readiness Program, which automates prescription entry and cuts transcription errors.8Spectacle Request Transmission System. SRTSweb Home
Orders go to the Naval Ophthalmic Readiness Activity at Yorktown, Virginia, the primary fabrication lab for DoD eyewear. The clinic assigns a priority code in SRTS that determines how quickly the lab processes your order.
Priority Codes and Turnaround
Seven priority codes govern how fast the lab handles an order. Codes 1 through 5 are urgent and are processed at the lab within 24 hours of receipt.9Department of the Navy. Ophthalmic Services
- Priority 1, Readiness, for personnel deploying within 30 days. Frame of Choice spectacles cannot be ordered under this priority.
- Priority 2, Downed Pilot, for pilots with a significant vision change that would otherwise ground them. Applies only to flight frames.
- Priority 3, Trainee, for basic, recruit, ROTC, and academy trainees.
- Priority 4, Wounded Warrior, for eligible wounded personnel with traumatic brain injuries needing specialized lenses.
- Priority 5, VIP, for ranks O-7 and above.
- Priority 6, Standard Issue, routine processing for standard frames not covered above.
- Priority 7, Frame of Choice, always routine unless the recipient qualifies as a Wounded Warrior or active-duty VIP.
The priority code is entered in an SRTS drop-down menu or annotated in the comments section of the DD Form 771. If you have deployment orders, tell your clinic your timeline so they assign the readiness code. The lab will not upgrade a routine order based on comments alone.9Department of the Navy. Ophthalmic Services
Urgent orders reach the fabrication floor within 24 hours of arriving at the lab, and delivery to your clinic usually follows within a few business days depending on shipping. Routine orders take longer. The regulation directs the lab to fabricate them “as soon as possible,” and two to three weeks from order to pickup is a reasonable expectation. Complex prescriptions and specialty inserts can take longer. Your clinic notifies you when the eyewear arrives, and a technician verifies fit and prescription at pickup. If anything is off, the clinic can resubmit through SRTS.
Replacing Lost or Damaged Eyewear
If your glasses break or get lost, go back to the optometry clinic that issued them. As long as your prescription is still current, the clinic can resubmit a new order through SRTS without another full exam. Military prescriptions are generally valid for one to two years, but your clinic sets the specific expiration. If yours has lapsed, you will need a new exam before the clinic can generate a fresh DD Form 771.
For combat eye protection or gas mask inserts lost in the field, coordinate through your unit. Replacements follow the same ordering process, but your unit may need to handle reimbursement paperwork if you are a reservist or Guard member not on active orders.