DHA Form 237 is the application active duty service members use to request LASIK, PRK, or SMILE surgery through the military’s Warfighter Refractive Eye Surgery Program. The form has three sections: your personal information, your commander’s endorsement, and your signed acknowledgment that the procedure is elective. Once every block is complete, you submit it with any supporting documents to one of the roughly 26 military refractive surgery centers, which screens the packet and contacts you to schedule a pre-operative evaluation.
Confirm You’re Eligible Before You Start
The program is open to all active duty service members and to activated National Guard and Reserve personnel across every branch.1Womack Army Medical Center. Warfighter Refractive Eye Surgery Program To qualify, you need:
- At least six months remaining on active duty from the projected surgery date. Some branches and individual centers require up to twelve months.2Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application
- A commander willing to endorse the request, confirming you are not scheduled to deploy or move during the healing window.
- No pending disciplinary or administrative separation actions.1Womack Army Medical Center. Warfighter Refractive Eye Surgery Program
- An optometry exam within the past 24 months showing a stable prescription.
Reserve and Guard members must be on active orders long enough to cover surgery and full recovery. PRK carries a longer recovery than LASIK, so some facilities want more time remaining on your contract for PRK candidates.
Gather Everything Before You Fill It Out
Collecting your information upfront prevents the back-and-forth that delays most packets:
- Full legal name, rank or grade, date of birth, and either your DoD ID number or Social Security Number, depending on the version of the form your center uses.2Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application
- Your unit’s official designation and your commander’s full name, rank, and phone number.
- Your most recent optometry records showing a stable prescription.
- A plan to stop wearing contacts well before your pre-operative screening. Timelines vary by facility and lens type: soft lenses generally require at least 14 to 30 days out, rigid gas-permeable or hard lenses require 90 days.3Keller Army Community Hospital. Refractive Surgery Program
Some facilities require additional paperwork beyond the form itself. At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, for example, the submission packet also includes a managed care agreement and a MEDCOM Form 756 authorizing the center to email appointment information.4Defense Health Agency. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application Check your local center’s website before you start.
Filling Out the Three Sections
Section I — Patient Information
This is your section. The form’s instructions say to fill in every block completely and accurately.2Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application Enter your name, rank, identification number, and date of birth exactly as they appear in your official personnel records. If you know which procedure you prefer, note it, but the surgical team makes the final call on which procedure fits your eyes.
Section II — Commander’s Endorsement
Your commander reviews and signs this section. The endorsement confirms you have enough time left on active duty, are not deploying during recovery, and that the surgery will not hurt unit readiness.2Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application
The signature has to come from a specific level of command. For Army and Marines, that’s a battalion commander. For Air Force, Space Force, and Navy, it’s a squadron commander. If your commander is unavailable, the first officer in the chain of command who holds G-series orders or assumption-of-command orders can sign instead.4Defense Health Agency. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application A company-grade or staff officer signature will get your packet sent back.
Section III — Patient Acknowledgment
You sign here to confirm you understand the procedure is elective and that you will attend every follow-up appointment the refractive surgery center schedules.2Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application Missing post-operative checks can jeopardize both your recovery and your medical readiness status.
Where to Submit the Application
Once every section is signed, submit the form and any supplemental documents to the refractive surgery center where you want to be evaluated. Most service members start with an eye exam at a local optometrist, who can help identify and contact the nearest center.5My Army Benefits. Military Laser Eye Surgery: Enhancing Vision Readiness Submission methods vary. Some centers accept hand-delivered paper packets; others use a secure upload portal. Electronic signatures are standard for the commander’s endorsement at most facilities.
The form itself is available through the Defense Health Agency’s forms management page, which requires Common Access Card authentication, or through the WRESP packet posted on individual center websites.4Defense Health Agency. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application If anything is missing or incomplete, clinical staff return the packet without action.
What Happens After You Submit
The center performs an administrative screening to confirm your paperwork is in order. If everything checks out, expect to hear back within 30 business days by phone or email to schedule a pre-operative evaluation.4Defense Health Agency. DHA Form 237 Refractive Surgery Application If you have not been contacted after that window, follow up with the center directly.
The pre-operative evaluation is the real gatekeeping step. Surgeons perform corneal mapping and a thorough eye health assessment to determine whether your eyes are suitable for laser correction. Thin corneas, unstable prescriptions, significant dry eye, and certain conditions like moderate-to-severe diabetic retinopathy can disqualify you at this stage regardless of what your application says. Approved members receive a surgery date and specific preparation instructions, including when to stop wearing contacts if they have not already.
Throughout the waiting period, you need to keep the same eligibility status documented on your form. A sudden deployment order, an adverse action, or separation from active duty before surgery will pull you out of the queue.
Why the Commander’s Signature Isn’t a Formality
After surgery, service members typically receive five to seven days of convalescent leave followed by a 30-day limited-duty profile that bars physical fitness testing and field exercises.1Womack Army Medical Center. Warfighter Refractive Eye Surgery Program The non-deployable window depends on the procedure. LASIK carries a minimum one-month non-deployable period; PRK carries at least three months.6Headquarters Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. BUMEDINST 6490.1 Attendance at high-intensity schools like Ranger School, Airborne, or Air Assault is restricted for 90 days post-surgery. Endorsing your surgery means your commander is accepting your limited availability for a real stretch of time, which is why the endorsement carries the weight it does.
A Note on VA Disability for Complications
Because the surgery is elective, complications do not automatically qualify for VA service-connected disability. The VA’s adjudication guidance treats common side effects such as dry eye syndrome as expected outcomes of an elective procedure rather than service-connected conditions.7Veterans Affairs. Board of Veterans’ Appeals Decision 19186046 Service connection may still be possible if you experience an unusual result or additional disability beyond what is normally expected. The Board of Veterans’ Appeals has noted that these internal guidelines are not binding regulations, so individual cases can be decided differently, but the default posture is that routine post-surgical side effects from an elective procedure do not warrant a disability rating.