| Popis: |
If protection of the eyes of combat soldiers were a simple affair, that protection would have been provided long ago.J. FAIR, 1952 27 Attempts to protect the soldier's body in war have been made since at least the fifth millennium BC. 70 Although many energetic and creative individuals have attempted to develop eye armor, the great majority of emmetropic American infantry, the soldiers most at risk, continue to enter combat with their eyes as exposed to the hazards of war as were the eyes of the first bellicose humanoid. The following is an account of the development of eye protection for the American infantry, a 20-year effort that culminated in the production and distribution of such eye armor for the emmetrope and ametrope, protective against the small missile and blunt-force threat and against some of the eye-threatening laser wavelengths. This article is primarily concerned with the protection of the eyes of the infantry, the soldiers who suffer by far the preponderance of injuries in war and who are "the most valued component of the military force." 3 It is necessary to define eye armor as the term is used in this article because the eye is vulnerable to many threats, but protection against only some of them is necessary and possible. The major combat threat to the eye is the small missile, as has been true since World War I. 47 Eye armor is defined primarily, though not exclusively, as that component of personal body armor that can protect the eyes of the infantry from such a threat. |
