Like many magazine editors, I’m also magazine fan. I read some of them online, but I still enjoy reading, and feeling, the print edition of the New Yorker, Guitar Player and a few other favorites. Honestly, I can’t wait to get my hands on it. When a new issue arrives, I start thumbing through it as I walk from the mailbox to my house.

Last month, I discovered a magazine I hadn’t seen before, despite the fact that it’s been published for ages. It’s the Marine Corps Times, which bills itself as “the oldest and most trusted source for news and information about U.S. Marines, the military and the DoD.” One of the magazine’s article featured a headline that grabbed my attention: “How the U.S. Military Adopted its Famous ‘Birth Control Glasses.”

I’d heard of the infamous BCGs, but couldn’t quite conjure up an image of them, never having served in the military. I quickly read the article, which offered a short, entertaining history of BCGs, complete with a photo of a soldier modeling the somewhat thick, utilitarian specs, which is included above.

My curiosity was piqued. I wanted to learn more about this unique part of optical history, so I contacted the one person I knew who had first-hand experience with BCGs: my friend Mark Mattison-Shupnick, former education director for 20/20 Magazine who is now an executive with EnChroma. I recalled that he had worked in a U.S. Army optical lab during the Vietnam era.



Sgt. Brant Fechter, 43rd Adjutant General (Reception) Battalion Optometry Clinic noncommissioned officer-in-charge, tries on a pair of standard issue S9s, commonly called "birth control glasses," or BCGs. This photo was taken in January 2012, when the U.S. military began transitioning to the sleeker 5A frame style. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army



I asked Mark what he remembered about the experience, and he replied, “When you are a GI and away from home it can get lonely. Looking to meet someone off base means wearing trendy clothes with style. But there are a couple of things that told everyone that you're a GI—your haircut and your glasses.




The U.S. Military’s standard issue S9 spectacles (a.k.a. birth control glasses or BCGs) circa 1996. Photo courtesy of militaryphotos.net


“That certainly was the case for me because I was in the U.S. Army 1969 through 1971. As an Army Optical Lab Specialist (MOS-42Echo), I was part of the Ryukyu Optical Lab (Okinawa). We produced hundreds of glass prescription spectacles every day using a frame called the S-7. The S-7 was transparent grey, squared, symmetrical for right and left lenses with a 7mm difference for “A” vs. “B” measurement. They screamed U.S. ARMY, and when I wore them along all the other guys leaving base for some fun, I could hear the alerts being shouted for all the locals to hide your children.





The old S-9 “birth control glasses,” (l) have been replaced by the more stylish R-5A (r). Both of these durable plastic eyeglass frames are manufactured by Rochester Optical. Photos courtesy of Rochester Optical



“It seemed fitting that these glasses had a variety of names, and one for us was, BCG’s, “birth control glasses.”

The U.S. military began phasing out BCG’s in 2012. They replaced the last model, the S-9, with the sleeker, more stylish 5A. Vision Monday reported on the changeover with an article proclaiming “Forget Birth Control Glasses, the U.S. Military Just Got Spexier.”

It turns out that some veterans can’t bear to part with their S-9s. When their old pair wears out, they often contact Rochester Optical, which has been servicing the military for decades. Rochester Optical still makes and sells S-9s as well as the newer 5As.  

“We’ve noticed that BCGs have been gaining in popularity,” Rochester Optical CEO Patrick Ho told me. “They have always been popular among the older veterans because they love the ruggedness and durability, and those guys are long done with the dating scene. We are now seeing more and more customers buying BCGs for fashion.”

I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity about Birth Control Glasses. If you want to learn more, click here to read the Marine Corps Times article.

Why Anti-Aircraft Gunners Wore Rochester Optical’s Red Lenses

Rochester Optical Manufacturing Company started operations in 1932, making glass lenses for the military. “Most likely they started making metal frames for the military in early ’40s to keep up with the military demand,” Ho said. “This began the path of innovations that led to our anti-aircraft gunners eyeglasses.”



These red lens glasses made by Rochester Optical gave U.S. Army anti-aircraft gunners a special advantage in WWII. Courtesy of Rochester Optical


 




Ho was referring to special glasses with red-tinted lenses that Rochester Optical made for the military. As an article in a 1941 newsletter called Science explained, the red lenses helped the gunners see the contrast between the sky and the flaming course of the machine gun tracer shells” they were firing at enemy planes.

Rochester Optical’s marketing team added, “Aviators also used these red lens glasses because it helped them when flying at night. When aviators did not have time to sit in perfect darkness before night-flying, they wore the red lens glasses to help their pupils dilate more quickly. The red-tinted lenses block all colors in the visible spectrum except red, and since the rods in your eyes aren’t sensitive to red, the glasses allow the rods in your eyes to adjust to darkness.”