Objective To investigate refractive surgery on new recruits in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy in 2014 in the Qingdao north China sea fleet, as well as to provide a reference for the design of a vision monitoring system. Methods  This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 1990 new recruits in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy in the north China sea fleet were interviewed and underwent routine examinations for visual acuity, intraocular pressure, refraction and slit-lamp microscopy. Patients were divided into low myopia group and media high myopia group according to preoperative spherical equivalent, and ≤6 months group and >6 months group according to postoperative time. The differences in the sample rate between the two groups were analyzed with a chi-square test. Results All 1990 new recruits came from 12 provinces and direct-controlled municipalities. A total of 210 new recruits (10.55%) had undergone LASIK surgery before joining the army. The surgical procedures included 154 cases of LASIK (73.3%), 28 cases of LASEK (13.3%), 24 cases of femtosecond LASIK (11.4%), 3 cases of SMILE (1.5%) and 1 case of ICL (0.5%). Postoperative complications included reading fatigue in 33 cases (15.7%), diminution of night vision in 15 cases (7.1%) and glare in 10 cases (4.7%), double image in 8 cases (3.8%), and dry eye in 43 cases (20.5%). There were statistically significant differences in postoperative complications between the low myopia group and the moderate and high myopia groups (χ²=5.339, 5.271, 4.508, 6.117, P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences between the ≤6 months group and the >6 months group in diminution of night vision, reading fatigue and dry eyes (χ²=3.940, 4.516, 5.418, P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between the ≤6 month group and the >6 month group in diminution of night vision and glare (χ²=0.606, 0.609, P>0.05). Conclusion The recruits′ postoperative complications are related to preoperative refractive error and amount of time since surgery. The visual standard of recruits for visual acuity, degree of myopia and the time line since surgery should be adjusted.