Wendell Pierce's American Optical Original Pilot in Jack Ryan

In Amazon's Jack Ryan, Wendell Pierce embodies James Greer — the Deputy Director of the CIA whose decades of field experience make him the ideal counterweight to the younger, more impulsive analyst played by John Krasinski. Greer is a man who has earned his authority the hard way, and Pierce plays him with a measured gravity that anchors every scene he is in. Across multiple seasons, his wardrobe reflects that same no-nonsense philosophy, including his choice of eyewear: the American Optical Original Pilot.

The AO Original Pilot has a lineage that predates even the most storied aviator designs. First produced for U.S. military pilots in 1958, the frame features a classic teardrop lens shape, a double bridge, and bayonet temples engineered to slide under helmets and headsets. The gold frame and green glass lenses are built to military specifications — function first, everything else second. On Pierce's Greer, the sunglasses feel less like a prop and more like kit issued to someone who might actually need it.

American Optical's Original Pilot has been worn by everyone from Apollo astronauts to Marine Corps aviators, and that institutional history lends Greer's character an understated authenticity. In the high-stakes world of Jack Ryan — where intelligence briefings can pivot to field operations in the space of a scene — the AO Pilots are a constant. They don't signal status or taste; they signal readiness. For a character whose job is to see what others miss, they are the right tool for the light.