So, a couple weeks ago I took a vision test as part of the military entrance process, the doc scored my vision as 20/17. Basically, my question is what does this mean? I know 20/20 is normal, does that mean my eye sight is slightly below normal?

I think it means you're slightly longshort-sighted, if I understand correctly. There's a typically rambling explanation on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity...

Edit: slight comprehension fail on my part. I think.

Ah, thanks so it's not necessarily a bad thing I guess.

Kind of glad this topic was brought up, I'm curious too. I have always assumed that 20/17 (for example) meant that at 20 feet you see what the average person can see at 17 (so you have better vision). I clearly do not know what I was thinking

Not really, unless you specifically need perfect sight! Assuming I have it the right way round, I have something like 20/0.3 vision...

According to the wiki you're backwards again.

20/40 is half as good as 20/20, and 20/10 is twice as good as 20/20. Hawks have 20/2.

20/17 means what most can make out at 17 you can make out at 20.
It is better than normal vision.
One of the requirements to be a military pilot is this sort of vision as well.

Does it mean "as good"? I thought it meant long vs. short, but my concentration is very bad today so I couldn't read it properly.

Ah, that's what I thought.