Hearing Protection for GIs?

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We get issued a set of orange rubber ear plugs in GI green plastic box with lanyard.
 
Yellow/Black; Black for indoor, yellow outdoor. Yellow has a passage/hole down the center to let some sound through. I wear these, yellow side with electronic muffs. Excellent protection both indoor and out with the ability to hear normal conversation.
 
As with so many things military, it's very inconsistent. When I went through BCT in 1967 we were required to carry our earplugs with us, in the summer you looped the container through the top button hole of your fatigue shirt, in the winter on the left epaulette of your field jacket. I went through TOW School in 1979, I recall being told that when firing from inside a building or
a covered position double hearing protection was to be worn. Crews of the 106MM recoiless rifle had to wear hearing protection, that was a VERY loud weapon. But we didn't wear them in the "bush".
 
Thand God for smokers

When I entered the service in the early 60's all I can say is Thank God for smokers. Butts especially the filtered were the only ear protection available. As soon as you got to a range or even before you raided the butt cans to get a pair of ear protection, if you were lucky they were dry.

The first I remember seeing issued ear protection was in the 70's. By then it was too late for me. Hopefully the more recent emphasis in both the militaqry and civilian will help cut some of the hearing losses that are occopational hazzards in many fiels of work.

Brer Rabbit
 
I took basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, summer of '65. No ear protection issued. Later, probably about 1968, new guys started showing up in Germany with ear plugs in a container looped on the shoulder tab of their field jackets. Didn't matter as we didn't get to shoot anymore anyhow.
 
+1 on the cigarette filters. We did get issued a plastic container with some rubber plugs. The shooting usually stopped before you could get the cover off. Butt filters were always available.
 
I took basic at Fort Knox starting in April, 1665. I was issued ear plugs in a tan round plastic case with a clear screw on lid, approx as big around as a silver dollar with a ball chain attached. We were required to wear them at all times when at the firing range.
 
I served 1953-55; infantry, artillery, aircraft maint. Hearing protection was unheard of (pun intended). Guess that's why the VA gave me a hearing aid.
 
A very old story from the Reader’s Digest ‘Humor In Uniform’ section was about a young soldier who was shown the cigarette filter trick by an old hand on the rifle range. He used it but after a few times his ears got rubbed raw by the filters. The old hand told him to smear a little Brylcreem on the filters and he had no more problems. Later on at another base in another training cycle a soldier notices the tube of Brylcreem in the young soldiers shave kit and the following conversation supposedly takes place.

“Doesn’t that Brylcreem make your hair feel greasy?”
“I don’t use it on my hair.”
“What do you do with it?”
“I put it on cigarette filters.”
“Doesn’t that make the cigarettes taste bad when you smoke them?”
“I wouldn’t know about that, I don’t smoke.”
“Well what do you do with the cigarette filters?”
“I stick them in my ears.”

At this point he abandons the conversation and never talks to the young soldier again.
 
We used plugs most of the time on ranges.
I ran recon in heavy bush and you need all the hearing you got-no plugs, no hemmits.

Hearing comp is contentious via the VA.
Tinnitus is an easy 10% if yiu can convince them you had a job that involved lots of continuous loud noise. It is not testable or cureable.

Also they will issue hearing aids on individual basis.
Drawing comp for hearng is pretty tough.
I get "0%" for "significant loss". No money, but hearing aids and consideration if it worsens.
If someone came home actually deafened, they would be getting rated and compensated.
At age 63, I cannot blame all my aches and pains on Uncle Sam.
 
Fitting would be impossible, use would be inconsistent, price would be prohibitively high compared to silicone plugs.
 
I was always carefull to use hearing protection, but try telling an 18 year old anything, especially when their ipods are at max volume
 
Two Issues:

As a professional County Veterans Service Officer, I have not heard anything about not giving service connected disability for hearing and tinnitus to vets. AND, the individual Services have NOTHING to do with whether or not the vet gets SC Comp for any condition, that's a VA thing. My guess on that is that he services, or concerned commands, are trying to get the kids to protect thier hearing more. SGLI for willful and self destructive behavior is a different conversation, and is rightfully denied in proper circumstances.

As a Spec Ops kind of guy in the AF, YES, we wore hearing protection under ALL live mission conditions as early as the early 80's. They were fitted hearing aid type deals that fit in the ear and allowed us to hear low volume sounds at amplified levels and completely blocked out high-intensity noises like ordinance and gun fire. (Kind of like the electronic ear muffs that i use on the range now. If the unit wouldn't pony up for the gear, then we bought it ourselves. We discovered early on that once you engaged, if you don't have the protection you become deaf for the remainder of the engagement, which is a problem in itself, and if you just wear muffs or plugs, you're deaf from the insertion on, which is just as bad... I did not regularly see similar equipment on other service teams that we operated on. (Just one more reason I'm glad I was an airdale...)
 
I joined the Army back in 1986 and we were issued ear plugs.
They were part of the uniform too (except class A and class B dress uniform).

BTW, I was once told by a military doc that the group of soldiers with the most common hearing damage was the Army band.
 
We were issued ear plugs in a small container that we attached to our field jackets, for range use in basic training. We were encouraged to use cig filters when we didn't have the plugs. After basic I never saw them again that I recall. I have 10% hearing loss rating and tininitus.
 
Seems to me like more retired soldiers should be deaf than actually are.

Think of all the soldiers in the wars of the last two hundred years and how much noise they were exposed to. What was it like to be in the middle of a Civil War regiment in combat, all those guys pretty much shoulder to shoulder firing over and over with no idea of hearing protection. Or the artillery. Or a WW I machine gunner. Yet most of them came home with at most just a little hearing loss.

Maybe some were better at finding stuff to cram in their ears.

Some people must be more susceptible to hearing loss than others, I wonder how that works in the dark, wet mechanics of the human ear?
 
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