Ear protection in boot camp?

[38snapcaps]

When I was in Air Force Basic Training, 1966, we spent a day with the M-16, and then annually I had to qualify with it even tho I was an aircraft mechanic.
I don't remember using any ear protection at any time.

Today when I go to the range to shoot rifles or pistols the noise would be unbearable without it. I participated in a High Power match a while back with AR's and of course when I was shooting I had muffs on. On one occasion, when I was not on the line, I took them off and stepped back about twenty feet to see what all the rifles sounded like and the noise was Really bad. I quickly put them back on! I got to thinking, how did I stand that in Basic. How did anyone, then or now?

Can any of you USAF vets remember if we did or not back then? How about you Army/Marine guys, did you?

 

[TarpleyG]

In the Corps, in '87 mind you, we had the foam earplugs. I cannot imagine y'all not wearing any but it was before the ramifications of gunfire we're discovered I guess.

Greg

 

[tango3065]

Now days you get a nice rubberized pair and they will hang from your bdu shirt in a neat little plastic container.

 

[progunner1957]

No shootee TI, please

I went through Air Force basic training in Aug. '85 - we had hearing protection then. I still find it entertaining that when we went to the shooting range, the TI's mysteriously disappeared for the day...

 

[Ryder]

1973 USCG

No hearing protection issued. Most of us used cigarette butts and cotton balls. I believe noise becomes more painful as you age. It isn't young people that complain about loud music.

 

[No_Brakes23]

Since the Corps is part of the Navy, we are hyper-sensitive about OSHA standards, (Or NAVOSH, which is stricter on some things.) We had PLENTY of hearing protection in '96 when I went to USMC bootcamp. All the AF guys I know used hearing protection, too.

 

[Byron Quick]

1974. Fort Jackson. US Army Basic Training. Every recruit was issued ear plugs with a plastic box with a little chain that clipped through a button hole on our lapels.

 

[carebear]

I didn't wear them doing blank, force on force stuff at SOI. I carried a SAW.

My right ear is no longer "quite so good" and my left is little better. Nice mix of volume variation and intermittent tintinnitis.

 

[motorep]

I went through AF basic winter 66/67. We had no ear protection. I remember because we were shooting M1's that really didn't want to run 100%. The indicator to the RO that you had a malf was to raise your right hand and stick your thumb in your ear....Worse than that though, I never was issued any hearing protection. Working on the flight line left me with ears that ring pretty loudly now.

 

[38snapcaps]

Hey Motorep! Basic, Lackland AFB, Sept.-Nov. 1966, twelve weeks. I remember because the Vietnam war was heating up they had just reduced it from sixteen weeks, I don't think I could have made it that long. Then I heard it was reduced again to eight, boy what a cakewalk that would have been.

After that Sheppard AFB, Texas, for mechanics school, fighters, jet engines one and two, another twelve weeks. There we were given ear plugs in a plastic container with a chain hanging from our lapel button holes. I distinctly remember using those and/or ear muffs on the flight line, but never when shooting the M-16.

Did you go to Sheppard too? What was your AFSC? Mine was 43151C. Isn't it amazing that I can still remember that number? I can still remember my serial number AF16883206 like my own birthday. The TI had you so terrified of not remembering it if he asked you that over forty years later I'm STILL afraid I might forget it!

Oh, back to guns: When I was at my permanent duty station in Spain, we were supposed to qualify once a year with the M-16. Typical of the military they screwed up my records and so I was called up every six months, which was fine with me, I had a ball firing that rifle. Especially at the end when you loaded up a thirty round mag, flicked the selector to full auto and emptied it all at once! I haven't had the pleasure of doing that since 1970.

 

[Rezin]

MCRD Parris Island, 1989. We had yellow foam earplugs. Our DI made us sew them into our cover with a long bit of thread, so we couldn't forget them. That was it. Yellow foamies.

 

[hso]

I believe noise becomes more painful as you age. It isn't young people that complain about loud music.

Not what the studies show. Of course hearing loss is cumulative and isn't noticed as it's first chipped away, but only after enough is gone to be noticable.

Oh, and I complained about loud music when I was a young person, but I should have thought about shooting noise too. If I had I might not have this near constant ringing in my right ear and the loss of hearing. :banghead:

 

[unixguy]

I don't know exactly when my dad did Air Force basic, but he finished his enlistment sometime in 1967. I remember being told that the little Christmas tree ear plugs were something he kept from his time in the Air Force.

When I did Army BT in 1993, I had the same types of plugs.

 

[kwallace]

My most embarrassing moment in boot camp!

Air Force 1982. They issued "ear muff" style hearing protection.

That's part of the reason why I didn't hear their instructions.

They had us wearing the things at all times on the range - shooting or not.

So when the instruction was made to shoot one mag, reload and shoot second mag, I didn't hear it and stopped after the first mag.

TI comes up, picks up my rifle, loads the second mag and rapid-fire empties it into the dirt!

Sheesh!

I heard NO END of that one for the rest of the day!

BTW - I want to comment about Air Force boot camp. It was REALLY lame having us shoot .22 instead of .223. Sure, it's prolly cheaper, but c'mon!

 

[Razor]

BTW - I want to comment about Air Force boot camp. It was REALLY lame having us shoot .22 instead of .223. Sure, it's prolly cheaper, but c'mon!

We shot .223 when I went through in '91.

Basic, Lackland AFB, Sept.-Nov. 1966, twelve weeks. I remember because the Vietnam war was heating up they had just reduced it from sixteen weeks, I don't think I could have made it that long. Then I heard it was reduced again to eight, boy what a cakewalk that would have been.

AF Basic was originally 16 weeks?
Dang, that's a lot of underwear folding and ironing...

 

[carebear]

We shot .223 when I went through in '91.




AF Basic was originally 16 weeks?
Dang, that's a lot of underwear folding and ironing...

Probably got to eat TWO mre's in that park across the street.

 

[Ryder]

Not what the studies show.

Maybe I just shot louder guns as I aged? Shooting without protection hurts me now and I don't have memories of that from being young. Pain gets you onboard with the program real quick.

 

[MedGrl]

My father was a west point graduate and airborn ranger...he is partialy deaf in his left ear (he is a southpaw) because of all the firearms training he had...i know he did use little plastic ear pluds but that was a bout it...I've seen these earplugs and used a pair when I was swiming one day while i had an ear infection...I could still hear perfectly if a slightly muted so one has to wonder how well they protected against several decible BANDGs from discharged guns.

 

[Dan0076]

Parris Island 1995. We had the yellow foamies also, with a blue cord that connected them. Sewed the blue cord into out covers so we always had them.

 

[enfield]

1974. Fort Jackson. US Army Basic Training. Every recruit was issued ear plugs with a plastic box with a little chain that clipped through a button hole on our lapels.

Same for Ft. Polk, LA in 1971.

 

[1911 guy]

Uncle Sam's Yacht Club

Navy boot camp, RTC Great Lakes. Chicago in the winter, too cold to anything but wish it was July. The only thing we shot was 1911's topped with .22 conversions on an indoor range. Yellow foamies.

In the fleet, weps training was constant and in large volume. Foamies topped with "mickey mouse" ear muffs. All of which were promptly ditched in any exercise involving coordinated movement, so the hearing loss is starting to show. And I'm not even forty yet!

 

[stevelyn]

1974. Fort Jackson. US Army Basic Training. Every recruit was issued ear plugs with a plastic box with a little chain that clipped through a button hole on our lapels.

Same here at Fort McClellan, AL in 1983. Ear plug cases were generally a required part of the uniform in every unit I served in except for one.

 

[hoek48]

When I went thru AF basic in 1979 and LE Tech school we used ear protection. We also used the .22 conversion. I never fired the full .223 until I went to Korea and had to qualify. Big difference between the full .223 and .22

 

[Invisible Swordsman]

1969, Ft. Dix, NJ. There was no general issue of hearing protection for any shooting activities, but you could get ear plugs if you requested them. Most didn't.

 

[motorep]

Hey Motorep! Basic, Lackland AFB, Sept.-Nov. 1966, twelve weeks. I remember because the Vietnam war was heating up they had just reduced it from sixteen weeks, I don't think I could have made it that long. Then I heard it was reduced again to eight, boy what a cakewalk that would have been.

After that Sheppard AFB, Texas, for mechanics school, fighters, jet engines one and two, another twelve weeks. There we were given ear plugs in a plastic container with a chain hanging from our lapel button holes. I distinctly remember using those and/or ear muffs on the flight line, but never when shooting the M-16.

Did you go to Sheppard too? What was your AFSC? Mine was 43151C. Isn't it amazing that I can still remember that number? I can still remember my serial number AF16883206 like my own birthday. The TI had you so terrified of not remembering it if he asked you that over forty years later I'm STILL afraid I might forget it!

Oh, back to guns: When I was at my permanent duty station in Spain, we were supposed to qualify once a year with the M-16. Typical of the military they screwed up my records and so I was called up every six months, which was fine with me, I had a ball firing that rifle. Especially at the end when you loaded up a thirty round mag, flicked the selector to full auto and emptied it all at once! I haven't had the pleasure of doing that since 1970.

AF11799534. AFC 422_1. I think basic was 6 weeks. Did tech school at Chanute. My ear dr says more damage was done by the constant noise from aircraft engines and ground power units than the unprotected shooting. He charted my nerve damage, it shows the- I don't know the technical term- areas of hearing loss.