I was just watching some combat footage and thinking. When soldiers know there is going to be a battle, do they don earplugs or other hearing protection, as one would at a shooting range? I don’t know the history of this, though I’m sure there have been times when people just suffered through the noise and received hearing damage. I would think that after the first few shots, the guy with the earplugs can probably hear his orders and other sounds better than the guys with the ringing ears. These days they even make hi-fi earplugs, earplugs with valves, and earmuffs with microphones. What is the general practice, in the US armed forces and elsewhere?
I’ve never seen it ever required, nor widely implemented. For some guys that are preparing for a firefight, knowing where the enemy is, where he’ll be, and what the fire plan is, then they might do that. Flight crews routinely wear ear protection, and I’m sure a lot of vehicle crewmembers either do, or have an intercom system that filters out the loud noise.
But infantry, nope, not that I’ve seen. Besides, sometimes your only way to detect the enemy is to hear them. No sense giving them an advantage.
Tripler
Me? Heavy airfield repair. Lots of machinery. Did I? Nope. :smack:
It depends. Some convoys I have been on, wearing hearing protection is SOP. It is more to protect your ears during an IED attack instead of small arms fire. Sometimes, I don’t because I don’t remember to put them in or nobody else has them on and I don’t want to have to be shouted at. I am also not combat arms, so the chances that I will have to fire my rifle are kind of slim. YMMV
Sgt Schwartz
Remember that scene in Black Hawk Down, when a guy is deafened for the remainder of the film when a heavy weapon is fired right next to his head? Pretty accurate according to the people I asked about it. I would think that hearing what’s going on around you would be important to guys on the ground. Pilots generally wear earphones or headsets to clearly hear the radio, not to minimize noise, right?
A cousin of mine is a tanker, and he said that they always wear ear protection. From what I understand, the inside of a tank is pretty noisy even when it’s not engaged in combat.
My experience is we did not wear extra ear protection, just the protection afforded to us by our headsets. I’m pretty sure they where some fancy model or something but believe me it was nothing like ear plugs.
The Abrams was and still is a loud machine but the inside is a much quieter place than the outside when main rounds are being fired*.
*From experience
FWIW, my old field manual for urban combat prescribes hearing protection. In built-up areas, once the shooting begins, everybody will lose hearing in minutes, anyway. Better to be able to regain it…
Electronic hearing protectors offer the best of both worlds. They actually enhance hearing, but shut down for loud noises. I can imagine that being able to hear a twig snap at 100 yds. might be of benifit at least to special ops types.
My experience as well. I’ve been a tanker and I’ve been in aviation. Tankers rely on the hearing protection of the CVC helmet. When I was aircrew we used the SPH4 flight helmet and also used earplugs. Helicopters are much noisier than the inside of a tank.
I can imagine how it would be to be placed in the position of having to be around all of that unbelievable noise, knowing that you’re going to be stone deaf when your tour is finished.
This business of war is such an all around waste.
Awesome. I was about to post in this thread if there wasn’t some kind of technology that would let you hear noises normally (or even better than normal) until a damagingly-loud noise came in, at which point they’d quiet it down. Ever since I read about that in Niven’s The Borderland of Sol. That would be useful for me on a job site. Then I could still hear people talking and whatnot, but the jackhammer or compactor wouldn’t deafen me.
And yet I know WWII infantry vets who saw lots of battle and still have hearing. I remember watching the interviews with the men portayed in “Brothers in Arms”, all WWII combat vets, and they still had hearing.
What makes you think that being in combat is a a guarantee of deafness?
Here is another one. They also have some decent commercial ones that may work on your job site.
I shot my .45 just once without ear protection just to see how loud it was. It was LOUD. Sooo I’d have to think that with machine guns and the like going off, deafness would almost be a certainty.
Yet it’s not. Plenty of veterans from all wars who have served in combat still have their hearing.
I worked with a guy that served in Vietnam on a 155mm self-propelled howitzer. He’s not deaf. A buddy’s dad and uncle both fought on the front line in Italy and Germany in WWII and they aren’t deaf. I know quite a few vets come to think of it, not a single one is deaf.
Do you have any cites saying the deafness is a certainty for combat troops? A single cite? Any evidence at all?
A 12 ga shotgun is loud, but my dad used to shoot trap and skeet without hearing protection all day long and he still has his hearing.
Here’s a cite PDF that says hearing loss is a concern in the military, but going by their standards I’m also deaf and I’ve never served.
Sorry, timed out.
That cite says 28% of troops returning from a war zone have diminished hearing, not that 100% of the troops have a 100% hearing loss.
For what it’s worth, my dad and my brother and my brother-in-law have a fairly large collection of guns, and their .45 pistols are a LOT louder (and kicks a lot harder) than any of their assault rifles like the M-16. I can shoot the latter without any ear protection at all, while the .45 pistols are hideously loud even through earplugs and earmuffs together.
No cites. You win, Rat.
I have some earplugs that cost maybe $5, and they provide excellent protection when shooting, but normal conversation is unaffected. If I were in a combat area, I’d definitely have some along.
Cheap version I have a set of these. They work fine for the purpose you describe. They have only a single mic, and are a bit slow to turn back on, and they are kind of bulky. But they would be a cheap way for you to see if the fancier models would be worth while. I’ve used mine for shooting, and even when alone, they cut down on the disorientation I tend to experience if I have ear muffs on for an hour or so.