U.S. Troops Are Losing Their Hearing

A Marine takes an audiogram test on Camp Pendleton, Calif., on July 13, 2011.

Khoa Pelczar/Marine Corps

Troops' Hearing Is Often A Casualty Of Fighting, Training -- Stars And Stripes/The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer

FORT BRAGG -- On his two deployments to Iraq with the 18th Airborne Corps, Spec. Jon Michael Cripps spent more time keeping the Army’s computers running than he did in combat, but he can’t forget what he heard.

The constant roar of generators along with the hum of computer servers and the high-powered air conditioners required to cool them damaged Cripps’ hearing and left an intermittent ringing in his ears.

“You think about maybe getting wounded in battle, getting those kinds of scars,” Cripps said after his annual hearing test at a health center on post recently. “Losing your hearing is just not something you think about.”

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My Comment: My father blamed the lost of most of his hearing from serving as a Soviet soldier in the Second World War. Because of his math degree he found himself always commanding artillery companies .... well .... artillery does produce a lot of noise .... both outgoing and incoming when the enemy has figured out where you are. It became a standard joke in our family .... we never talked to each other .... what we did was always yell at each other.

Strange .... it was always very frustrating at the time .... but now .... after reading this story and remembering those days .... I miss it (my father passed away in 2005).