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Silent old age for many veterans

A conversation with my neighbor requires shouting, gestures and facial expressions. He's almost deaf and very frustrated.

In his upper 80s, he's a veteran of World War II. He was a seaman on an armed transport ship that saw action in the Pacific Theater, including the invasion of Okinawa.

His battle station was a deck directly below the ship's four-inch guns. "After they were fired, you couldn't hear someone talking to you for a couple of minutes," he told me.

He's been fitted with hearing aids from the VA, but they don't help much.

My father, who died in 2001, had lost most of his hearing. He worked on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier during his Navy service.

My father-in-law, who died in 2009, was an Army Air Corps airplane engine mechanic during the war.

None of these men had adequate protection from the extreme noise they were exposed to routinely in serving their country.

Although no official diagnosis ever said so, it's easy for me to believe they sustained auditory damage as young men that eventually robbed them of their hearing.

Well over a million vets are living with significant hearing loss or other auditory conditions today, according to this October 2011 article in The Hearing Journal.

The VA needs to diagnose all cases of hearing loss among veterans and do what it can to help.

And we all need to recognize that service to country, in addition to all the other sacrifices required, has consigned many of our veterans to a silent old age.

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Posted by Doug Clark on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm

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Panacea

January 28, 2012 - 10:50 pm EST

Agreed. My father was a Korean war vet (Navy), and had similar issues with his hearing. He also served on an armed troop transport.

BillWright

January 29, 2012 - 12:25 am EST

Worked in the engine room of carriers- wore hearing attenuators and spent as much time as possible in the Hearhere booths- still have decent hearing but horrible tinnitus in my right ear. Cannot be attributed by my service. My ex-brother in law slept beside M102 105 mm howitzers in Vietnam and doesn't seem to have suffered any hearing loss.
The randomness of it all.

PS- I used to go up to the flight deck and watch F4 flight ops- much louder than steam turbines. Still wore attenuators.

JackK

January 30, 2012 - 10:24 am EST

If movies like Saving Private Ryan, which was from all reports spot on with the D-Day landings, ever had the noise volume, smell and duration of real battles, no one would be able to stay in the theater. Working day in and out right next to two M-60 machine guns during my own service has probably contributed to my own hearing loss, although many of the older folks in my family lost their hearing with age anyway, so who knows. Many jobs could be done with proper hearing protection, but some probably cannot. Also, when you're young you don't think about the cumulative effect of noise or sunlight . . . staying alive is the focus.

Doug

January 30, 2012 - 10:33 am EST

Bill and Jack, thanks for your service.

The sun exposure analogy is a good one. The effects of early exposure may take decades.

A lot of industrial workers would experience the same. I worked one summer in the "rough end" of a furniture factory where it was very loud from power saws, planes, etc. We were given hearing protectors but weren't required to wear them -- and because the plant was not air-conditioned, it was too hot to wear them, so I didn't.

With only a few weeks' exposure, I was OK, but people who worked for years there would have been much more likely to experience long-term damage.

For veterans who were serving their country, this is a major problem. I will take your word for it that war is overwhelmingly noisy.