Are All Artillery Guys Deaf? - Page 1

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Are All Artillery Guys Deaf? (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:12:14 PM EDT

I've done the old "I'll plug the one ear closest to gunfire" before and that's not anywhere near artillery.

Any war footage from GWOT they're not exactly doubling up on ear pro, and even then....

I have to assume no one who does artillery can hear anything.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:12:55 PM EDT

[#1]

Whatttttttttt….,

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:16:32 PM EDT

[#2]

I work with a guy who was an artillery guy in the marines. He is deaf as shit.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:17:00 PM EDT

[#3]

Never in the military but as a former bass player in a metal band all I can say is

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:18:01 PM EDT

[#4]

As a former Mortar Maggot, FPNI

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:18:54 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
I work with a guy who was an artillery guy in the marines. He is deaf as shit.

View Quote

Quoted:
Never in the military but as a former bass player in a metal band all I can say is

https://c.tenor.com/J18Mu0K34zsAAAAC/peewee-herman.gif

View Quote

I don't see any possible way either profession leaves you with any decent hearing.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:19:25 PM EDT

[#6]

canadian artillery wake up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOPEpsGJyCs

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:20:53 PM EDT

[#7]

Only met one in person once at a gun range.

He spent eight minutes deriding my first AR build in a voice so loud I wished I had plugs on under my earmuffs.

I wasn't planning on building any more ARs. But I just had to after that. Later found out he got fired from his job for being reckless with firearms and his wife ran off with a biker gang.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:22:40 PM EDT

[#8]

They also suffer brain trauma.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:24:53 PM EDT

[#9]

They are almost as deaf as us old 106mm recoiless riflemen......

WHAT??????????

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:26:44 PM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
They also suffer brain trauma.

View Quote

That makes sense. The repeated concussion. I remember someone saying they actually had a limit on what was "prudent" for how many rounds a guy should fire with a Carl G.

I would imagine you don't get that courtesy if an artillery barrage is requested.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:29:32 PM EDT

[#11]

22 years in the Field Artillery and most guys I know have pretty significant hearing loss. My dad and uncle were FA also and both had significant hearing damage. My hearing aids I got while on Active Duty were some of the best things I got from the Mil/VA. Without them, I can hardly hear my wife or daughter.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:31:00 PM EDT

[#12]

92 Golf is my answer, plus cooking food for other people is fun.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:32:55 PM EDT

[#13]

Armor guys too.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:33:35 PM EDT

[#14]

I have chronic tinnitus but my hearing otherwise is fairly good……although my wife would disagree with the latter

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:34:54 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:
Armor guys too.

View Quote

Along with most folks who worked on an active flight line.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:35:00 PM EDT

[#16]

Former Navy gunners mate here I can't hear shit anymore

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:35:21 PM EDT

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
22 years in the Field Artillery and most guys I know have pretty significant hearing loss. My dad and uncle were FA also and both had significant hearing damage. My hearing aids I got while on Active Duty were some of the best things I got from the Mil/VA. Without them, I can hardly hear my wife or daughter.

View Quote

I figured as much. I didn't think of a way around that outcome.

I'm sure you helped out a lot of guys though brother.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:36:23 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
Armor guys too.

View Quote

No benefit being inside rather than outside?

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:37:29 PM EDT

[#19]

My dad was in artillery, but his hearing loss is congenital. It doesn't just run in my family, it gallops. Around age 50 we start needing hearing aids.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:37:52 PM EDT

[#20]

Quote History

Quoted:
Former Navy gunners mate here I can't hear shit anymore

View Quote

I had to look that up, but fuck... yeah I bet.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:39:27 PM EDT

[#21]

I can't hear shit.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:39:45 PM EDT

[#22]

13B here, yeah i would say i have some hearing loss.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:40:08 PM EDT

[#23]

I got tinnitus, but my hearing is actually as good now as it was when I enlisted

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:46:56 PM EDT

[#24]

10yrs mostly as an Army 11C, half the time 4.2in/107mm, the other half M29A1 then M252 81mm, last 6 mos as 120mm.

Those M252 Improved 81mm Mortar Systems are notorious for hearing damage, so bad they had to put the cone shaped blast attenuator on the muzzle to make it safe for US Troops; Brits use it without for some reason.

Anyhoo, when working the AG position, helping to level the Gun back onto the aiming posts, you have to be able to hear your crew as well as the fire data coming from the FDC. Those old triple flange earplugs they issued were shit. I always had to leave out my left ear, so I could hear commands. I would hang the round in the tube, drop it, follow my hands along the tube down and away and hoped to get a finger stuck under my K-Pot in my ear to muffle the blast. Sometimes I made it, sometimes I didn't if we were doing multiple round fire missions after the adjust phase. This was all before all Big Army spent millions on these Peltor and Sordin electronic hearing protection devices.

VA said I'm mid range tone deaf in my left ear. For me I have to be looking at somebody's face talking to understand what they are saying because it sounds like the adults in Charlie Brown cartoons talking in my left ear "Whaaa wha wha what what whaaaaaa". That was from part time working on the Gun Line, about half the other time I was in Fire Direction Center working up the trigonometry needed to hit targets..and answering radios.

They said a hearing aid won't help because of the frequency range lost. But they gave me a white noise machine to help me sleep with the Boeing 737 (throttling up to V1 volume) level tinnitus in my left ear constantly ringing.

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:51:21 PM EDT

[#25]

Good Morning Vietnam - Bob Fliber

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbmrpk1RwA

Posted: 8/15/2021 9:55:10 PM EDT

[#26]

My tinnitus drowns out much of my hearing in the upper ranges... right where women and children's voices usually reside.

I've spent the last decade saying "Huh?, what? speak up" to my wife and kids. It all made sense when I went and got my hearing tested...lol

EEEeeeeeeeeeeee.........

If I concentrate, I can pick out 5 or 6 distinct tones in my head 24/7..lol

(19Kilo)

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:02:04 PM EDT

[#27]

The only person that I've known in artillery was my great grandpa, field artilley in WW1 France. He had some severe hearing loss.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:08:00 PM EDT

[#28]

A buddy was USMC artillery in Iraq, he has hearing loss.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:10:53 PM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
https://youtu.be/gOPEpsGJyCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOPEpsGJyCs

View Quote

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:11:01 PM EDT

[#30]

My career Army dad was hard of hearing and it used to frustrate me as a kid.

It wasn't until I was older that I learned that he started out his career at Fort Sam Houston in the artillery.

When I was little, we lived on base in Fort Carson, Colorado. I woke up every morning at 6AM when that fucking howitzer went off.

Then I went back to sleep.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:12:59 PM EDT

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:

No benefit being inside rather than outside?

View Quote

Probably a combo of standing around running engines in the motor pool, being around them when they're moving, gunnery, and so on.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:28:26 PM EDT

[#32]

Between howitzers, mortars, armored vehicles, helicopters, machine guns, and missiles, eight years as an Infantryman and an Artillery Forward Observer have made it damn near impossible for me to hear people who speak in low voices, behind me, or facing away from me. If you want me to hear what you have to say, you better look me in the eyes and speak clearly.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:40:57 PM EDT

[#33]

Quote History

Quoted:
They are almost as deaf as us old 106mm recoiless riflemen......

WHAT??????????

View Quote

And us TOW gunners who came after you.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:49:07 PM EDT

[#34]

No. Other than a touch of tinnitus I wore my earplugs like I was supposed to

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:49:16 PM EDT

[#35]

Not me, but I've heard of the Wurds:

Cannoneers Have Hairy Ears

Attached File

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:51:12 PM EDT

[#36]

Guy who was in my academy class had 80% hearing loss disability from his time in the army (artillery). Seemed like a pretty significant hindrance in a job where one of the primary responsibilities is verbal communication with the public.

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:52:39 PM EDT

[#37]

Quote History

Quoted:
I work with a guy who was an artillery guy in the marines. He is deaf as shit.

View Quote

This, worked with a while back, but yeah, those things must be loud

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:52:39 PM EDT

[#38]

My dad sure is

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:52:54 PM EDT

[#39]

Op said; A hall refrigerator is dead?!?!???

So what?

Posted: 8/15/2021 10:57:44 PM EDT

[#40]

Ex DAT here 105mm on M60A1 and 152mm on M551 Sheridans. ÷eeeeeeeeeeeeee plus high frequency hearing damage. VA hearing aids help, but women with Covid masks sound like: Hi seeedsfdsd Can I ggderyg gue.

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:06:13 PM EDT

[#41]

just play it loud.wmv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWWDKZ-kydE

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:11:10 PM EDT

[#42]

120mm out out the back of a 1064A3, what did you say????

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:13:17 PM EDT

[#43]

Attached File

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:15:10 PM EDT

[#44]

(It's actually very quiet inside the turret when the main gun goes off, but outside it's brutal

)

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:16:12 PM EDT

[#45]

Dad had a mortar squad. Said they were in front of everyone else when the company had a mad minute. Said he couldn’t hear for a couple weeks afterwards. He’s pretty deaf.

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:20:14 PM EDT

[#46]

That's interesting, I can understand all the Vietnam vets and earlier having busted eardrums, because nobody really gave a shit back then about hearing loss. But I assumed they had it figured out by the GWOT days. You learn something new every day.

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:20:46 PM EDT

[#47]

I've been an 11B and a 13F. I always felt like the perceived noise from a machine gun was was louder and sharper on the ear, but artillery had a more strongly felt concussion, especially at the higher charges.

Posted: 8/15/2021 11:22:05 PM EDT

[#48]

Quote History

Quoted:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oDsFnGLC0tk/maxresdefault.jpg

(It's actually very quiet inside the turret when the main gun goes off, but outside it's brutal

)

View Quote

True for M1s. In M60s the TC's head and shoulders were outside the turret and about 2 feet from the 50 cal.