US Troops Losing Hearing

[The Straight Story]

US Troops Losing Hearing


SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home in epidemic numbers with permanent hearing loss and ringing in their ears, prompting the military to redouble its efforts to protect the troops from noise.

Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear. Nearly 70,000 of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the two war zones are collecting disability for tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears, and more than 58,000 are on disability for hearing loss, the VA said.

"The numbers are staggering," said Theresa Schulz, a former audiologist with the Air Force, past president of the National Hearing Conservation Association and author of a 2004 report titled "Troops Return With Alarming Rates of Hearing Loss."

One major explanation given is the insurgency's use of a fearsome weapon the Pentagon did not fully anticipate: powerful roadside bombs. Their blasts cause violent changes in air pressure that can rupture the eardrum and break bones inside the ear.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COMBAT_HEARING_LOSS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

[gratuitous]

1. Another failure to anticipate

They didn't think the people they're attacking would fight back. Don't they know we're only there to spread freedom and let freedom reign? Bunch of ingrates, that's what those Iraqis and Afghanis are. Can't take what's good for them.

The solution is simple, though. Bring the soldiers home? Nah. Improve their helmets? Forget it, too expensive. Deny tinnitus claims? Well, not to give anything away . . .

[Thepricebreaker]

2. Oh come on.. Hearing lose?

You think the army is going to issue earplugs? and say not to shoot unless they are in?

Hearing problems should be the least of their problems.. Id put dieing at the top.

[uppityperson]

3. How about anitcipating dealing with the problem when they return home?

Make sure there are enough audiologists, hearing specialists, hearing aids available?

[Javaman]

4. What? nt

[Karenina]

5. Duh.

[alfredo]

6. The hearing loss starts in basic if they don't issue ear plugs at

the rifle range. That happened with me. I was also a Morse Intercept 05H20 and suffered damage there too.