Does anyone else think they have hearing problems that are related to their military occupation?

Does anyone think their ears are more sensitive to certain sounds and frequencies than the average person?

Does anyone feel like they react differently to certain sounds than the average person?

For example, alarms, warning horns, buzzers, idling diesel engines, diesel generators, turbines, fireworks, construction equipment, any kind of low droning sound, two-stroke diesel generators (Detroit), airbrakes, etc.

Do you ever notice this kind of thing?

If so, what sounds do you think bother you the most?

Get tested and find out.

Well I wasn't exposed to artillery fire or IEDs before or after the Army, but according to the VA my hearing "complaint" isn't military related. But I got the 10% for tinnitus so I got that going for me.

I spent four years in field artillery, including a tour in Vietnam. I've never applied for disability because I also spent 35 years as a federal law enforcement officer and was exposed to small arms fire on a regular basis. Besides, I think there are other veterans who need the money a lot more than I do.

That said, the VA tested my hearing and it was pretty bad, so they have provided me with hearing aids. I'm happy with that solution.

To an extent, I agree with your comment about others needed it more, but this is not a zero sum game. Your getting a disability does not prevent someone else from getting what they deserve.

I spent 18 years flying fighters and being exposed to flight line noise without hearing protection. Shame on us, but hearing protection wasn't like it is today with quality ear plugs and muffs were impractical to store in a fighter cockpit subject to negative Gs. I have paid the price and clearly needed hearing aids. I filed with the VA a few years ago but was initially denied as "not service connected". YGBSM! I filled an appeal.

During the exam, I was asked if I had tinnitus. I answered in the negative because most define tinnitus as "ringing in the ears" implying a high frequency sound. My nurse practitioner wife explained that tinnitus is a "noise in the ears". She found a website with a dozen examples. One nailed mine exactly which is a low frequency rumble. I filed a supplemental claim and was quickly granted 10% service connected. All I was looking for was a 0%, but with the magic words "service connected" so I could get hearing aids through the VA.

I highly recommend anyone who has hearing loss to file a claim. It can take a while for an appointment. I've had good service with SA VA but friends in Houston have had delays on getting appointments. The VA has access to all the HA manufacturers and provide the top of the line from each. If you have not worn HAs previously, I also suggest talking to a few long term HA wearers for their suggestions of features to consider. My audiologist ordered every feature and accessory that I requested but you have to know what to ask for.

Most jobs in the military where you will be exposed to noise involve you being enrolled in the hearing conservation program (HCP). In other words you have to get an annual audiogram. I'm sure this wasn't around 30+ years ago. It is a good program if it's taken seriously by the servicemember and their leadership. Any failure or pattern of failures is supposed to trigger a visit by industrial hygiene to the work space to do noise measurements - the doesn't often happen because most ground safety officers don't take their jobs seriously.

The thing about the HCP is that your hearing is tracked and can be looked at by the VA. If your hearing looked pretty good throughout your years and on your final audiogram before discharge, then it would be hard to make a claim. If it showed a serious shift that was never addressed, then you'd definitely have a claim. Additionally, even if you don't have hearing loss, loud impulse noises can still cause damage to the hearing organs in the ear that lead to issues like tinnitus.

I grew up around guns as a kid, but also spent a good bit of time on the flight line over the past 2 years. I haven't really lost much hearing during this time, but I do get periodic flares of my tinnitus where certain noises trigger it bad - specifically the sound of flowing water. Not sure what it is about water, but turning on the shower, or even the sink, will trigger it.

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I'm totally with you Trench55 on claiming disability. Too many people try to game the disability system, unfortunately. When people go to medical for every little thing just to "get it documented" it jams up the appointments for people that actually need appointments. Then the power lifters suddenly start limping into medical a few months before they get out to complain of all kinds of injuries, only to continue their 500 pound deadlifts later that evening in the gym. And don't get me started on sleep apnea as a 50% rated disability. Suddenly everyone develops snoring, daytime drowsiness, and their wives all see them stop breathing in their last months of a 20+ year career. How the military is responsible for someone developing sleep apnea, when the vast majority of cases are due to being overweight, I don't know.

But, I'll stop ranting and say this - until the system is changed, you should claim anything you think may have been caused (even in part) by your time in the military. Heck, even claim sleep apnea if you have it and it's still covered. It is a benefit afforded to you for your service. If the VA asks questions and determine it's not service connected, then that's fine. But at least you'll get what's afforded to you.

If you go through the process with integrity, then there's nothing to feel guilty about if you get some extra benefits. Now if you had to lie about thing to get benefits, that's another issue. Or atleast that's how I see it.

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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Most jobs in the military where you will be exposed to noise involve you being enrolled in the hearing conservation program (HCP). In other words you have to get an annual audiogram.

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I was in this program. Got tested at least yearly. Had a good sized stack of audiology reports in my medical record. A doc mentioned some hearing degradation at an exit physical after deployment.

My entire military medical record got lost or misfiled sometime around 2005 and has been missing ever since. Been looking through various channels for 15 years or so with no luck.

I'm trying to figure out what options I have.

Some of it is hearing loss at certain frequencies but my real issue is tinnitus and sensitivity to sound at certain frequencies. Its for sure affecting my quality of life as I get older.

I'm handling the issue and have audiological evaluation scheduled in a few weeks.

Trying to figure out how common of an issue this is.

On the VA claims issue, almost everybody I worked with was hurt to some degree all the time. Nobody went to medical unless it was obviously a serious injury. We were always shorthanded so light duty made everyone else work even harder. You really never had time to heal. You'd just constantly get reinsured and deal with it day to day until you got out.

My advice is, if you are in the military right now and are 20/30 years old. Don't ignore this kind of stuff. Nagging injuries don't get better with age. Make sure you stay on top of stuff. Chronic pain from random minor injuries can get away from you.

I fully agree that some are gaming the system for VA disabilities. I've even heard that people are schooled prior to discharge on claims. Some are valid, some probably questionable.

I do recall a hearing conservation program. Most aviators that I knew did not want to jeopardize their flying status so knew how to skew their hearing test results. Paid the price later in life. I had to eject from a jet and hurt my back. The accident itself was in my records but I didn't keep running to the flight surgeon throughout the rest of my career to add to my medical records. As my back and related nerve problems worsened, I was later able to file a successful claim. Having to fight for something, so clearly service connected, was a little frustrating when compared to something like a sleep apnea claim.

I think thats pretty common.

You had malingerers and other folks that would run to medical for every little thing.

Then, on the other hand, you had the folks that never went to medical because they didn't want to risk getting med boarded, transferred, or otherwise harm their future career options.

Have you filed a claim for tinnitus? When claiming hearing loss, they will compare hearing test results when you entered AD with when you were discharged. It can get somewhat subjective by whoever evaluates. As I mentioned, I did not realize I had tinnitus until my wife found the website with examples. There is no test for tinnitus so just met with a VA audiologist. Was rated 10% for tinnitus which allowed HAs from VA. After I was granted that, I got the results of my appeal again denying.

I'm not advocating claiming anything dishonest, but if you have tinnitus, the claim should be approved.

Not yet.

I went for years ignoring various service connected health issues.

I didn't really want anything to do with the VA for various reasons and wanted to be left alone.

Didn't want to be a patient or have any kind of disability.

Was my choice at the time.

Now I'm seeing a lot of middle age friends struggling and some have passed away recently.

Decided to stop ******* around and get on top of this stuff.

F4GIB71 said:

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I fully agree that some are gaming the system for VA disabilities. I've even heard that people are schooled prior to discharge on claims. Some are valid, some probably questionable.

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While nor formal, there is indeed a lot of info passed around at transition courses about how to get maximum benefits. It completely distorts the signal to noise ratio in military medicine, making for a waste of resources going to frivilous attempts to get more from the VA,

The fear most people have about getting med boarded is pretty irrational. If you can do your job, run a PFT, and deploy, you're not going to get med boarded. However the fear of getting grounded is a little more rational - thought still highly dependent on the flight surgeon.

Op, when did you get out? Most of your medical records are probably digital somewhere. The digital medical record system was implemented in the mid 2000's.

And yes, when you hand over your medical record to the tech at the clinic, you're hoping they file it in the right place. If they put it down somewhere, or carelessly put it in the wrong cabinet, it's almost impossible to find later. No one ever goes through those cabinets and cleans out old records that shouldn't be there.

Mid-2006. 99% sure that they were never digitized though. My guess is the file got sent somewhere for digitization and was misfiled and never indexed. Got a paper trail of trying to track it down for 15+ years. Got a senator doing an inquiry as a last resort.

100% my fault for not staying on top of it, but I had other **** going on at the time and it was low priority.

Word of warning to other folks.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Does anyone else think they have hearing problems that are related to their military occupation?

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No hearing problems at all. Plenty of Tanking, shooting machine guns, etc. The only time my ears rang for any extended period of time was on an FTX at A&M when one of my classmates fired blanks from an M-14 right next to my head.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Does anyone feel like they react differently to certain sounds than the average person?

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Definitely helicopters. Where I live in Los Angeles, we get news choppers, police choppers, civilian choppers and the rare unknown helicopter flying overhead.

My parents used to live in the flight path for Fort Hood and we used to get a lot of Apaches flying over their backyard near Lake Waco. When there is a big police activity or a big news activity we'll see anywhere from 4-8 helicopters flying overhead practically in formation. That's usually on the freeway near my house.

When they finally opened the bars in LA two weeks ago, I went out to see my friends play at some crappy little bar in Universal City and when I got out of my car, there were no less than 6 helicopters circling overhead near Lankershim and the 134. I definitely reacted differently to the sound of that than others but, it's just harmless news helicopters, not "The Butcher of Bakersfield".

I did go running outside a couple weekends ago when I heard a CH-47 fly overhead. I wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining it. The only strange thing was the fact that the Chinook was painted Red and Blue instead of OD green. I think this might be it:

Maybe I'm misinterpreting what's being said on this thread, but it seems that the general belief is that one has to have a service related hearing disability to qualify for VA hearing aids. That is not the case, at least in my experience. I have no VA disability, nor have I ever filed for one. All I have done is apply and get approved for the VA Health Program, and VA provided my hearing aids free of cost. They also provide my glasses free of cost. And while the VA is not my primary health care provider, they do require that I take an annual physical through them to remain active.

Words to the wise.
I retired 36 years ago and when I walked out the door I had a COPY of my OQR and a copy of my Medical record. That way there's no chance of something disappearing. I haven't needed it at the VA, which I use for my yearly check up because of Agent Orange. Received a copy of Medical Records about 5 years after retirement through the VA, but you could barely read the copies.
Semper Fi

My hearing problem came , I believe, from the many Yell practices and games I attended !

I've had tinnitus since July '75. Sitting behind a 155mm Sheridan at Knox. Gunner fired off a round after cease fire called on the firing line. We had already removed our earplugs.

In the past year or so, I've had a couple of people comment things like "Dad, are you deaf?"

So I did go and have my hearing checked - the verdict is i'm at "moderate" hearing loss in some frequencies.

I went ahead and filed a claim with the VA - and had another test with a civilian contractor audiologist yesterday in San Antonio - part of the D&C process.

The main reason I did so is not for additional disability payments. I am a Chapter 61 retiree, so am not eligible for concurrent receipt. I did so, based on observing what has happened with my Dad. He is retired Air Force, and spent over 25 years around engines beginning with B-17 variants all the way to C141s. His entire career was in aircraft maintenance and as a Flight Engineer. He is still trucking along at age 93, although pretty much deaf, and the VA has taken very good care of him concerning treatment for his hearing loss - just a couple of months ago he received newer higher tech cochlear implants.

It's my understanding that my 1000s of hours around primarily C-130s makes my hearing loss a "presumptive" service connected disability. I have no problem with filing a claim. If needed, down the road, those hearing aids can be expensive.

Martin Cash said:

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I've had tinnitus since July '75. Sitting behind a 155mm Sheridan at Knox. Gunner fired off a round after cease fire called on the firing line. We had already removed our earplugs.

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I'm curious about this because along with military service where I always wore earplugs in my Abrams Tank and on the range, I've abused my ears pretty well over the years from a Walkman with headphones on shopping trips to Al-Khobar as a kid in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, to plenty of loud rock music as an adult. The worst ever was an Iron Maiden show in a 400 person club in Houston in 1996 where my ears rang for 2 days afterwards and I thought I had done permanent damage. Despite all that, my hearing is still excellent.

But, I have a work colleague who did his service in the German Army and claims that his ears have been ringing since he was about 19 years old in the mid-1980s when somebody fired a weapon near his head.

Similar to my friend, are you saying that your ears have been ringing for 45 years?
That sounds totally miserable. My German friend said that he had problems sleeping because of it. I can't imagine living with a constant ringing in your ears.

My tinnitus kicked in about a year ago. It's isolated to my left ear and is a very dull low pitch buzz. I have no clue if it's due to my time in an Abrams and on the range. I readily admit to being piss poor about wearing hearing protection.

I don't know if it comes or goes or if I've adapted to it and manage to just tune it out to the point it's not noticeable. For instance prior to coming to this thread I didn't notice it. However, as soon as I started to think about it I instantly noticed it. So long as it doesn't worsen I don't believe it will be much of an issue.

Trench55 asserts that a service connected disability is not a requirement to get hearing aids from VA. My understanding want contrary to that, hence my prolonged pursuit. I have since found out that two friends were able to obtain HAs yet do not have a VA disability. A search implies one only needs to be registered within the VA health care system. My tinnitus comes and goes but my hearing loss is moderate to severe. I was never pursuing any financial compensation at the time, since I am retired and my $140 per month was subtracted from my retirement pay. My sole goal was being able to get my $7000 hearing aids at no cost.

I encourage those with hearing loss to pursue this with the VA. I clearly need HAs. I just came in from mowing where I remove my HAs and use noise isolating ear plugs. I had to keep asking my wife to repeat herself until I realized my HAs were still out.

While tinnitus may come and go, hearing loss never improves itself. My life is much better because of my use of hearing aids, from when I arise until I go to bed. Real hearing aids correct specific frequencies where one is deficient. The "personal sound amplifiers" that are advertised on TV are not hearing aids. They are like turning up the volume on the TV. Everything is louder. I had offered my older HAs to my BIL if he would pay for a hearing test and have them "repurposed" for his hearing loss. His response was a "friend from church" told him about HAs for a couple hundred dollars instead of what I offered. They were PSAs not HAs. He was here a couple of weeks ago and I continually had to repeat myself. They don't work.

If you're eligible, go to the VA!

HollywoodBQ said:

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Martin Cash said:

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I've had tinnitus since July '75. Sitting behind a 155mm Sheridan at Knox. Gunner fired off a round after cease fire called on the firing line. We had already removed our earplugs.

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I'm curious about this because along with military service where I always wore earplugs in my Abrams Tank and on the range, I've abused my ears pretty well over the years from a Walkman with headphones on shopping trips to Al-Khobar as a kid in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, to plenty of loud rock music as an adult. The worst ever was an Iron Maiden show in a 400 person club in Houston in 1996 where my ears rang for 2 days afterwards and I thought I had done permanent damage. Despite all that, my hearing is still excellent.

But, I have a work colleague who did his service in the German Army and claims that his ears have been ringing since he was about 19 years old in the mid-1980s when somebody fired a weapon near his head.

Similar to my friend, are you saying that your ears have been ringing for 45 years?
That sounds totally miserable. My German friend said that he had problems sleeping because of it. I can't imagine living with a constant ringing in your ears.

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Yep. Continuous for 46 years now. You get to where you don't notice it unless you think about it.

Exactly how mine is ever since May 10, 2008. Don't really notice it until I stop and think about it or "listen" for it.

F4GIB71 said:

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To an extent, I agree with your comment about others needed it more, but this is not a zero sum game. Your getting a disability does not prevent someone else from getting what they deserve.

I spent 18 years flying fighters and being exposed to flight line noise without hearing protection. Shame on us, but hearing protection wasn't like it is today with quality ear plugs and muffs were impractical to store in a fighter cockpit subject to negative Gs. I have paid the price and clearly needed hearing aids. I filed with the VA a few years ago but was initially denied as "not service connected". YGBSM! I filled an appeal.

During the exam, I was asked if I had tinnitus. I answered in the negative because most define tinnitus as "ringing in the ears" implying a high frequency sound. My nurse practitioner wife explained that tinnitus is a "noise in the ears". She found a website with a dozen examples. One nailed mine exactly which is a low frequency rumble. I filed a supplemental claim and was quickly granted 10% service connected. All I was looking for was a 0%, but with the magic words "service connected" so I could get hearing aids through the VA.

I highly recommend anyone who has hearing loss to file a claim. It can take a while for an appointment. I've had good service with SA VA but friends in Houston have had delays on getting appointments. The VA has access to all the HA manufacturers and provide the top of the line from each. If you have not worn HAs previously, I also suggest talking to a few long term HA wearers for their suggestions of features to consider. My audiologist ordered every feature and accessory that I requested but you have to know what to ask for.

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When I walked into the VA to try to schedule an evaluation I hoped would yield hearing aids, I was interviewed by a nice woman whom made me mindful of all the ACORN stories I'd read. Everytime she asked me a question, she'd offer an exaggerated "yes" nod, which I surmised correctly to meaning needed to answer in the affirmative. 5000 hours astride four T56A-14 engines ruined my hearing, so I was a player despite the coaching, but it was funny nevertheless!