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OT - Hearing damage?


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Hello all - long time lurker, first time poster so please go easy! smile.gif I am quite the fan of WWII history (CM is hands-down one of the best games that I've played PERIOD!!), and yearn to learn more whenever possible - an aside here, to all current war vets that are here (conflict doesn't matter), it's been said, but I don't think it's been said enough - you guys deserve all of the credit in the world! You've done something that can really never be repayed in a tangible fashion - I love all you guys..seriously...it's one thing to read a book and imagine the horrors of war, it's another to actually be able to do it...EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU are heroes - believe that.

Anyway, this is more of a general war/conflict question than anything else. Objectively, how many war veterans were nearing total deafness at the end of the war? I ask that because I cannot possibly imagine the amount of noise in a combat zone...reading "The Forgotten Soldier" gives you a sense of what it's like to be on the end of an arty barrage, but words can only express so much. So here's what it boils down to - (objectively) how loud was it? Like inside of a tank, taking a ricochet, or a direct shot that broke up: Or while manning arty, or being shot at by arty: What about on the manning end of a .50 cal: Firing a tanks main gun: etc. I realize how 'out-there' this question may be, but I'm quite curious as one who's never experienced ANYTHING close to this. Thanks for any informative replies! smile.gif

Gol

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Slightly off-topic to this off-topic post, but there is an article in a fairly recent issue of Outdoor Life that discusses the effects on hearing of long-term exposure to gun-fire noise. I'd give a more specific reference, but I only read the first part of the article while waiting for my car to come out of the repair shop.

The upshot of it is that long-term exposure to small-arms muzzle blast noise (approx. 150-160 db.) w/o ear protection is a surefire prescription for tinnitus and other major-league hearing disorders. I have no idea how that compares with long-term exposure to arty detonations (which carry other hazards as well). Short-term exposure to heavy fire can lead to temporary deafness as well, but the author seemed to imply that the effects are cumulative.

I'd love to read the whole thing, but I don't want to put my car in the shop again for a while.

Some of the current and former redlegs on the board could no doubt add much more to this than I.

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Ethan

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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe

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Golgotha, it's loud. It's so loud it ceases to be noise any more. Flinching ceases because the bang of your puny gun is inconsequential next to a tank battalion engaging with 105s. When it's over your whole body is numb not from adrenaline but from sound shock. Ever sat right in front of a speaker tower at a 50,000 fan concert? It feels a lot like that. Hearing loss happens a lot.

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Sounds like 100% weapons-grade bolonium to me.

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This is something that bothers me a lot. If you're involved in a war, even if you survive uninjured, there are a lot of physical problems which are par for the course. Besides deafness, I was reading about a fellow in the British 3rd Royal Tank Regiment who was trying to escape at Dunkirk, and he took a few near misses from artillery, and he was talking about his eyes going out of focus, just off-hand. If my eyes went out of focus I'd freak out, but I suppose in war you don't worry about that kind of thing.

I haven't experienced war myself, but I think it wouldn't be too far off to say that things that matter to you in peacetime cease to matter in war. They say war is hell, but much as I want to, I can't understand that without experiencing it first-hand, and I'd rather not. My faculties are invaluable to me.

On a side note, those people who frequent nightclubs with loud music playing are basically asking to go deaf. And as for concerts... I went to an R.E.M. concert last year, and I forgot to take earplugs. Unforunately the support band we got first was LOUD. I think my ears survived without any permanent damage, but I wouldn't do it again.

David

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There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Aitken:

On a side note, those people who frequent nightclubs with loud music playing are basically asking to go deaf

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

WHAAAAA? YOU'RE GONNA HAVTA SPEAK UP!

What does this say for those of us who work in nightclubs, I wonder? Besides that we're inherently super-cool and we get to meet lots of hipster musicians. wink.gif

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Soy super bien, soy super super bien, soy bien bien super bien bien bien super super.

[This message has been edited by Chupacabra (edited 08-25-2000).]

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I have a hearing loss in the high frequency range I attribute to my time as a tanker in the Marines. Of course I also used to race moto-x, played in a punk band and have always listened to music quite loud, not to mention the years I used to go to the rifle and pistol ranges...all of which I did without what we now call "hearing Protection" (quite a novel idea, that...)

The only things I have trouble hearing are the alarm on my watch, the alarm on my dive computer and my girlfriend when she's nagging. It's not all that bad...

Zamo

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Formerly Babra:

Golgotha, it's loud. It's so loud it ceases to be noise any more. Flinching ceases because the bang of your puny gun is inconsequential next to a tank battalion engaging with 105s. When it's over your whole body is numb not from adrenaline but from sound shock. Ever sat right in front of a speaker tower at a 50,000 fan concert? It feels a lot like that. Hearing loss happens a lot.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

huh? said the ex-sonarman wink.gif

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Thanks for Athskin!

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Guest Michael emrys

I have fairly severe tinnitus from shooting caps as a kid. Don't laugh. Yeah, they're not so bad one at a time, but when you hit a whole roll with a hammer, it really rocks you back. Then there were all those souped-up M-80s I made by adding gunpowder from my daddy's shotgun shells... smile.gif

Michael

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as a former arty guy....loud ain't the word...

as others have stated, it almost becomes a part of ya.....and you're kinda numb afterwards....

as for tanks...ride in one of those steel pigs if ya get a chance.....surrounded by noise, every bone in your body kinda humms with the vibration....and as for the cannon going off....yup..loud...hard to imagine unless you actually experience it...

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unca pathy will show ya the path,

if only he could find it himself!

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Loud is no longer a consideration. The sound becomes part of the environment. For green troops the noise alone can freeze you in place for a few moments. After the first few seconds of gunfire you no longer even register the noise as sound and reality returns.

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Thx for all the replies folks - I understand that it's very tough to *describe* to someone who's never experienced it. David kinda puts it in better words than I did...I just don't know what I'd do without my faculties, but in the middle of a war, when it seems EVERYTHING is shooting at JUST YOU, you don't really worry about not being able to hear (or see, etc).

Gol

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