Military Service Connected Hearing Loss

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jaylon

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I worked on the instruments for jet fighter planes in Korea 1953 before protective ear covers became a requirement and was constantly subjected to shrieking jet engine noise. Years later after college I developed hearing loss which over the years became worse. I was given a disability benefit in my 70's , hearing aids & later a Cochlear Implant.
 
jaylon said:
I worked on the instruments for jet fighter planes in Korea 1953 before protective ear covers became a requirement and was constantly subjected to shrieking jet engine noise. Years later after college I developed hearing loss which over the years became worse. I was given a disability benefit in my 70's , hearing aids & later a Cochlear Implant.
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I worked on fighter jets also (F-4, A-6, F-8, and UH1), during my time in Vietnam, 1967-1969.
The F-4 Phantom, and the whup, whup of the UH1, destroyed my overall hearing, but it largely went unattended to because I was alive!, and could "hear" just OK.
In early Feb. 1968, an explosion at the bomb dump, 1 mile away, knocked me flat on my ass. (I thought for an instant, that they had "dropped the big one" on us. That "rang my bell" big time, and it's still ringing today. More hearing loss, but I survived.
In 2011, a load of granite "slabs" fell off a truck and knocked me flat, but this time it was the hospital for me. I had dodged some bullets and rockets before, but this stupid granite got me. The nurse who first saw me, said, "you're here at the hospital, can you hear me? after a bit, I said yes, but something was terribly wrong, I had only my left ear, and my right ear had been replaced with a loud "screeching sound". I could no longer "localize" sounds, and it drove me more into depression, as if Vietnam wasn't depressing enough.
I finally went to the VA, put down my pride, and got full benefits for my hearing loss, AND the PTSD that accompanied combat, but the thing that helped my hearing , was "a wireless bone conduction" head phone, an equalizer, and a stereo mic. (the hearing aids (they gave me two), the doctors said I needed, didn't do a thing for me. I didn't need to "localize" sound any more because the sounds were now connected directly on my left ear. I started putting "good vibrations" into my ear, through these little coils, and was amazed how much it calmed down the Tinnitus, and calmed me down too. I became my own D J, with my own music.
I began watching ASL music interpreter, along with "listening", and seeing the movement of music, did it all for me. Conductors, piano players and guitar players are a cool form of ASL in their own right.
I think that if you put a bone conduction phone on a child, and dance with them, they can see the music too.
I feel that "concussive" sounds, are a cause of more "closed bone" TBI's, than people realize.
"Music is Movement", and in the Deaf Culture, is equivalent to sound.

This is a nice video, "The Enchanting Music of Sign Language : Christine Sun Kim". YouTube.

Enjoy
 
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