thedrifter
03-08-06, 07:49 AM
Posted on Wed, Mar. 08, 2006
Seeking the right amount of sound in the fury of combat
BY RICHARD WHITTLE
The Dallas Morning News
QUANTICO, Va. - Modern combat is almost always noisy, but it was especially so in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November 2004, when U.S. forces engaged insurgents in vicious house-to-house - often room-to-room - fighting.
The reverberation of gunfire and explosions within concrete walls was so loud at times that "someone screaming in your ear could barely reach you," said Jesse Grapes, 27, who as a first lieutenant led a platoon of Marines in the two-week battle. Combat leaders sometimes had trouble making themselves understood over radios - critical when time lost waiting on reinforcements or air cover can cost lives.
The Fallujah battle showed Marine leaders that hearing protection isn't just a question of health but a matter of combat effectiveness, said Lt. Col. Donald "Scott" Hawkins, who led a study on the subject for the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned at Quantico.
Alarmed by the Fallujah experience, the corps revised its regulations last November to require that every Marine - "especially forward-deployed Marines in combat environments" - be issued Combat Arms Earplugs, trained in how to use them and required to carry them.
Even so, combat veterans said many troops won't wear earplugs in battle for fear of missing key sounds. Hearing-protection advocates say the challenge is to show them that wearing earplugs can actually give them the edge in a fight, not take it away.
Unlike traditional earplugs issued to U.S. troops and widely unused, Combat Arms Earplugs consist of two Christmas-tree-shaped cones - one green, one yellow - attached by a stem.
Inserting the green cone into the ear protects from "steady-state" noise such as that of a loud Humvee. Inserting the yellow cone, which has a hole in its end, allows the user to hear normal sounds but filters out "impulse noise" such as gunfire.
This year, the Marines also are to buy 60,000 sets of high-tech, Norwegian-made earplugs that do the same thing and contain a tiny microphone that picks up the wearer's voice, said Mark Richter, a retired Marine major who runs the program.
The earplugs, which could cost nearly $1,000 a pair, are designed to work with a new radio allowing squad members to talk to one another in a normal tone even during the heat of battle, he said.
But getting troops to wear even Combat Arms Earplugs in battle may require more effort than the Army and Marines have devoted to it in the past, some experts said.
Handing them out with written instructions isn't effective, said Douglas Ohlin, an audiologist who heads the Army's hearing conservation program. Most people have to be shown how to wear earplugs.
"You stick it in (the ear canal) as far as is comfortable," Ohlin said. "When you gently tug on the earplug, there should be some tension. It shouldn't come right out.
"This is stuff you have to teach people. If you don't have them in right, you might as well not have them in at all."
Cmdr. Kelly Paul, program manager for Navy and Marine Hearing Conservation at the Navy Environmental Health Center in Portsmouth, Va., said her service's 21 audiologists are too few to explain noise risks and how to wear earplugs to thousands of Marines.
Timothy Connors, 23, of Braintree, Mass., who as a corporal led a 12-man squad of Marines in Fallujah, said that during his four years in the service, "I don't remember ever having a formal class on hearing loss or hearing protection."
The Marines required earplugs on the rifle range, he said, but gave no instructions.
"They hand you the box, and you put them in," Connors said. "You just follow the instructions on the box."
In Fallujah, where he was in more than a dozen gunbattles inside houses, Connors wore one old-fashioned "triple-flange" earplug - the kind that muffles all sound - and kept the other ear free for his intrasquad radio. He's sure he lost some hearing but feels it was a small price to pay for coming home alive.
"I'm happy the hearing is the only thing I lost," he said.
Ellie
Seeking the right amount of sound in the fury of combat
BY RICHARD WHITTLE
The Dallas Morning News
QUANTICO, Va. - Modern combat is almost always noisy, but it was especially so in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November 2004, when U.S. forces engaged insurgents in vicious house-to-house - often room-to-room - fighting.
The reverberation of gunfire and explosions within concrete walls was so loud at times that "someone screaming in your ear could barely reach you," said Jesse Grapes, 27, who as a first lieutenant led a platoon of Marines in the two-week battle. Combat leaders sometimes had trouble making themselves understood over radios - critical when time lost waiting on reinforcements or air cover can cost lives.
The Fallujah battle showed Marine leaders that hearing protection isn't just a question of health but a matter of combat effectiveness, said Lt. Col. Donald "Scott" Hawkins, who led a study on the subject for the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned at Quantico.
Alarmed by the Fallujah experience, the corps revised its regulations last November to require that every Marine - "especially forward-deployed Marines in combat environments" - be issued Combat Arms Earplugs, trained in how to use them and required to carry them.
Even so, combat veterans said many troops won't wear earplugs in battle for fear of missing key sounds. Hearing-protection advocates say the challenge is to show them that wearing earplugs can actually give them the edge in a fight, not take it away.
Unlike traditional earplugs issued to U.S. troops and widely unused, Combat Arms Earplugs consist of two Christmas-tree-shaped cones - one green, one yellow - attached by a stem.
Inserting the green cone into the ear protects from "steady-state" noise such as that of a loud Humvee. Inserting the yellow cone, which has a hole in its end, allows the user to hear normal sounds but filters out "impulse noise" such as gunfire.
This year, the Marines also are to buy 60,000 sets of high-tech, Norwegian-made earplugs that do the same thing and contain a tiny microphone that picks up the wearer's voice, said Mark Richter, a retired Marine major who runs the program.
The earplugs, which could cost nearly $1,000 a pair, are designed to work with a new radio allowing squad members to talk to one another in a normal tone even during the heat of battle, he said.
But getting troops to wear even Combat Arms Earplugs in battle may require more effort than the Army and Marines have devoted to it in the past, some experts said.
Handing them out with written instructions isn't effective, said Douglas Ohlin, an audiologist who heads the Army's hearing conservation program. Most people have to be shown how to wear earplugs.
"You stick it in (the ear canal) as far as is comfortable," Ohlin said. "When you gently tug on the earplug, there should be some tension. It shouldn't come right out.
"This is stuff you have to teach people. If you don't have them in right, you might as well not have them in at all."
Cmdr. Kelly Paul, program manager for Navy and Marine Hearing Conservation at the Navy Environmental Health Center in Portsmouth, Va., said her service's 21 audiologists are too few to explain noise risks and how to wear earplugs to thousands of Marines.
Timothy Connors, 23, of Braintree, Mass., who as a corporal led a 12-man squad of Marines in Fallujah, said that during his four years in the service, "I don't remember ever having a formal class on hearing loss or hearing protection."
The Marines required earplugs on the rifle range, he said, but gave no instructions.
"They hand you the box, and you put them in," Connors said. "You just follow the instructions on the box."
In Fallujah, where he was in more than a dozen gunbattles inside houses, Connors wore one old-fashioned "triple-flange" earplug - the kind that muffles all sound - and kept the other ear free for his intrasquad radio. He's sure he lost some hearing but feels it was a small price to pay for coming home alive.
"I'm happy the hearing is the only thing I lost," he said.
Ellie