Artillery MOS: Hearing Protection

[Happys Pappy]

My son will be graduating from boot camp in a few short weeks and after MCT he will make his way to Fort Sill for artillery training. I was wondering what kind of hearing protection he would be issued. If there are any artillery Marines out there who would care to share their experiences regarding military issued hearing protection, any hearing loss you may have experienced, use of personal hearing protection rather than military issue, etc. I would very much appreciate any and all input, please.



Kind regards,



Pappy

[SGT7477]

Pappy it's been so long ago for me but to tell you the truth I can't remember wearing anything but we could have used ear plugs, we done our training at Camp LeJeune, Semper Fidelis.

[USNAviator]

Pappy, I had a cousin who was an instructor at Fort Sill. This was in the late 90's and then they were using ear plugs and sound deadening ear muffs. The brand they used was made by Peltor. They newer Peltor earmuffs allow you to listen without having to take them off, you simply push a button and communication is possible

Check out the the Peltor site. BTW my cousin now wears hearing aids in both ears. Far too much time on the range

[ggyoung]

Pappy I was in Arty for 8 years with 2 tours to Vietnam. What was that you just said? The order came down from on high up for us to use ear plugs. Now what did you just say? The problem is with ear plugs you may not hear all of the commands coming down to the guns. That could make you shoot out and maybe kill some Marines. So we just had them on our flack jackets if some one from high up snooping around you had them. One Marines life is worth more than my hearing. That is what we thought.

[Happys Pappy]

Pappy, I had a cousin who was an instructor at Fort Sill. This was in the late 90's and then they were using ear plugs and sound deadening ear muffs. The brand they used was made by Peltor. They newer Peltor earmuffs allow you to listen without having to take them off, you simply push a button and communication is possible

Check out the the Peltor site. BTW my cousin now wears hearing aids in both ears. Far too much time on the range

Cmdr,

Thank you very much for your reply. I was in fact early today looking specifically at Peltor Tactical 6S Electronic in olive drab because it states that it will fit under a US military helmet and the set folds up very small for travel and is light weight. Many thanks for your input

Kind regards,

Pappy

[SGT7477]

Not to take anything away but we were trained the way ggyoung put it, Semper Fidelis.

[Tennessee Top]

My recruiter was a cannon-cocker.

He talked really loud and one eye pointed outboard. Never could figure out if he was looking at me or the bulkhead. I liked him a lot though.

[SgtThrasher]

Pappy I was in Arty for 8 years with 2 tours to Vietnam. What was that you just said? The order came down from on high up for us to use ear plugs. Now what did you just say? The problem is with ear plugs you may not hear all of the commands coming down to the guns. That could make you shoot out and maybe kill some Marines. So we just had them on our flack jackets if some one from high up snooping around you had them. One Marines life is worth more than my hearing. That is what we thought.

10-4 brother,I wore the head set phones in Vietnam since I was the section chief and that saved my hearing today.I can still hear a wild turkey gobble a country mile away and I owe it to the head set I wore during fire missions my entire tour ,but no one else on the 8 "howitzer had any protection,but they covered their ears and opened their mouth to equalize the muzzle blast,but hearing protection is required by all the gun crew in modern day artillery,as it should be !

[ARTYPIG]

Yep. I agree with ggyoung. I never had hearing protection and it seemed as if everytime we were moving powder and ammo the guns were always going off. I guess I just got use to it, but I was fitted for hearing aids last week because of artillery and I'm only 42! Insist that he wear something and tell him not to take crap for wearing it as I'm sure he will receive from some of his peers.

[Happys Pappy]

Thank you Marines for all of your input.

Taking the advice of Cmdr O'Shea, I contacted Peltor, the hearing protection manufacturer, for further insight. I was told by a sales rep that the majority of military purchases are for the Peltor Tactical 6S electronic hearing protection ear muff, which I found for $51.50 via Amazon.

I then talked to a Technical Specialist at Peltor and he informed me that no hearing protection device (i.e. ear muff) on it's own would offer adequate protection from the blast of a howitzer. He stated that you would must supplement the ear muff with additional earplugs, exactly as Cmdr O'Shea had noted in his original reply to my post.

Question(s) answered and problem solved!

Thanks again for all of your replies!

Kind regards,

Pappy