A Veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq Urges Better Hearing Protection for Soldiers

By Jon Barton

Last year, in 2022, I donated about $1.2 million in military and tactical equipment to Ukraine. I wasn’t trying to do anything political. I was just trying to help humans.

All told I sent over 80 percent of my inventory— hundreds of uniforms, boots, and gloves in various camouflage colors and conditions. I had all this inventory because I own a military consulting and rental company that advises film and TV productions.

But what I could not provide is enough protection from loud sounds. Explosions, artillery fire, gunshots, aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles—war is noisy. And I know that noise exposure, whether it’s a sudden burst or a constant drone, will affect civilians and soldiers alike for decades to come. Already there is a report in The Hearing Journal regarding Ukrainian refugees who are arriving in Poland. They are showing significant hearing loss, with perforated eardrums from bomb shockwaves.

I know. My hearing was damaged during two combat tours as a Marine infantryman, and later as a Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) vehicle commander, from 2001 to 2011.

The most common disabilities experienced by veterans are hearing loss and tinnitus. These are less visible but insidious conditions that can seriously upend every aspect of our lives, from our overall physical and psychological wellness to social interactions, and including work performance.

Hearing damage—hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing in the ears)—can result from exposure to loud sounds. In recent conflicts, service members are particularly affected by roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs). But even soldiers in training can have their hearing impacted if proper precautions aren’t taken.

Of course, I am proud to have served my country and recognize that the hearing loss and tinnitus I experience now does not approach other severe wounds of combat. My hearing was damaged when the pressure from a rocketpropelled grenade pierced my eardrum. It was aimed at a building where we were bivouacked.

When I entered basic training in 2001 I was issued earplugs, but they were faulty. Shortly before my first deployment to Iraq in 2003 I received 3M earplugs that kept falling out, and that later became the focus of a class action lawsuit. (I was a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit, though I was not deposed.)

Advocating for better hearing protection has become a personal cause. In addition to that caused by the rocketpropelled grenade, my hearing damage was compounded by countless firefights and riding in noisy armored vehicles as a platoon commander.

But I did not realize that playing video games, which I do with the volume cranked up so I can hear, was also harming my hearing. Until I started working with Hearing Health Foundation on their Keep Listening campaign, I didn’t fully grasp that this activity my buddies and I do to relax, could be making our hearing worse.

It

Getting the Best Protection

rocket-propelled

Hearing loss is a constant struggle for me, both physically draining and psychologically frustrating. People have to yell to get my attention even if I’m in the next room. I hear ringing in my ears that causes dizziness and headaches. I can’t hear certain frequencies, which makes listening to music difficult. I don’t talk on the phone unless I use earbuds, otherwise I can’t hear what the other person is saying. I find myself talking much louder than I should or need to in social settings. I can’t hear the TV unless I blast the volume so loud others can’t tolerate it.

Today for my work, I use expensive, custom-fit, electronic in-ear voice-activated earplugs, and clip-on ear, and/or advanced frequency-activated, helmet-integrated over-ear headsets. I train actors in using this cutting-edge ear protection equipment on set because I feel life can imitate art, and if military leaders see these used in action movies, then perhaps they’ll push to get them in their military units. It has always upset me that I never had these devices on the battlefield, so in the wars I create, I want to make sure everyone has the best protection.

I’m aware that hearing damage has broader health ramifications. Most concerning to me is the link between untreated hearing damage and cognitive decline. Difficulty hearing also puts stress on the heart by releasing fight or flight hormones. While I have not had these problems, I’d be a fool if I didn’t worry about the future.

I know I’m not alone. Every veteran out of many dozens

I know has some degree of hearing loss. Many of my older vet friends wear hearing aids because their hearing has become worse over the years. Because of this, I am always telling fellow vets and everyone else to protect their hearing from loud sounds and to get their ears checked twice a year.

In training we were taught to use hearing protection, or “ear-pro” in military terms. We used protection religiously in training, and earplugs were mandatory on almost all live-fire training ranges.

But the military’s operational practices during combat are far less restrictive than in training. Basically, ear-pro is optional in war.

The bigger issue was not having access to more advanced ear-pro technology that pilots, tank drivers, flight line crew, mechanics, and others did have. Some of that technology is making its way into the infantry and other fighting units. However, it took until 2021 for combat ground units to finally get full over-the ear-combination communication and ear-pro equipment.

In my time in the Corps I only ever witnessed stepchange technology in ear-pro twice. The first time was right before combat deployments in 2003, where we switched out our little green flimsy stick plugs to new “cutting edge” long and short, double sided combat plugs. They turned out to be just as flimsy, and just as impossible to fight in. Five years later when I left the infantry and became a vehicle commander I was issued my first combat vehicle crewman (CVC) helmet. This amazing piece of kit had high-speed noise-canceling headphones built right in, and it was a game changer.

Advocating for better hearing protection has become a personal cause. In addition to that caused by the rocket-propelled grenade, my hearing damage was compounded by countless firefights and riding in noisy armored vehicles as a platoon commander. But I did not realize that playing video games, which I do with the volume cranked up so I can hear, was also harming my hearing. I didn’t fully grasp that this activity my buddies and I do to relax, could be making our hearing worse.

Unfortunately, going from grunts to the “iron horse” made me aware of how bad we had it on the ground side regarding ear-pro. On my first training op at Camp Pendleton as a vehicle commander, I took my CVC off and immediately became aware of the noise damage your unprotected ears could suffer just from riding inside an armored vehicle.

During this training op, with my helmet on I was able to communicate safely and effectively with my crewmen while all around us roared a vicious, unrelenting, and unbearable cacophony. But seated right behind me on the troop benches were my infantry brothers, who could only communicate with hand signals and were driven nearly mad by the noise onslaught to their ears for hours.

As a Sergeant and a Marine, I fully understand that noise in the battlespace is just another part of the “fog of war,” but that was the first time I began to wonder why had we spent so many years with little sticks in our ears during combat when technology existed that could have helped us be more effective warfighters.

Since I first aired these concerns in Stars & Stripes in the fall of 2021, I see that the military now makes annual hearing tests mandatory (instead of every six years). I’d also like to see soldiers taught how to evaluate their own hearing, such as with an online hearing test, with an open path to bringing it up the chain of command. I also encourage the military to standardize the best hearing and communications equipment, create a more rigid policy for its use, and improve education about the importance of hearing protection.

There is always room for every branch of the military to do better in protecting the well-being and health of its soldiers. I hope my experience and that of others will help bring about new policies and practices to do that.

Jon Barton is a military technical consultant to Hollywood productions on war and combat. He served with the U.S. Marines from 2001–2011 as an 0351 infantry assaultman, LAR antitank vehicle commander, and battalion-level asymmetric warfare/counter IED instructor. He is the author of more than a dozen screenplays and military science fiction books. For more, see night-fire.com. Special thanks to Suzanne Trimel for help with this story.