I went to Hines Veterans hospital today to have a hearing
test. They gave me hearing aids back 5 years ago. They said that I get new
hearing aids every 5 years. This time I am getting the kind with Bluetooth
technology. Now the sound on my TV and Cell phone will be directly sent to my
new hearing aids. Is that cool or what? I get them in 2 weeks. I can’t wait to
try them out.
Here is the report I sent in to the VA explaining everything
so I could get disability for hearing loss.
Reg: Hearing loss disability claim
I was assigned to the USS Constellation CVA 64 on Nov 23,
1963. I worked on the flight deck on catapult #1 as a hookup man launching jet
aircraft until a plane ran over my leg crushing it sometime in June of 1966.
While I was launching the jet aircraft on the flight deck
off the coast of Vietnam in 1965 our officer in charge told us that we had to
wear a pilot’s helmet instead of the “Protective Ears” that we had been
wearing.
The first time we tried them out on our next launch we found
out that the pilots helmets we were wearing gave NO HEARING PROTECTION from the
140 to 150 disables coming from the Jet Engines. The pain was so great. It’s
hard to describe how much pain we were in. After the launch we told our
superiors about the problem but they said we had to wear the pilot’s helmet to
protect the head.
On the next launch we stuffed rags and cotton into our ears
underneath our Helmets. There was no change when the launch began. The pain was
unbearable. I knew I couldn’t go on like this, so after the launch we threw our
pilot helmets away and put our “Regular Protective Ears” back on. We didn’t
care what the officer in charge would do to us. We had to keep from going deaf.
From that day forward my ears never stopped ringing. I found
out later after I got out of the service that I had lost some hearing. I kept
trying to get help from the Veterans Hospital for my hearing loss but it took
until 2011 before they supplied me with a set of hearing aids.
“I hereby certify that the information I have given is true
to the best of my knowledge and belief,”
