Obviously, in training, .mil folks use hearing protection. Heck even I did. We wore ear plugs in the engine spaces and on the fantail when we made it a shooting range.
But what of regular soldiers in the field/combat?
Now I understand wanting to have all your senses alert, and dulling them with ear plugs while on a patrol might be bad. You aren't firing the whole time, naturally. But what of sound dampening headphones? A grunt could get a helmet with one of those built in. And those MAGNIFY the quieter sounds to actually help you locate a hidden bad guy.
I have a feeling the answer is "some few billets have that, and the Army would love to have it more widespread, but it will take time to disseminate them to ALL the troops, as money is better spent on body armor."
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Peltor 6S fits nicely under even the old K-pot. Don't leave the wire without them!
$60 at Amazon last time I bought them...
They've got standard issue earplugs that, when inserted one way (OD side out) cut high impulse noise (rifole fire) to safe levels with very little effect on steady state and low impulse noises. (Flip 'em around so the bright yellow end shows if you're trying to stop steady state noise like an engine room or helo.)
Even the hearing degradation from wearing conventional earplugs is better hearing than the degradation after frining ONE round.
I also have a pair of $15 earplugs with baffles -- they give me about 18dB protection from high impulse noise and yet have almost no effect on convcersational level noise. They also have a plug so I can run the protection to about 21dB if I close the "conversational plug" (as I call it). Unpowered -- so no batteries.
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