Picture of the day

I'm surprised to hear that some of our vets have had difficulty getting DVA support for hearing loss.

I gave up on Work Safe BC (couldn't handle the minutiae of the application) and applied through DVA. I supplied a recent audiogram and my discharge docs. They already had an audiogram on file from when I was still serving.
In the March/April 2015 issue of the Legion magazine, there is a Veteran's Benefits guide with all the details on how to apply and a chart of the current pensions, awards and allowances payable, including a "quality of life" questionnaire. Hearing loss definitely affects your quality of life - music enjoyment, bird song, noises in the bush, wind in the trees, a mouse fart, etc.

I found the process to be trouble free and pretty quick for a government agency. Under the new Veteran's Charter, the maximum allowed for a 10% disability (my hearing loss is certainly more than 10%) is $30,669.82. That is exactly the amount I received, in addition to $5000 worth of high end 'ear wigs'. You have to opt for monthly, annual or a lump sum payment. At my age, I took the money and ran .....

An rcmp friend with the same length of service as me got exactly the same.
 
Last edited:
762shooter said:
I know a guy who was a Marine machine gunner in Viet Nam. He told me that when they went on jungle patrols he carried his mg 60 horizontal with a long sling over his shoulder, one bipod leg down as a fore grip and 100 rnd belt on place. When they got in an ambush his job was to make the NVA keep their heads down. Ha said he would drop to one knee and start spraying, by the time the first belt was gone the assistant gunner had the next attached. He told me that he washed out more barrels than he can recall.
Click to expand...

Heat is what accelerates the wear to the throats and bores.

I know of an incident where the GPMG used had almost no rifling left in it. There wasn't a spare bbl available to us. That gun fired a lot of rounds in the right direction when it was called upon to do so. The operator got to the point where he wouldn't change out the barrel when one became available. He liked the shotgun effect at ranges over 100m and came to look upon that shot out barrel as his "good luck" piece. The return spring broke because the gun hadn't been properly maintained due to superstition and it got him as well as his loader killed.
 
"What? Where are you?? WHAT?!?"

Sharps '63 said:
First time I saw ear protection issued was when the Infantry got ear plugs in a "twist-to-open" plastic case. They were being deafened by the diesel detonation of the M113 APC - in addition to small arms noise. I presume that the gunners got them as well.
.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was in an armored unit in Germany. We all got issued those little rubber earplugs, but The Word was:
"Ear plugs are for pussies." Firing noise inside the turret was not so bad (no concussion); the loudest noise was the sound of the spent 105mm shell clanging down onto the turret floor. Outside it was a different matter. During a night exercise I foolishly jumped off to "scout ahead". As I went stumbling through the dark, they fired a blank out of the main gun. My helmet blew off in one direction, my weapon blew off in another, and I was left lying in the ditch. My hearing was gone and so was my night vision.
Then things began to get interesting. Good times.
I'm glad we weren't using live ammo!

This is live ammo, in the daytime:
M60A1firing105mm1965hocking023.jpg
 
Sporting Lad said:
Yeah, I was in an armored unit in Germany. We all got issued those little rubber earplugs, but The Word was:
"Ear plugs are for pussies." Firing noise inside the turret was not so bad (no concussion); the loudest noise was the sound of the spent 105mm shell clanging down onto the turret floor. Outside it was a different matter. During a night exercise I foolishly jumped off to "scout ahead". As I went stumbling through the dark, they fired a blank out of the main gun. My helmet blew off in one direction, my weapon blew off in another, and I was left lying in the ditch. My hearing was gone and so was my night vision.
Then things began to get interesting. Good times.
I'm glad we weren't using live ammo!

This is live ammo, in the daytime:
M60A1firing105mm1965hocking023.jpg
Click to expand...

Sounds familiar ..... During my basic at CFB Wainwright, my platoon from PPCLI Depot acted as enemy during the Brigade Concentration. We were nocturnal, operating at night, in "hide" during the day.
One night we encountered an element of LdSH in laager. We were more surprised than they were. Of course we had to interrupt their repose, 'Thunder Flashes' in hand. It got real scary when some of the tanks fired up their engines, I presume to power up their turrets.
These were Centurions, I don't recall if they had yet been upgraded with 120mm guns. At any rate, my section was about 20 yds in front of one tank when it fired the master weapon - biggest GD "Bang!" I've ever heard! Fortunately the barrel was elevated above our heads, but the concussion was enough to disorient us. We had to be gathered up by NCOs as we were temporarily like Zombies.

I think that was the beginning of my hearing loss. After that, firing the FN C1/C2 was negligible by comparison. Anyone who wants more info on applying to DVA, send me a PM.
 
Sharps '63 said:
I'm surprised to hear that some of our vets have had difficulty getting DVA support for hearing loss.

I gave up on Work Safe BC (couldn't handle the minutiae of the application) and applied through DVA. I supplied a recent audiogram and my discharge docs. They already had an audiogram on file from when I was still serving.
In the March/April 2015 issue of the Legion magazine, there is a Veteran's Benefits guide with all the details on how to apply and a chart of the current pensions, awards and allowances payable, including a "quality of life" questionnaire. Hearing loss definitely affects your quality of life - music enjoyment, bird song, noises in the bush, wind in the trees, a mouse fart, etc.

I found the process to be trouble free and pretty quick for a government agency. Under the new Veteran's Charter, the maximum allowed for a 10% disability (my hearing loss is certainly more than 10%) is $30,669.82. That is exactly the amount I received, in addition to $5000 worth of high end 'ear wigs'. You have to opt for monthly, annual or a lump sum payment. At my age, I took the money and ran .....

An rcmp friend with the same length of service as me got exactly the same.
Click to expand...

... friend of mine just received his last month... took him about 90 days. He said it was straightforward and no challenges after he answered their questions about his service which was essentially same as mine. Encouraged me to do the same although there are some advantages not always hearing my wife. Cant say I ever stood in front of a Leopard firing like Recce has... but have let off a whole lot of DM12 .....and done the loader job on the 84mm :) (many times as well:)
 
AP said:
... friend of mine just received his last month... took him about 90 days. He said it was straightforward and no challenges after he answered their questions about his service which was essentially same as mine. Encouraged me to do the same although there are some advantages not always hearing my wife. Cant say I ever stood in front of a Leopard firing like Recce has... but have let off a whole lot of DM12 .....and done the loader job on the 84mm :) (many times as well:)
Click to expand...

One of the first things I discovered was that a lot of the stuff I thought I was missing turns out to be not worth hearing in the first place ..... ;>)
I did enjoy the soft sounds again - the russle of wind in the trees, the crunch of gravel under foot, etc.
 
Hearing aids are a big help. Mine even came with a remote; why, I don't know. I offered it to my wife to dial me up or down as she liked.

They still don't help in trying to understand that nasal, whiney, fast way of talking that a lot of girls and young women have adopted these days. Hearing aids or not, I just get them to talk slowly to a point where I can understand them.:confused: This "whinetalk" is even worse than "uptalk" where the tone is raised like a question at the end of a statement. This used to be very popular with young women 10-20 yrs back. The worst possible combination is an Aussie accent, which is grating and irritating at best, combined with "uptalk". A few yrs ago we visited a kitchen design shop where the designer was an Aussie who talked this way. He seemed to have some good ideas about kitchen designs, but I found an excuse to leave early in his sales pitch and went looking for another shop with a better design which would be easier to listen to. We wound up settling for a Croatian who had a better product and was easier on the ears than the Aussie.:)
 
My description of the form of speaking Purple mentioned is - "Teen speak". Like the sing song spiel you get from a hostess seating you in a restaurant, rhyming off the daily specials.
Invariably I ask my wife - "What did she say?", hearing aids or no.

I've got one of those volume controls he mentioned as well. I use it to tune out people I don't want to listen to, pretending to shut them out while smiling and nodding ......
 
purple said:
Hearing aids are a big help. Mine even came with a remote; why, I don't know. I offered it to my wife to dial me up or down as she liked.
They still don't help in trying to understand that nasal, whiney, fast way of talking that a lot of girls and young women have adopted these days. Hearing aids or not, I just get them to talk slowly to a point where I can understand them.:confused: This "whinetalk" is even worse than "uptalk" where the tone is raised like a question at the end of a statement. This used to be very popular with young women 10-20 yrs back. The worst possible combination is an Aussie accent, which is grating and irritating at best, combined with "uptalk". A few yrs ago we visited a kitchen design shop where the designer was an Aussie who talked this way. He seemed to have some good ideas about kitchen designs, but I found an excuse to leave early in his sales pitch and went looking for another shop with a better design which would be easier to listen to. We wound up settling for a Croatian who had a better product and was easier on the ears than the Aussie.:)
Click to expand...


amen to that ... our local high school has an indifferent principal who sets neither a standard nor example for the teachers ... some of whom are, in spite of this, excellent.

Unfortunately I have noticed that the female teachers (male teachers not so much) - in what I believe is a desperate attempt to stay/appear young and "with it" - tend to emulate the latest "valley speak' of their teeny bopper students which results in a downward spiral in language skills. "Whinetalk" is a one example of the result of this phenomena imo.
 
AP said:
amen to that ... our local high school has an indifferent principal who sets neither a standard nor example for the teachers ... some of whom are, in spite of this, excellent.

Unfortunately I have noticed that the female teachers (male teachers not so much) - in what I believe is a desperate attempt to stay/appear young and "with it" - tend to emulate the latest "valley speak' of their teeny bopper students which results in a downward spiral in language skills. "Whinetalk" is a one example of the result of this phenomena imo.
Click to expand...

Who's old enough to remember Frank Zappa and "Valley Girl" from 1982?

What was once laughable is now normal. That's progress. :rolleyes:

Of course it could also be called cultural degeneration.:jerkit:

 
Sharps '63 said:
What would have happened if an incoming bullet had hit one of those potato mashers?
Click to expand...
it might go bang ... or not... and speaking of "bang"... do you how many words there are for ###ual intercourse?



(Jeez, we do wander afield on topics, huh?
smile.png
..... yep !!! its fun! :))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom