My dad was 132nd FA in WWII. His hearing started to go in his early 40s.
I was a clerk typist until I landed in RVN in February '68*. In all the excitement they put me behind a 155mm Howitzer in the Highlands instead of behind a typewriter in Saigon. Over the next year I put on a lot of muscle while I earned my free hearing aids.
Strangest thing - navy gunners generally had ear protection but they weren’t offered to us ?
My MOS was 0811 -Field Artillery Cannoneer.
During schools and at 29 Palms, we had no ear protection.
It was at Stumps that I was told to buy a bottle of aspirin, take the cotton out of the top, put it in my ears and take the aspirin after a fire mission.
My hearing’s been shot for a long time and my hearing is 60% gone in both ears.
V.A. gave me hearing aids and they help.