I'm glad to see the Army is coming out with new earplugs for Soldier use. When I left active duty in 1992 we had the "foam" variety that we carried in a small plastic box with chain hooked on a BDU pocket button. They were a pain to use because you had to roll the foam plugs with your fingers so as to reduce the diameter so they would fit into your ear canal. Most times they never went in far enough and thus did a relatively poor job. But, they were better than nothing, which was what we essentially had for the first half of my career. As a result, my high frequency hearing today is not as good as it ought to be.
I learned my lesson, however, and as such today I use hearing protection whenever I'm using loud machinery, like weed eaters, leaf blowers and lawn mowers. I want to keep whatever amount of hearing I have left over from my LOUD time in the Army, from getting any worse. I'd like to get me a pair of the new earplugs the Army is talking about, and see how they work.
