[PH/CIB]

“””It was the issue of hearing protection in particular that made me suppose there were indeed other firearms than the 1911 involved, but seemingly that was not the case or only in terms of "paper tiger" projects which never actually reached the guys in the mud....”””


Imagine yourself in the confines of the pitch black darkness of a tunnel you are crawling through with your flashlight and handgun and an enemy soldier lunging at you with a knife out of the darkness or firing at you with an AK47….You would need a large caliber weapon like the .45ACP to stop him in his tracks almost immediately,,,and a relatively short light weapon you could use with one hand (your flashlight is in your other hand) quickly in the confined space of a tunnel,,,the warhorse 1911.

Combat above ground was bad enough, but at least you could move forward or backward or to the side and hopefully find cover,,,in a tunnel you are trapped and can basically go nowhere,,,and the light from the muzzle flashes and the incredible noise of the rounds going off would be terrifying.

Incredibly Brave Work, Kraigwy...

Hearing protection in Combat is Problematic….Even in the deafening noise of the worst combat you have to be able to hear commands being given and to hear the enemy,,,movements and identifying incoming rounds as opposed to outgoing rounds and where those incoming rounds are coming from.

Have filed hundreds if not thousands of Service Connected Disability claims for Veterans as a State Employee over a 29 year career,,,and most of the claims were for hearing loss alone or filed along with other disabilities….The Service is a noisy place,,,from Combat with rounds going off and explosives, to the Flight Deck of a Carrier or working around Airplanes, or running Heavy Equipment or Tanks or Firing Artillery, just to name a few,,,a high percentage of Veterans have Service Connected hearing loss…