physical qualification

[ben]

I'm waiting on hearing back from the board... hoping to soon be an SNA candidate. Here's my question: when you're tested at MEPS/NAMI do they test your hearing? I may have lost some of my hearing ability due to too much gunfire without hearing protection. I'd like to know whether this may potentially make me NPQ. I don't know whether my hearing is in fact damaged, just curious.

thanks

 

[airgreg]

Can't tell you about NAMI b/c I'm not there yet, but they will test your hearing at MEPS. From what I remember, you go into a soundproof room, put some headphones on and hit a button when you hear a tone. They cycle through a bunch of different frequencies to test the range of your hearing. Some of the beeps are so quiet, you think you're hearing stuff when you really aren't.

Best advice for this test is to clean your ears out. Sounds strange, but when I was at MEPS they actually had to send some people out to clean all the crap out of their ears.

 

[ben]

Thanks. Anyone know what the requirements are?

 

[Spin]

Hey,

Not sure what the requirements are but I know that its very hard to get a waiver for hearing. This girl that was at the flight physical with me failed and I overheard the docs saying that she was not going to be SNA qualified. Especially since it was the low frequencies as they are the ones most used in normal conversation.

Peace,

-Spin

 

[ben]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I'm worrying myself for nothing and my hearing will turn out fine. If not, I'd bet it's the higher frequencies that would give me trouble.

 

[Spin]

You will probably be fine. I thought I was gonna have problems. I have very good hearing but at the sametime I am a DJ/Producer so I am always pushing my ears to the limit and ironically I have a slight degree of tinites (spelling?) .... when you get the ringing in your ears .... but stil my hearing was excellent. Don't worry yourself about it.

Peace,

-Spin

 

[ben]

Yeah, I have the same ringing sound. It's not bad when there's something to drown it out. It's really annoying though anytime I am a totally silent environment. I was concerned that during a hearing test I would not be able to distinguish between the ringing sound and a test sound at the same frequency. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[RC]

if you tested out at MEPS, when you get to OCS, they dont check your hearing.