Tinnitus: A Frequent Disability of C-123 Veterans. Should You File a Claim?

Yes. Absolutely submit a VA disability claim!

"It's a fact aircrews know well. Service members who work in and around aircraft are more likely to suffer hearing deficits!" (VA publication)

Aircrew duty in a C-123, C-130 and other military aircraft frequently causes (or worsens) hearing loss and/or ringing in the ears (tinnitus.) Hearing loss is the most common disability claimed by veterans and it is serious. Hearing loss and tinnitus is usually permanent, cumulative, and worsens with aging well past the years of your military service.

When a veteran submits a claim, the VA arranges a hearing test (a "Compensation and Pension Exam.") Then, if the problem meets VA standards, the vet is granted a disability rating, typically ten percent. In 2024 that's about $171 per month, tax-free, for the rest of your life. They also provide medical care with free audiology exams and high-end hearing aids if required. The compensation dates from the day VA receives a claim, so it makes sense to apply immediately if you believe you have the problem. Claims can be submitted on-line or by mail. Major veterans organizations such as DAV, VFW and the American Legion offer free claims assistance, as do all state veterans service departments and most counties.

It is important to know hearing problems can also lead to other, even more serious disabilities. The VA considers these "secondary conditions." Linking these secondary conditions to the initial hearing loss disability can lead to an increased overall disability rating, vital VA medical care for those problems and  greater monthly compensation.

Example: My college roommate had an incident during Army Reserve basic training in 1969 which affected his hearing and was documented. However, that documentation was misfiled into his dental records. Over the years following military service the hearing loss increased greatly and he was convinced (he resisted years of my urging!)  to submit a VA disability claim. He was initially granted a 30% disability rating due to the severity of the hearing problem but his secondary condition of depression related to hearing loss lead to a 100% total disability rating. He initially received a check for around $32,000 and qualified for full federal and state veterans benefits, something Reservists and National Guard personnel don't usually qualify for without active duty service.

This was a significant financial benefit, much needed in his situation. I referred him to Katrina Eagle, an experienced veterans attorney who discovered the "lost" Army documentation for the original 1969 hearing injury, and she convinced the VA to make this veteran's 100% disability rating retroactive - to 1969! The final check for that backdated VA compensation was well over $100,000.

That was certainly an unusual situation, but secondary conditions are important for the VA to address, both in medical care and compensation. Let's look at hearing injury secondary conditions:

Secondary Conditions Related to Aviation Tinnitus or Hearing Loss:

Migraine Headache Conditions Secondary to Tinnitus or Hearing Loss: (continued below)

College Roommate VA Disability Max'd Up to 100%!

Yesterday my college roommate Paul heard from VA that his supplemental claim for disability has been approved. He's now backdated 100% to December 2020! Great news, following the first claim being approved earlier for hearing loss at 40%. My strategy helping him was to tie certain current problems to his hearing loss as secondary issues. VA has agreed, following an appeal that reversed their initial denial.

Now, he will get a better disability compensation, medical care for himself and family, some state benefits and, if and hen needed, nursing home or other such advanced care.

These are earned entitlements which he has been denied for the past half-century. Denied VA medical care, GI home loan, every state benefit withheld. There's no catch-up for what he's been refused.

Remember: this is a good outcome but it really is an immense VA failure! Paul first applied for VA disability benefits when he was released from active duty in 1969. He lived with his disability and forgot all about the VA claim which, decades later, was finally found in his Army dental records. The VA never found this critical document: It took his attorney Katrina Eagle a couple hours. Perhaps...VA don't give a damn?

A veteran has a reasonable beef with the VA when they take half a century to resolve a claim, meanwhile denying all federal and state benefits. Paul has a beef, but right now he's simply glad things have gotten straightened out.

The VA tried. Dragged it out fifty years, and if only the process had taken a bit longer, until Paul had passed, VA could cancel his claim altogether because when the vet dies, so does the claim. Too bad, VA. At least you made it into your disgusting "Claim Ignored 50 Years Club."

VETERANS BENEFITS FOR USAF RESERVISTS & ANG WITH TINNITUS AND HEARING LOSS

Are you ineligible for VA benefits because you're a "traditional reservist?"

If hearing injuries resulting from flight or aircraft maintenance duties might qualify you for VA compensation and other benefits. Here's how.

Traditional reservists aren't eligible for most VA benefits because our "active duty for training" doesn't count towards true veteran status. Regardless of how long one's initial active duty for basic and technical school might be, the law doesn't recognize that as "active service." VA recognizes completion of an active duty enlistment, or active duty during wartime to qualify a servicemember for benefits, but UTAs, annual tour, active duty for basic and other training are grouped into ineligible "active duty for training." No bennies.

BUT – there'a a big exception to that for any disabling injury or disease you might experience.

Tinnitus is just one such injury. That ringing in the ears, or wind noise or low hum is caused by loud noises. Noises like a C-123 or C-130 makes. Noises like an M-16 makes at 154dB.

Flyers, tank crews, infantry, artillery and others around loud noises in a military setting often suffer tinnitus, and VA recognizes that as a frequent disability - in fact, it is the most common disability veterans have.

And if you have tinnitus you might be entitled to VA care and compensation for that disability, and if you are, that makes you a veteran with all the benefits that wartime veterans receive.

I got into this recently to help an army reservist who had tinnitus from his time in basic training when he fired the M-14 rifle and did not have any ear protection. Noises of 85 dB and above can cause permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, and our aircraft are far noisier than that: The cockpit is steady at over 112 dB. The noise is worse in the rear!

After my altitude chamber ride at Edwards AFB I started flying in 1974. I recall that by 1975 or so we received the yellow foam earplugs and they provided some protection from noise hazards. But there was still significant noise reaching the inner ear to cause damage. This kind of damage is permanent and cumulative and can evidence itself in tinnitus and/or hearing loss even years later.

Here is my point in the VA's own words: “When a claim for service connection is based on a period of active duty for training, there must be evidence that the individual concerned became disabled as a result of a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in the line of duty during the period of active duty for training.“

That is per 38 U.S.C. § 1131 (see also 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). See CAVC Hensley v. Brown – “claimant may establish direct service connection for a hearing disability initially manifest several years after separation from service on the basis of evidence showing that the current hearing loss is causally related to injury or disease suffered in service.”( 5 Vet. App. 155, 164 (1993).” Also see VA Training Letter 10-02 at 15 (rescinded re: incorporation into VBA Adjudication Procedures Manual (M21-1), pt. III, subpt. iv, ch. 4, § D.1-3)

VA compensation for a tinnitus disability is a modest $144 per month, but the real importance here is that a hearing injury establishes legal veteran status with all the benefits that attach to being a wartime veteran (we've been in a period of war ever since Desert Storm.) Sometimes there are secondary issues to hearing loss like depression or hypertension. Rarely, there have been vets getting up to 50% disability ($995/month) based on hearing loss and complications.

You might not need them now, but benefits include pension rights, medical and pharmacy (perhaps with modest co-payments,) rehab, hearing aids, VA home loan, e