North Dakota National Guardsman Levi Long, 28, spent a year in Iraq in 2004. Long's job was to patrol stretches of road, searching for roadside bombs.
While there, Long was involved in two separate incidents with vehicle born improvised explosive devices, or IED's. Though not seriously injured in either of the blasts, Long suffered irreversible hearing loss.
The Department of Veteran Affairs says that of the 1.3 million American troops who have been sent overseas since the Iraq War began five years ago, over 70,000 suffer from some form of hearing loss, and over 58,000 troops are on disability because of damage to their hearing.
The VA says hearing damage is the most common injury soldiers return home with.
"Both times, the blasts came on my left side, so my left ear is the one that's pretty bad," Long says. "When I'm having a conversation one-on-one, it's not too bad. But if my wife's downstairs, and she says something, it just sounds like mumbling."
Long was supplied earplugs by the government, but says when he used them, he was unable to hear radio commands. Since the time Long was overseas, a new style of earplugs are now used, which make hearing commands and conversations possible, while blocking out blasts.
Check out an interview with Levi Long here:
http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF0098A10B0017009903F4/