Realistically speaking, can there ever be a Deaf army?

Question

I am talking about deaf people who are sign language users. There are many deaf men who would make excellent soldiers, with good strategist minds. Seriously, with mobile phones and text messages, and lipreading abilities, what are the logical reasons for excluding deaf men from the military? I can understand one, night time operations... but with night vision goggles? Is it now time for deaf men to be included? Or is it still too dangerous?

Answer 1

Having a good strategist mind only really helps when you get to a certain rank, and you have to work your way up to that from positions that being deaf would be a severe detriment. There is no way a deaf person would be able to survive a combat zone.

Sign language and lip reading are only good for direct line of sight communication at close distances. Text messaging is good for long distance communication, but not when speed is critical.

Not to mention that vision is unidirectional - if something happens outside of your line of sight you have no way of knowing about it. Hearing is critical in a combat situation due largely to the fact that it is omnidirectional. You could be keeping watch while listening to updated orders, you could hear gunfire coming in from your rear, you won't be completely surprised by that tank coming around the corner of the building in front of you, your teammate could shout you a warning about an enemy that you can't see because he's behind cover, it would be very easy to sneak up on a deaf sentry, the list goes on.

If you're just talking about including deaf soldies in regular rear-echelon units, imaging the difficulty in getting every soldier in the military proficient in the use of sign language.

Answer 2

I would say no to a whole army comprised of deaf people, but perhaps a deaf strategist may be acceptable. Just imagine a platoon of deaf troops, the only way to communicate to them on a very chaotic battlefield would be to use morse code with lights, or lip reading, or visual signs. The problem with these are that the trooper's eyes will be directed off of the battlefield to recieve information or orders. Not practical at all. Also, visual messages will be very easy to detect and read by the enemy. There is no way this would be allowed! A strategist in a war room somewhere, maybe, but that's about it.

Answer 3

I am born deaf, and would SOONER trust a _hearing_ military over a deaf one. Same goes for a hearing cop over a deaf cop.

I have to concur with the others---deaf people may not survive for long on the infantry field. Perhaps in the technological fields, where survival is not the utmost importance.

Answer 4

I would think there are jobs in the military that deaf people could perform.That was a well thought out question.Oh by the way our current military is not deaf to the rest of the world.They don't sign their paychecks and have no and should never have a voice in American foreign policy.

Answer 5

Isn't the US army deaf? Or does it choose not to listen to what the rest of the world are saying?

Answer 6

i agree to a point deaf people are wonderful at alot of things. but putting them in a combat situation if you have ever been there it takes everything you got to survive and not being able to hear you would not last long

Answer 7

An interesting twist on that:

Some years ago I lived in a [military] town that specialized in heavy artillery.

When people there were ready to RETIRE, they opted to do so WITH DISABILITY, to the extent that they DEMANDED *DISABLED* status as compensation for all those years [they chose NOT to wear EAR protection as] they worked with the heavy artillery!

Worse, they FORCED the city to GIVE them HANDICAPPED PARKING DECALS for their *disability* to walk to the store from the regular parking lot. Self-fulfilling prophecy THAT, so MANY of them MADE those demands, EVERY STORE IN THAT TOWN had LOOOOOONG ROWS of HANDICAPPED spaces, which left them--AND all those who WERE PHYSICALLY MOBILITY-handicapped--WALKING IN from TEN SPACES OUT IN THE LOT AFTER ALL! :P

Go figure. Yes, you CAN have a Deaf army...I think [in some corners of it] we already DO, tho that's not their ONLY prob! ;)

Answer 8

I don't believe that the deaf can be effective combat soldiers. To survive in combat, one needs full use of all their senses, especially sight and hearing.

Answer 9

Perhaps not on the field, but what about Un-manned operations? Operating objects by remote? I don't see anything stopping them from doing that.

Answer 10

They would to be limited to certain jobs.