From his days in the war to his career in the FBI, Joseph’s ears went through the ringer. But now, he’s back in the conversation.
Joseph has seen and heard a lot in his 96 years. He’s a World War II veteran, a former FBI agent, and a current Eargo user.
Born and raised in New York City, he was drafted into the military and inducted in June of 1943. “You’re a young fella, and you do what you’re told. You don’t think about it—you just go,” he says.
He served across Europe for two years during World War II, where he drove ambulances to pick up wounded soldiers.
“I knew a lot about the infantry because I dealt with them all the time,” Joseph says of his time serving overseas. “They were living in the ground in foxholes. It was very trying for the riflemen. I appreciate that I didn’t have that inconvenience—I had an ambulance. At night, I’d pull over and we’d sleep in the dry ambulance. That was a big item.”
Joseph spent two years rescuing fallen soldiers before he went home to New York in February of 1945 and was discharged in 1946.
Upon returning home, Joseph graduated from college and went on to law school. But he wasn’t done serving his country. From 1951 to 1962, he worked as an FBI agent. Joseph excelled at protecting people, but there was one thing he couldn’t protect––his ears.
From the military to the FBI, Joseph was dedicated to protecting all Americans.
FBI agents participated in weapons training on a monthly basis, which means Joseph was regularly firing machine guns, rifles, shotguns, and handguns. And because here at Eargo, we eat, sleep, and breathe decibels, we know that a gunshot can register between 140 and 190 decibels and cause immediate damage. Multiply that by 12 years on the job and you end up with a whole lot of bad news for Joseph’s ears.
And while many shooting ranges today offer special protection, the only thing protecting agents’ ears from those noisy guns back in the 1950s and ’60s was a simple ball of cotton.
No match for gunfire.
The Hearing Aid Draft
Even after years of exposure to loud noises without any real protection, Joseph has never considered his hearing loss severe—and he’s only really been aware of it for the last 15 to 20 years. He did, however, notice that higher tones were escaping him, and he found it especially difficult to understand the TV, sermons in church, and, most importantly, his 21-year-old granddaughter.
After plenty of good-natured pestering from his brother Bill about investing in hearing aids, he decided to give them a whirl. And over the years, he’s given hearing aids many whirls. He’s tried out different brands, but never acclimated to any of them or felt they worked well enough.
Behind-the-ear hearing aids didn’t fit him very well or weren’t user-friendly enough, and all of them featured tiny hearing aid batteries that Joseph hated changing. “I just found them inconvenient,” he says. So when he agreed to try Eargo, his hopes weren’t exactly high.
No more tiny, irritating batteries.
But all that changed the second he put them in his ears.
Eargo: The Five-Star General of Hearing Aids
Joseph immediately loved how user-friendly Eargos are, which was a big deal to him. If a product isn’t user-friendly, Joseph will cast it aside and try something new. Eargo, however, passed the first test with flying colors. “I don’t learn new tricks easily, but I use [Eargo] hearing aids daily,” he says. “When you use something every day, it has an importance because you appreciate every day, and these are doing something for me.”
He found charging the devices incredibly easy to use and was thrilled to leave tiny hearing aid batteries in the past.
Joseph also appreciates good customer care, which Eargo has in spades. In case you haven’t heard, our team of licensed hearing professionals is there for you from day one, and they’ll answer every hearing question you could possibly think of. Oh, and that support? It’s for life.
And of course, for Joseph to truly be a happy camper, they had to fit comfortably and work well. Check and check. Joseph has no difficulty putting them into his ears and thanks to Eargo’s open-fit design, which allows air to naturally flow into the ears, he finds them incredibly comfortable for all-day wear. Now, he can hear better in church, and those high-frequency sounds have come back so he can actively participate in conversations with his granddaughter.
“I wear Eargo every day,” Joseph says. “I appreciate how they help me; it’s been a successful experience. They help me mostly because the words didn’t formulate without them. The words were heard, but they didn’t formulate into an easy understanding that it was a word. It’s certainly better with the hearing aids.”
Despite his hearing loss, Joseph wouldn’t have done anything differently. His time protecting his country—both in the war and in the FBI—shaped the man he is today, and now that his hearing loss is under control, he’s happier than ever.
“Right now, I’m 96 years old, and I’m proud that I served,” Joseph says.
And we want more veterans, active duty military, and Americans to hear life to the fullest. That’s why this Veterans Day, we’re offering 10% off Eargo Neo to everyone from now through November 11th, and 20% off any product for veterans and active duty military year-round.
Are you ready to try out Eargo for yourself? Call our Personal Hearing Guides for a free consultation at 1 (800) 903-6883, or order online today.
