encore A Shocking Ending
A fi rst lieutenant audiologist inadvertently discovers a new tactic for detecting draftees who are feigning hearing problems to avoid military service in the early 1970s.
I
t was the summer of 1972, and I was a new fi rst lieutenant audiologist working in Beach Pavilion, an unair-
conditioned annex of the main hospital of Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The draft still was in effect, and new
draftees arrived each week at the Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Sta- tion in downtown San Antonio. Each Wednesday afternoon, those who failed the initial hearing testing were sent to our clinic. Three Army technicians and I conducted audiology tests to determine fi tness for duty. This would have been a routine process, except as many as 20 percent to 30 percent of draftees did not really have hearing loss — feigning ab- normal hearing was a popular last-ditch effort to avoid military service. We had effi cient audiology tests to
separate those who really did have hearing loss from those who were feigning. Most of the feigners would voluntarily cooper- ate after persistent “counseling.” A few, however, would stick to their guns. It was for these few we conducted the
audiometric galvanic skin response (GSR) test (similar to a polygraph). This test recorded the change in skin resistance on the fi ngertips when a tone was presented to the ear. The effect was greatly en- hanced if a mild electrical shock (also on the fi ngertips) was paired with the tone during conditioning. This was the only procedure we had to determine true hear- ing thresholds. (Because of the electrical
1 2 8 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R S E P T EMB E R 2 0 1 0
shock component, the mili- tary stopped using this test in 1973.) Because we rarely did the GSR test, it was conducted in a tiny 3-foot- by-3-foot booth located in a seldom-used storeroom in the back of the clinic. On a hot afternoon, after
seeing more than 30 patients, we fi nally cleared out the waiting room and got the last guy out the door. Exhausted, we shut down the clinic and all went home. At dinner that night, my
wife asked me, “Was this the day that you shocked peo- ple?” Her question reminded me I had for- gotten about the last GSR patient! I rushed back to the clinic. Just after 9 p.m. I arrived at the store-
room, which was pitch dark and very hot. There, still sitting in the booth, was my last patient. He had ripped off the electrodes and taken off his shirt and was dripping with sweat. The moment he saw me, he shouted, “I was just faking it! My hearing is really OK!” From that day forward, we always let the
GSR patients sit in that small, hot booth for a while before doing the testing.
MO
— Dr. H. Gustav Mueller is a retired Army lieutenant colonel. He is a professor at Vander- bilt University and lives in Bismarck, N.D. For submission information, see page 20.
ILLUSTRATION: ELWOOD SMITH
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140