For 10 years, Devon Shipman of Lawrence traveled the world detonating bombs and other kinds of weaponry for the U.S. military.

But his work with the explosive ordnance disposal group took its toll.

By the time he decided to leave the Army in 1997, Shipman had lost about 35 percent of the hearing in his left ear. He said the hearing loss was caused by exploding bombs as well as rifle and machine gun fire.

“I’ve been shot at by the best, including our own,” said Shipman, 34, who has served in Bosnia, Central America and South America.

But when he went to the Department of Veterans Affairs for help, Shipman said he was turned away because officials said there was no proof his hearing loss was service-related. A VA official said federal patient-privacy rules prevented him from commenting on Shipman’s allegation.

So Shipman did without a hearing aid until about a month ago when he took an old hearing aid to Miracle-Ear, located in Sears at 2727 Iowa.

The employees at Miracle-Ear said they could fix the hearing aid for about $150. But when they heard his story, they decided to give him a hearing aid that had been donated to the store.

When he put it on, he could hear sounds he hadn’t heard for a long time.

“You should have seen the smile on his face,” said Elizabeth Scrimsher, who manages patient care at Miracle-Ear.

Miracle-Ear store owner Wally Shutt said he was happy to help Shipman.

“With the state of affairs these days, we thought that for a guy who had been in the military, he hadn’t been treated right,” Shutt said.

The store sometimes receives donated hearing aids it uses as “loaners,” Shutt said. Miracle-Ear also has a foundation to provide free hearing aids to children of low-income families.

The store did not seek any publicity, but Shipman contacted the Journal-World, saying those involved should be commended for their generosity.

Shipman’s hearing aid had been donated by Helen Edwards of Lawrence. The hearing aid had belonged to her husband, Ken Edwards, who died in May.

“I figured if someone else could get some use out of it, that was great,” Helen Edwards said.

She said her husband didn’t like to wear the hearing aid, so Shipman received a just-like-new aid that was worth about $800.

Helen Edwards said her husband would have been happy that the hearing aid had gone to a serviceman because her husband was a Navy veteran who served in the Korean War. When told his donated hearing aid came from a war veteran, Shipman said, “It’s all connected now.”

He said the person probably happiest about his new hearing aid was his wife, Dolly.

“Now, I don’t have to blast her out with the TV,” he said.

Shipman still works around explosives, traveling the country for a private company that contracts with the military to clean up artillery and bombing ranges.

He joked there were some downsides to his new hearing aid.

“I just found out I need to work on my truck because it was making a funny noise,” he said.