thedrifter
08-22-06, 01:37 PM
August 28, 2006
For some, it’s not the battle, it’s the heat
RAMADI, Iraq — After a long day of searching homes in the suffocating Iraqi heat, Lance Cpl. Mike Young saw a surprising source of relief — a sprawling Wal-Mart had appeared in the distance.
“No joke — looking through the haze, I thought I saw a Wal-Mart. I said to myself, ‘I bet they got some cold water in there,’” Young said, recalling a mission last year in a rural area west of Baghdad.
He contemplated running over to fetch water for fellow Marines who were “staggering like dead men.” Three of them had collapsed in the heat.
Young soon stirred from his heat-induced hallucination and returned to the struggle of enduring summertime in Iraq.
Daytime temperatures in the Iraqi summer usually range from a low of about 105 degrees Fahrenheit to about 125. Although most bases have added air conditioning, grunts must still venture out to man their posts or patrol steaming streets under an unrelenting sun.
“It’s been hotter and hotter than I ever thought I’d be in my life,” said Cpl. Eduardo Warren, 20, of Turner, Maine, sweating even as he left for a night mission. “We still get it done.”
Besides making conditions miserable for troops, the heat also changes the war. Marines in some areas say they patrol less during the hottest hours because fewer insurgents venture out then, creating a siesta cease-fire. But temperatures at night can hover above 100 degrees.
“I feel like I’m in someone’s mouth,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kyle Gribi, 22, of Santa Cruz, Calif., as he patrolled beside Iraqi soldiers on the humid riverbanks of the Jazeera area in western Iraq.
Although the sun had set, Gribi sweated through his uniform as he trudged down fields and jumped over canals.
For infantrymen, the sweat rarely stops flowing in the summer, leaving many with heat rash. Troops complain that they sweat through their clothing, their wallets, and even their boots.
In outposts where washing machines are not available, troops hang their soaked uniforms in the sun — leaving them stiff and marked with large salt stains from dried sweat. Some find clumps of salt inside their pockets.
On sprawling logistics bases, support troops in offices are mostly immune to the heat.
“Hey, it’s only 106 today,” said one Marine cheerfully as he walked to a dining hall at Taqaddum Air Base in western Iraq.
Although most U.S. infantrymen now have air-conditioned Humvees, the insurgent threat has added to the array of clothing they must wear. Many Marines are required to wear flame-retardant suits, gloves and goggles to protect themselves from roadside bombs.
To some troops, the outside danger is less grating than the temperature.
“Everything else doesn’t bother me. It’s the heat that gets to me,” said Lance Cpl. John Ursery of Raleigh, N.C., as he stood in the shade of a sand barrier in Ramadi, one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities.
Some Marines claim to have seen the rubber on their Humvee tires start to melt. But the heat also helps create barracks lore that stretches the boundaries of reality.
Warren claimed he’d once seen the temperature hit 150 degrees in Karma, a city just west of Baghdad. He also purported to have been in a portable toilet that reached 187 degrees.
According to the NASA Web site, the hottest temperature ever recorded was 136 degrees in Libya in 1922.
— The Associated Press
Ellie
For some, it’s not the battle, it’s the heat
RAMADI, Iraq — After a long day of searching homes in the suffocating Iraqi heat, Lance Cpl. Mike Young saw a surprising source of relief — a sprawling Wal-Mart had appeared in the distance.
“No joke — looking through the haze, I thought I saw a Wal-Mart. I said to myself, ‘I bet they got some cold water in there,’” Young said, recalling a mission last year in a rural area west of Baghdad.
He contemplated running over to fetch water for fellow Marines who were “staggering like dead men.” Three of them had collapsed in the heat.
Young soon stirred from his heat-induced hallucination and returned to the struggle of enduring summertime in Iraq.
Daytime temperatures in the Iraqi summer usually range from a low of about 105 degrees Fahrenheit to about 125. Although most bases have added air conditioning, grunts must still venture out to man their posts or patrol steaming streets under an unrelenting sun.
“It’s been hotter and hotter than I ever thought I’d be in my life,” said Cpl. Eduardo Warren, 20, of Turner, Maine, sweating even as he left for a night mission. “We still get it done.”
Besides making conditions miserable for troops, the heat also changes the war. Marines in some areas say they patrol less during the hottest hours because fewer insurgents venture out then, creating a siesta cease-fire. But temperatures at night can hover above 100 degrees.
“I feel like I’m in someone’s mouth,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Kyle Gribi, 22, of Santa Cruz, Calif., as he patrolled beside Iraqi soldiers on the humid riverbanks of the Jazeera area in western Iraq.
Although the sun had set, Gribi sweated through his uniform as he trudged down fields and jumped over canals.
For infantrymen, the sweat rarely stops flowing in the summer, leaving many with heat rash. Troops complain that they sweat through their clothing, their wallets, and even their boots.
In outposts where washing machines are not available, troops hang their soaked uniforms in the sun — leaving them stiff and marked with large salt stains from dried sweat. Some find clumps of salt inside their pockets.
On sprawling logistics bases, support troops in offices are mostly immune to the heat.
“Hey, it’s only 106 today,” said one Marine cheerfully as he walked to a dining hall at Taqaddum Air Base in western Iraq.
Although most U.S. infantrymen now have air-conditioned Humvees, the insurgent threat has added to the array of clothing they must wear. Many Marines are required to wear flame-retardant suits, gloves and goggles to protect themselves from roadside bombs.
To some troops, the outside danger is less grating than the temperature.
“Everything else doesn’t bother me. It’s the heat that gets to me,” said Lance Cpl. John Ursery of Raleigh, N.C., as he stood in the shade of a sand barrier in Ramadi, one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities.
Some Marines claim to have seen the rubber on their Humvee tires start to melt. But the heat also helps create barracks lore that stretches the boundaries of reality.
Warren claimed he’d once seen the temperature hit 150 degrees in Karma, a city just west of Baghdad. He also purported to have been in a portable toilet that reached 187 degrees.
According to the NASA Web site, the hottest temperature ever recorded was 136 degrees in Libya in 1922.
— The Associated Press
Ellie