Relentlessly Hot

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The worst part about the summer? It can be so hot that it is absolutely rotten to be outside. The current weather across this awesome United States for the next week is that of dangerous levels in the South, West, and Midwest. To add insult to the forecast: Canada is on fire and the smoke is oozing into the Northeast, Midwest and everywhere in between. So, based on my vast experience as a Soldier, I have gathered options for this weird weather time period. Bottom Line…We got this people!

As usual, I’m gonna tell a story that is exactly 20 years ago. To go to a foreign land, out of the safety and comfort of your home and add a couple of dangerous dynamics can at times freak you out and make your butt pucker. But the weather, that is a completely different threat. No control of your physical surroundings, no instant snow maker, and no buildings with air conditioning and absolutely no amount of money can make it cooler. So as the Army would say: Embrace the Suck, enjoy the ride and be creative!

As I grew to know my Iraqi co-workers, they were agog at the technology Americans brought over to fight the war and believed the troops have a secret weapon against the heat. How else could we survive in our bulky armor and hot uniforms under the blazing Arabian sun? I believe I may have stoked the stories and assisted with the creation of urban legend, and how we survived the heat.

I suppose if I were to do the quickest description: It can almost be described as a hair dryer just being blown on you constantly. Or maybe just turning an oven on broil and sitting near it all day. Sucks your energy out, sweat drips off your brow, your fingers sweat, and the droplets trickle down the back of your knees. Heat is horrible, we didn’t have electricity, so we were just…Hot!

This is where creativity is the answer to most anything! Day after Day, the sun comes up and starts baking everything in its path. Not unlike the dangerous levels of heat being experienced these past few weeks, we all needed to pay attention to our surroundings, our actions and watch out for our buddies. Weather is an extreme sport; if you follow the rules, gather with your friends, find positive and fun activities, this too will pass and eventually the winter will come!

It was nearing July, we had only been in Iraq for a couple months, the war was becoming a part of our everyday and we were desperately trying to acclimate to the extreme heat. Our medics were working around the clock to keep 180 Soldiers hydrated and mission ready. The cargo ships had delivered our massive amount of equipment from Bismarck, ND. The Soldiers had performed the requisite maintenance and after a lot of preparation, the unit was ready for our first convoy mission into Iraq.

The mission was simple: Haul up hundreds of homemade wooden porta-potties, and one truckload containing a pallet of bottled water. We were in Kuwait and this maiden convoy to Baghdad Iraq will take us 2 full days and nights driving through enemy territory. But first…We need to figure out how to load the trucks and trailers up in Kuwait with the porta-potties and water.

It seemed so easy. I assumed that because we were all Soldiers that we would know how to configure and tie down a truck load. Ha! I should have done a better job of inspecting the trucks after they said that everything was secure, and they were ready to hit the road. What in the world was I thinking.

The desert dirt roads were bumpy, dusty and the convoys were creating driving paths as we scooted through the desert versus driving on the Kuwait road networks. All I know is that one moment I was leading the convoy and there were 30 trucks and trailers behind me. As I drove, the dust was billowing behind the vehicle, so visual confirmation of the following convoy was sporadic, and I became aware when the dust settled that most of the convoy had stopped somewhere, and I had just continued on my merry way.

Turning around to find the rest of my convoy, I could just imagine the Soldiers teasing me, the Commander, of not liking them and just drove away. Not true, and as we were laughing in the hummer about my blunder, a sight of my trucks appeared out of the dust. WHAT! Seriously, what in the world are the Soldiers doing. The truck carrying the pallet of water was stopped and was surrounded by Soldiers? If you could draw a cartoon of the moment I came into view, the bubbles of words above their heads might have sounded a bit like:

Soldier: Holy crap Sir, here comes the commander.

Lieutenant: Oh crap, work faster. Back that truck up? Not the water bottle truck, the truck with the porta-potties.

Soldier: Uhhhh

Lieutenant: If you just back the porta-pottie truck into the water bottle truck, we can straighten out the load and …the commander will never see this.

Soldier: Uhhhh. You sure Sir?

Lieutenant: Just hurry up!

Short story: As I drove up, the picture of the problem became clearer. The Soldiers were awkwardly pretending like there was nothing out of place. It was almost cute, until the Lieutenant’s creative problem-solving technique went bad in the worst way. The porta-pottie truck pushed on the pallet of water to straighten out the load. Such an unstable approach that the integrity of the pallet just blew apart. The Lieutenant looked at me, I looked at him and the Soldiers looked away! Yup, sometime when we make mistakes, we are all gonna participate in the solution.

You see, we were only hauling one pallet of water because there was a shortage of water bottles. During a moment of stillness and silence, the only plan to execute was to pick up all the bottles off the sand and put them somewhere in the vehicles. As much as the Soldiers really were not into picking up the mess, that soon changed and after a few minutes of work, the Soldiers started having fun. Tossing bottles, laughing together and probably very relieved that the only fallout from the incident was a very detailed lesson on how to secure a load so things don't fall off the trucks.

When we showed up to the war in Iraq, the initial battles had been fought, there were no instructions on how everything works. By policy, the military had a plan for extreme heat. The official work/rest schedule when temperatures exceed 90 degrees, is a great concept and when followed really does mitigate the risk of heat injury. But folks, we are at war and if you must follow a 10-minute work and 50-minute rest schedule, then not much gets accomplished. So, as the 4^th of July quickly approached, we began preparing with the other North Dakota unit to have a celebration. Keeping the searing heat in mind, how do you plan a fun day of activities and not have any heat casualties?

The Following can be used as a public service announcement for ways to beat the heat and have amazing teambuilding opportunities! We were in the process of establishing Camp Anaconda, Iraq and to say that all Soldiers were ready for some fun would be an understatement.

Hammers were swinging, hand saws were buzzing and the drills were busy building the funnest 4^th of July activity: A Dunk Tank!

Oh boy, I knew I was a direct target as everyone was chattering about how fun it was going to be dunking the commander. Soldiers can be a strange bunch. They have a sneaky conniving way about them. I heard the laughter about how the baseball players should go first so it would be guaranteed that the leadership can be dunked time and time again. They stood in line and cheered each other on. Those who hit the target and got the dunks in were cheered wildly by the rowdy Soldiers. Then things might have gotten out of control, if the throwers missed someone would run by and tap the target and we would fall into the tank, which they cheered even louder and were motivated to just keep getting us wet. I was dunked and dunked and dunked. It’s a great feeling when the Soldiers start finding ways to pick on the leadership and everyone enjoys a tradition that we all would be enjoying back home. I was enjoying watching the troops relax and not have to worry about anything at the moment.

The attention span of a young Soldier is about as long as it is focused. The fun and thrill of dunking the officers didn’t last forever, and then they were all onto the next creative activity. Lucky enough to be engineers, we had the equipment to dig a giant hole and the firefighting unit hooked us up with a full tanker. Now just add Soldiers, a rope and water and you have the perfect recipe to combat 115 degrees in the shade. The tug of war tournament was a big hit, and everybody got their chance to get muddy and cool down!

If that wasn’t enough fun, the firefighters created the best water game ever! Tie a large cable between two points, hang a metal barrel from a carabiner in the center of the cable, form two teams and let them go at it. The firefighters gave the Soldier teams two hoses, lined them up against each other and the rules were simple: First team to spray the barrel to the other end wins. Those firefighters controlled the rules, and they controlled the water pressure. Just when one team would get close to winning, the water would go down to a trickle and the other side could make headway. Of course, the Soldiers would point the hoses at each other, and the firefighters would crank up the pressure. The added water pressure would knock the other team to the ground. Then it would be hose on hose and may the wettest team win. Amazingly, when you keep the troops occupied, laughing, and engaging in silly games, they stopped moaning about how hot they were.

We all tried our own way to stay cool. Building simple shelters for shade was one of the most effective options. We could just tie a poncho off the side of a truck, plant a couple of small stakes and hope for a breeze. We usually added a cot to sit on and then would just sit and look as miserable as we felt! Mostly, the temperature never changed very much. By 10:00 in the morning it would always be over 100 degrees and would continue to climb until you thought you couldn’t stand any more. Then by midnight, the temps would slide all the way down into the nineties.

Since we didn’t have fridges (no electricity), we learned from those Soldiers who had been involved in past military engagements in extreme heat. Best survival trick: Step 1: Put a large bottle of water in a long green army sock. Step 2: Pour water over the sock until the sock is soaked. Repeat as necessary. Step 3: Wait 30 minutes and the water that was boiling hot earlier is now only super-hot! Ha! Keep watering your sock! The best usage of the sock cooling method is when we were driving. Same sock, same bottle of water, and now you need a watering manager. Simple: Tie the sock to the passenger mirror on the vehicle. Drive at any speed and the water manager now has to “water” the sock a lot because while you are moving the water on the sock evaporates and in the extreme heat somehow science makes the water cooler in the sock. Now the water is only pretty warm. The cool water sock is the bomb-digity!

Twenty years ago, we truly had to watch out for each other. There was no break from the temperatures for months and we became somewhat tolerant of the extremes. We learned how-to sleep-in rotations during the cooler times, how to stay out of the direct sunlight if possible and of course, how to stay hydrated. It wasn’t easy, but we didn’t have a choice. This is also when we started to lose our personal hygiene dignity.

I remember growing up and hearing my mother tell me to put my dirty clothes in the laundry or when they get dirty enough the clothes will stand up by themselves. Okay, I don’t often credit Mom with much, but dang if she wasn’t right. Driving convoys for 4 days in a row meant we stayed in that one uniform the entire time. We were drinking gallons of water, as we were sweating during the drive the wind blowing into the vehicle was creating a science experiment. Yup, after 4 days of salt leaking out when we were sweating, it would dry onto the uniform and when we would take off our uniform shirts, they could stand up by themselves. The sodium we were sweating out hardened the clothing and literally turned the shirts into pillars of salt!

The lessons of yesterday can be applied to the circumstance of today. Do a buddy check. Check on your neighbors. Keep a cool towel on your neck, freeze some water bottles and have compassion for others. Most of my Soldiers were excellent at managing expectations to care for themselves during the extremes, but there are usually a couple who either don’t pay attention or work so hard that they don’t stop to do self-care. As the summer continues, temperatures will be a challenge, the smokey air from wildfires will stay with us, and we will spend time making our circumstances manageable. Step One –

DRINK WATER!

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