Troops sent home after collapsing in heat

[Nambe]

Evening Standard, in Baghdad

British troops have been flown home from Iraq as casualties of the desert heat with many of them claiming their equipment is not good enough to handle the intense conditions.

The Ministry of Defence admitted today its soldiers are falling "at the rate of three a day" from temperaturerelated problems. ---

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[donsu]

1. also this article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/29/utroop.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/07/29/ixportaltop.html


-snip-

A flight reported by a newspaper to be carrying casualties home from the Gulf had 37 personnel on board. Twelve were displaying signs of heat intolerance or stress.
---------------------------------

[TacticalPeek]

2. If you can't stand the heat,

get out of the damn kitchen.

Or, is it "damn flypaper", now?

[kathee]

3. I expect to see the numbers rise

along with the heat. Heat stroke, stress etc... can be deadly. I imagine there will be deaths from this as well.

Being from Texas, it sure isnt anything to play with.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. And the rednecks burning gas like mad...

...are "supporting the troops" by making the planet just a little bit hotter. 120 F = 49 Celsius... HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!

[Rose Siding]

5. If you can take some satire on this issue...

(very UNfunny in reality, of COURSE)

play part 4 on this page- into the "interview" with the MoD representative. You WILL laugh.

http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/special_reports/iraq_hard_place.html

The whole show is wonderful, if you haven't seen it.

[NickB79]

6. Makes you wonder about US troops handling the heat

So, the British are seeing ~3 soldiers dropping per day due to heat exhaustion or heat stroke but I haven't heard ANYTHING about US troops dropping from the heat. And, considering how many more troops we have there, if the rate is the same between the British and US troops, we should be seeing dozens of US troops dropping daily from the heat. What are we not being told (among other things) about our troops? Honestly, I haven't heard about ANY US troops having health problems from the heat, which is unbelievable considering the temperatures there and the gear they have to wear and carry. Plus, the British are dropping despite being the ones who have been going out with less body armor than US soldiers. For all our technology, guns and armor, the core of it all is still a very human 19-20 yr old young man, not an invincible supersoldier.

[osaMABUSh]

7. Good point - we hear nothing about the 120 degree heat

No way our troops can be functioning properly in that heat. I believe it lasts another two months of 100+. We barely hear about the deaths and less about the wounded and nothing of the sick (from heat, etc.)

[inthecorneroverhere]

10. acclimatization?

There are two possibilities here:

1) Suppression of information about heatstroke etc. among U.S. troops. This info may indeed be 'lumped' into general stats along with the usual colds/flu type of 'minor' illnesses. I'm not saying that suppression of info, or 'non-reporting' isn't happening. However, there is another possibility going on.

2) Acclimatization of U.S. troops to intense dry heat. In addition to the fact that many areas of the U.S. (basically the entire U.S. south of I-70) get a lot hotter than England in the summer, heat aclimatization is actually practiced by the U.S. Army and Marines, for instance at Ft. Irwin out in the California desert. Also, I believe that Ft Huachuca down by Yuma in Arizona has training areas where soldiers learn desert maneuvers etc. Both these places get to 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Britain doesn't have many extremely hot military training areas, and hasn't, since 1945, which was the year that Britain lost most of her last colonial possessions, including India, where temperatures indeed go into the 110's at times.

England is located at a latitude north of the latitude of Boston and has a cool maritime climate with very few extremes of cold or heat. The U.S. has many more temperature extremes, and so U.S. soldiers could be expected to be acclimated to more severe heat.

[Lisa]

8. Iranian friends of mine had a relative phone them last weekend ...

I was there for supper, when the call came. He said it was 48 Centigrade (120 F) in the cooler, northern part of the country ... and noted that it was much hotter in southern Iran and Iraq. Basra is particularly bad. And the soldiers will be in flak vests too!

I can't imagine anything so hot. I feel ill when it goes over 30 (high 80s).

[inthecorneroverhere]

11. where do you live?

I don't think you'd make it anywhere south of Interstate 40 in the summer....

[Lisa]

12. coastal Pacific Northwest ...

I went to visit friends in Tucson a few years ago. I made the mistake of going in July.

Grew up in southern Ontario, and endured plenty of hot, humid summers. (The only thing I miss about that is the spectacular thunderstorm activity!)

[Rose Siding]

9. Tell me the US isn't paying for the Czech military police

I know we will be paying some for the Poles to participate, but this is particularly galling, when our own troops and the Brits are so bad off:

snip>

While the cash-strapped Czech Republic has provided its military police detachment under UK command with cooled sleeping quarters and cold drinks, British troops are suffering exhaustion from being unable to sleep.