Hot Hot Heat

So I thought you all might want to know a little more about what’s going on with me over here and it just so happened that my good friend Blake sent me a few the other day. So here you go Blake and fellow readers.


1. What are the high and low temperatures over there for a normal day? How hot does it get in the tanks?

Well, for a normal day in the month of June the highs are up to around 115 and at night it dips down to around 80. Eighty might not seem that cool but coming down from 115 its great. There is a nice breeze during the night and it feels great to just stand there and cool off. The breeze during the day however feels more like a hair dryer blowing in your face. Inside the tanks it gets dreadfully hot. The driver has a little fan that blows on him and the two guys up top with their heads out get some of the breeze and but they get baked by the sun. I am a gunner so I am stuffed down inside out of the breeze and fresh air. There are times that the heat gets so bad you start to feel sick and I have to swap out and get some fresh air and cool off in the 115 degree heat outside. I don’t have a thermometer but I will find out just how hot it is getting in there, if they make any that go that high that is.

2. When does it start to "cool off" (August? September? Never?)

I got here in October of last year and it was starting to cool off pretty good. The highs were around the 90’s and soon into November the temps really fell off and the winter was much like Oklahoma’s but shorter. It actually did snow on my birthday last year so that was pretty cool. Apart from for the fact that the wind was blowing about 20mph and I was up in a guard tower exposed to it all.

3. Do the soldiers ever do physical exercise; running on treadmills, lifting weights, etc, or do you get all the exercise you need from your daily missions?

We get plenty of exercise from the missions and such but we do have a gym here on the FOB that’s not too bad. It’s all primarily donated equipment from gyms and schools from across the country. It’s got everything we need but it often gets very crowded in which it gets really hot and despite the best attempt of the AC units. I enjoying going because it gives me something to do, something to get me out of my CHU and off the internet and a good way to get rid of some of the frustration that automatics weapons can’t.

4. On that note, how many pounds of gear are you carrying on an average mission?

It really varies quite a bit. The mission will always dictate what we will need. Things such as are we taking tanks, trucks or are we being air inserted from helicopters. When we are on the tanks we just wear a striped down version of our body armor, without all the pouches and bags attached to it. When we roll in the trucks then you have all the excess stuff attached to you because the guys in the trucks are the ones that get on the ground and do all the leg work while the tanks over watch and block off the area. When we do Air Assault missions we bring it all, you have all you pouches and ammo, water and gear. You never know what you might need out there so prepare for the worse. You can’t run back to the truck to grab something in those cases. It also varies on what part of the mission we may be doing, some guys have to carry spike strips to keep fleeing cars from getting away and some guys carry rockets launchers to stop the car if they are getting away.
As far as pounds of gear, a stripped down body armor weights something like 30 pounds. Then you add additional side plates putting it near 36. Once you have your fully loaded magazines and other miscellaneous stuff like a hand grenade or smoke grenade or radio it’s probably about another 10 pounds. Then put on a Camelback hydration system that holds about three liters when it’s full that adds another few pounds. Then for Air Assaults you also have an assault pack with all sorts of random necessities in there totally about 25 to 20 pounds. So all and all after all the arithmetic it is really quite heavy but after time you just get use to it. I always like to say that my grandfather was a Marine in World War Two and he didn’t have all this and he was just fine so why do I need it. But really I would never roll out the gate with out it.

5. How much water do you drink a day?

If it’s a day that we are out on a mission I drink around four or five 32oz bottles. On top of that I usually have a few bottles of Gatorade to mix it up a little. And of course you have to account for energy drink consumption which is normally two Red Bulls or Monsters and about 6 Rip-Its. I don’t drink nearly enough water as I should but I have yet to fall out. (Slang for; pass-out, give up, not make it). I also eat somewhat healthy and I am such a fine physical specimen I can handle these things you know.


So there you all go, consider yourselves educated in Summer Time Warfare in Iraq. If you have anymore questions just ask and I would love to answer to the best of my abilities.