During my just-completed weeklong stint on WISN, I had to read the weather forecast many times.
Later in the week, as I rattled off the hot, sticky outlook for this weekend, I noted on-air that as we grumble about the sweltering heat, we should keep in mind the courageous American soldiers in Iraq who deal with unbearable temperatures each and every day.
As I write this, the temperature at 4:00 pm in Baghdad is 106. High temperatures in Baghdad will average between 115 and 118 degrees over the next 10 days. At night, the temperature only gets down to 90.
Trying to help our soldiers beat the heat isn’t easy. Take the case of a Virginia couple who simply wanted to send their son stationed in Iraq some comfortable shirts:
“We'd hear from him about how terribly hot and humid it is there," said Jay, a retired FBI agent who now works as a consultant in the Washington area. "It's even worse because he and his men constantly have to be in full gear and body armor, with temperatures in the daytime at 115 degrees or more."
The Chamberlains decided to get 24-year-old Sam, commander of an engineering unit in the Army's 25th Infantry Division, a few new-age moisture-management T-shirts to help him cope with the heat.
They were steered toward shirts made for combat and law enforcement, trademarked as driFIRE. The company that sells them says the shirts are "designed to deliver the ultimate in moisture management, comfort and flame-resistant safety."
But when they shared their idea with him, the young officer, who attended West Virginia University on an ROTC scholarship, gave the idea thumbs-down.
"He told us he wouldn't wear anything all of his men didn't have," said Valerie. "So we just decided to work at getting a shirt or two for all of the soldiers in this company."Here’s the entire
story.High-tech help could be on the way.
“Scientists at the University of Portsmouth are testing new high-tech thermal vests to be used by soldiers in Iraq to help them cope with the heat of battle. The vests use a combination of air, liquid and new applications of old technologies such as converting paraffin wax into liquid in chambers within the vests to absorb heat from the body."Read more about the thermal vests
here.
