Thinking back on my time in the Army and my 15 month deployment to Iraq a lot of things come to mind. Some of them are terrible, and some of them still make me smile. But one thing that I tend to forget from time to time is how much I absolutely hated the heat there. There are very few things in this world that I hate, but I developed a very passionate hate for stifling heat and drinking hot water. This morning when I walked down my driveway at 5:30 to get my newspaper the wind chill was somewhere south of -35 I was thinking about how there had better be some interesting news to make this short trip worth it. But whenever that happens I always come to the conclusion that I’d happily deal with bitter cold than the inescapable heat any day of the week.

Growing up in Minnesota I came to enjoy the warm days of summer, but after a week in Kuwait I was wearing a jacket to stay warm at night when the temperatures would cool off to 95-100 degrees. I still remember getting off the airplane at the Kuwait City airport, we walked down the stairs and behind the jet engine where the hot wind blew on you, and then we walked out from behind the jet engine and a hotter wind kept blowing on us, and it never went away. In fact, Kuwait was the hottest location I have ever been to with the exception of sitting in a sauna, which I don’t mind doing because I can get out of it at any point I want. Kuwait on the other hand was miserably hot at all times. The hottest temperature I remember was 143 degrees. It was so miserable that I turned down an opportunity to meet and have pictures taken with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders because I didn’t want to walk outside for half a mile to get there. That was a decision I struggled with for many years to follow but have managed to come to peace with.

In Iraq it was a little bit different but still miserably hot during the summer. Baqubah, where I spent much of my time was in a bit of a river valley surrounded by palm groves and it had an all new level of humidity to me. Since we spent the majority of our time out in the city with only a few hours of electricity each day there was no relief from the heat. If that wasn’t enough we always had to wear long sleeves and pants and body armor which trapped all of your heat inside. I think the worst part of this was the fact that we had no options for showering or cleaning anything on the numerous days that we would spend on missions. Most of the houses had bathtubs but you couldn’t very well stop and take a bath while you were on a combat mission, nor would I risk bathing in water that was known to cause hepatitis anyways, so the best we could do was carry baby wipes and take a baby wipe bath every couple of days. It certainly wasn’t the ideal situation but it was the best we could do.

Throughout my deployment I grew to absolutely hate extreme heat. Even when I have trouble making it the 30 feet from my front door to the newspaper that was launched into a snowbank at the end of my driveway because of the bitter cold. All I have to do is remember my sweat stained clothes standing up on their own and bathing with baby wipes and suddenly I don’t mind it so much.