Keeping Cool is Hot

Newsweek
Title: Keeping Cool Is Hot
Date: July 12, 2004

 It's so hot in Iraq right now that soldiers are pleased if the air conditioner can get the temperature below 90 degrees. But what really cheers them is care packages stuffed with heat relievers. Powdered water flavoring is more popular than the latest Xbox game or NASCAR magazine. "Soldiers do a little happy dance when they open up a package and find powdered Kool-Aid," says Army Lt. Col. Dan Epright, posted in Baghdad. He keeps cool with one of the hottest new gadgets, a bandanna lined with a thin, gel-filled tube. Store it in a fridge--if there's electricity--for a few hours, and it becomes a cool ring of air for an entire shift. The handheld, battery-powered fans popular last summer bowed to the new-and-improved battery-powered fan and water-mister combo. And, of course, wearable CamelBak hydration systems are a must.Ingenuity helped Larry Edwards and the soldiers of the Mississippi National Guard's 223rd Engineer Combat Battalion beat the heat. They soak a sock, slide a  bottle of water inside and let physics take over. Evaporation off the sock draws energy in the form of heat out of the bottle. When the sock dries, the water is cool. Soldiers on the go request tuna fish packaged in the new foil pouch; it's light and doesn't require a can opener. The heat is also bad for troops too busy to brush their teeth. To zap their petri-dish mouths, they like Carefree Koolerz gum containing xylitol, a bacteria killer. Certain other relief agents are verboten in Islamic society: don't bother sending your favorite GI alcohol, pork or porn. It's hot enough without them.

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