Heat of Battle Takes Toll on U.S. Forces
NAJAF, Iraq — In two days of combat, U.S. Army Spc. Steve Koetting dodged bullets, overcame sleep deprivation and endured the stress of fighting grave-to-grave in a cemetery against an enemy who rarely showed his face.
In the end, however, it was Iraq's oppressive heat that put the 21-year-old soldier on his back and out of the fight.
Koetting is one of about half a dozen soldiers who have been evacuated from the front line in recent days because of heat exhaustion and related problems. Several dozen more have been treated on the battlefield in this south-central Iraqi city, where U.S. troops and armed followers of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr are squaring off.
With temperatures approaching 130 degrees, medics fear that casualties will increase. "This could become a significant problem," said Brian Humble, senior medical officer with a Marine emergency facility at a camp just outside Najaf.
In the run-up to last year's invasion, military strategists voiced concerns about fighting during Iraq's unforgiving summer. By sending troops into Iraq in March and reaching Baghdad in a matter of weeks, the military avoided major combat in the hottest season. By August, operations consisted mostly of patrols and raids.
Even so, several soldiers died of heatstroke and other heat-related problems last year, military officials say. Now, with the resumption of battle in Najaf, the military is facing exactly what it wanted to avoid.
In addition to increasing casualties, extreme temperatures are a severe morale buster for troops. Tempers get short, behavior gets more aggressive and battlefield mistakes are more common, troops say.
"It really demotivates you," said Koetting, who suffered from cramps and lethargy before being treated for dehydration Monday. "It's by far the hardest part of all this."
In the most serious cases, victims can become disoriented, lose consciousness and die. Military officials are so concerned about this that they've ordered officers to conduct urine checks of soldiers to look for signs of dehydration, Humble said.
Before arriving in Iraq, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit's 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, trained in the California desert, and every Marine had to sit through a presentation on the risks of dehydration.
