HEAT WAVE

The temperature today, in the shade...which we could see from the pool, was 99 degrees. Everyone there, about six or seven people, was complaining about it, and they said that their houses were too hot, etc. Oddly enough, I found it difficult to believe that the temp was that high. I was not uncomfortable in the house, not today nor last night, and I came out just to get some sun. Talking about the heat is a bore. What can you do about it?

I remember when we were in the Persian Gulf back in 1943, and again in 1944 and the heat we experienced there. Ships were made of steel, and the decks absorbed the heat and they were hotter than Hell, and then some. At one point the Third Mate said it was 130 degrees in the shade, and we did not have any air-conditioning in those days. Imagine how hot it was in our cabins at night, one little port-hole for ventilation, and the decks had hardly enough time to cool down on those hot nights when the sun was coming up again to reheat the decks and cabins to a higher temperature. We sweated a lot. There wasn't a fat guy on the ship that I can remember. They warned us about wearing our pith helmets, but like a dodo, I went out one noon and walked to the Medical shack to see the sergeant there and suffered a heat stroke. Now, that's something to experience, believe me. We did not carry water-bottles with us all day long either; it's funny how they do that today even in mild temperatures.


I wasn't as dark as some of the Iranians, but I was damn close to it because we were always out in the sun when we had a chance. There, as in all societies, there were women so fair of skin that they were like Europeans, but we only saw a couple of them. They were probably from wealthy families. Everyone else was poor, desperately poor, a poverty line below any we had seen before. The kids were virtually in rags.

Now we have troops over there again, but this time fighting a war there. They're in the same heat, and living in tents, so there is no air-conditioning for them either. Just look at the uniforms, helmets and flak jackets they have to wear and think about their comfort. These men are doing their best under the most tremendous handicaps, our men, our women, and we need to stand behind them, support them. Imagine the condiitions in a Humvee under that hot sun! Just think of sitting up in a turret, exposed, behind a machine gun and the hot sun beating down on you all the time.

If you're anti-war, don't try to give me any of that crap. If you don't have a brother or a cousin among them, they're still our people, doing what they think is important. Some are over there for a second tour, brave men and women. Already they've done so much for the ordinary people that no words I could write here would tell the story. They don't want to shoot people, but they will if they have to do it. They've helped many people and tens of thousands of kids. If they were left alone, they'd help tens of thousands more and spend all their time doing it, and then leave a peaceful country behind. That's the way Americans are. They did that with the kids in German during and after the war, and they'll continue doing it.

If you want to read something very moving and see some pictures that tell stories no words could, then go to: www.adayinIraq.com

There's the best-written story of our men in Iraq that you can read, and if you're not in tears over parts of it, you just ain't human. Then, after reading that, check out Michael Yon, who Blogs Michael Yon's Online Magazine and there you'll find a journalist worth his salt, a journalist who takes all the risks on a day to day basis with the troops. His photos will blow your mind and increase your knowledge of what is going on (and the bull-crap we're getting from the L.A. Times, etc.) over there by a hundred times.

We have one main job, to my way of thinking, to find and kill Osama bin Laden. I know our Intelligence has been searching for him for too long, but even if he is sitting in a kindergarten classroom, he has to be taken out. There is no other answer; he is much too important to them now, and even if he is made a Martyr, he's already one in their eyes, and dead he will not be able to plot more terrorist acts.