>>158900Essentially the issue is that it raises from 100 degrees to 125 in a matter of hours. Average patrol for us was six hours long. If in the course of that six hours this guy went down as a heat casualty (See: Heat Cramps/Exhaustion/Stroke) he now caused us another problem. Moving him to somewhere to acomidate him until he was better, or to get him to a higher level of medical care. Which presents the problem of, how many of us does it take to move him and his gear. He was a SAW Gunner (Light Machine Gunner), carrying his weapon and anywhere from 800-100 rounds of 5.56mm Linked Ammo. Plus sensitive items (night vision, other equipment attached to the weapon like optics and lasers). So lets assume one guy to carry the extra weapon (the guy who went down and his own weapon) and divy up the ammo to the men, now we have to move him. Probably weighed about 200+ pounds with his vest, helmet, and ballistic underwear (Yes, Kevlar padding around your groin and ass so that when you step on an IED or are exposed to the blast you can hopefully still have kids some day), which would have stayed on until he was someplace safe, and add about another 15 degrees to the 'Felt temperature', the options to move him are based on how far, and what the terrain is. Worst case scenario we have to move him far, back to our COP, so we use a four man litter. Four men out of a squad of 9, plus platoon sergeant, platoon radio operator, FO, and Medic bring the total to 13. Four out of thirteen is about 30%, FO and RTO are doing their thing so they're going to be more focused on that than moving this guy, PSG is trying to coordinate with the company to have them ready for a heatcat, medic is prepping him en route. That leaves four other guys really to cycle off and on the litter to get some rest. And by rest I mean being some of the only people who are pointing their weapon outward.
cont.
