Shoup Airlines

Heat Cas!

Raise your hand if you think I have been exaggerating the whole heat and humidity deal down here in ‘Bama. Uh huh, that’s what I thought. In the first three days of the FLX we lost two individuals to heat exhaustion with three more on the verge of getting “stuck.” The military, always so nice in their euphemisms, defines getting stuck as receiving an I.V. wherever they can find a vein. Then they call you a heat cas (pronounced cazsh) and you’re branded for life. Anytime you go out in the field you have to wear some kind of indicator, usually a piece of red tape around your pistol belt or boot lace, because the effects of heat exhaustion are cumulative.

The first guy was a Drill Sergeant, so you can pretty much guarantee he’s seen some nasty heat before. In fact, he was based at Ft. Huachuca. For those not in the know, the fort is located in the southeast corner of Arizona. The only thing there is heat! He fell on the first day while we were completing the leadership exercises. They took him to the fire station, stuck 3 I.V. bags in him and then moved him onto the E.R.

I also forgot to mention that if you get stuck it is an automatic recycle in the course, no questions asked. You do not pass go. You don’t collect $200. You get to start Warrant Officer Candidate School all over again from Day 1! Actually, it’s Day 12 which is the first day of the 4 week program, but that’s a long story and this one is already dragging on.

The second guy was an inter-service transfer from the Navy. He was struggling on the land nav course simply because you just don’t do a lot of land compass work in the Navy. Plus, it wasn’t an easy course by any means and that’s coming from someone who has run a lot of compass courses. The heat eventually got to him on his second attempt through the course. He only needed one I.V. bag but he had some major heat cramps. Regardless, they recycled him. We were all disappointed to see him go.

No one really cared what the actual temperature was, it was just too damn hot to care. I heard 103° at one point but I was more concerned with the humidity. That was the killer. I would go through 3 liters of water about every 2 to 3 hours, but because we were drinking so much water we had to down the salt packets from our MREs just to keep our electrolyte levels balanced. I got headaches the first two afternoons but never saw anything else problematic after that, thank God!

Then someone higher up finally realized it was hot, they decided to bring us back into garrison on the third afternoon. We were ordered to take a long shower and get some rest because we would be heading right back out to the FOB the next morning. It was kind of odd to come in for one night and then head back out but that’s what we did and let me tell you that shower and air conditioning never felt more welcoming.

We would find out later that the entire week we were out in the field the area was setting record breaking highs upwards of 105° with humidity levels still in the high 80s!