More Soldiers Are Dying From The Heat, Yet The Government’s Efforts To Safeguard The Troops Have Been Uneven
An InsideClimate News and NBC News investigation found that despite acknowledging the risks of climate change, the military continues to wrestle with finding a sustainable, comprehensive strategy for how to train in sweltering conditions.
NBC News:
As The World Grows Hotter, The Military Grapples With A Deadly Enemy It Can't Kill
The medics loaded Sgt. Sylvester Cline into an ambulance with the air conditioning running at full blast. It was 4:20 p.m., 20 minutes after he’d been helped off a live-fire training range at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, where it was 93 degrees and humid. Cline, an Iraq combat veteran, and two other soldiers were being evacuated to a nearby barracks to rehydrate and cool off after nine hours of drills on parched training grounds on that sweltering day in June 2016. Despite a forecast for extreme heat, base safety officers who prepared the daily risk assessment had decided soldiers faced only moderate danger. Later that morning, the temperature had reached 90 Fahrenheit, triggering “black flag” conditions, the military’s signal for a high risk of heat casualties. Commanders were supposed to allow at least 40 minutes rest for each hour of training, but they did not heed the requirement, an Army investigation found. (Hasemyer, 7/23)
In other news —
The New York Times:
Father Charged In Deaths Of 1-Year-Old Twins Left In Car
The father of 1-year-old twins who died Friday after the police said he had left them in a hot car was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The father, Juan Rodriguez, 39, of New City, N.Y., was arrested and charged late on Friday, the police said. He left the children inside a parked silver Honda Accord in the morning in the Bronx and reported for his job at the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center, officials said. (Schweber and Salcedo, 7/27)
