Ramadi: After a long day searching homes in suffocating Iraqi heat, Lance Cpl. Mike Wilson saw a most surprising source of relief - a sprawling Wal-Mart had appeared in the distance.
"No joke - looking through the haze I thought I saw a Wal-Mart. I said to myself, 'I bet they got some cold water in there,'' Wilson said, recalling a mission last year in a rural area west of Baghdad.
He contemplated running over to fetch water for fellow Marines who were ''staggering like dead men.'' Three of them had collapsed in the heat.
Wilson soon stirred from his heat-induced hallucination and returned to the struggle of enduring summertime in Iraq.
Daytime temperatures in the Iraqi summer usually range from a low of about 105 degrees Fahrenheit to about 125. Though most bases have added air conditioning, grunts must still venture out to man their posts or patrol steaming streets under an unrelenting sun.
''It's been hotter and hotter than I ever thought I'd be in my life,'' said Cpl. Eduardo Warren, 20, of Turner, Maine, sweating even as he left for a night mission. ''We still get it done.''
Besides making conditions miserable for troops, the heat also changes the war itself. Marines in some areas say they patrol less during the hottest hours because fewer insurgents also venture out, creating a siesta cease-fire.
But temperatures at night can hover over 100 degrees.
''I feel like I'm in someone's mouth,'' said Navy medic Kyle Gribi, 22, of Santa Cruz, Calif., as he patrolled beside Iraqi soldiers on the humid riverbanks of the Jazeera area in western Iraq.
Though the sun had set, Gribi sweated through his uniform as he trudged down fields and jumped over canals.
For infantrymen, the sweat rarely stops flowing in the summer, leaving many with heat rash. Troops complain that they sweat through their clothing, their wallets, and even their boots.
Some remember awful mornings where they awake with polyester panchos stuck to their bodies.
In some outposts where washing machines are not available, troops hang their soaked uniforms in the sun -leaving them stiff and marked with large salt stains from dried sweat. Some find clumps of salt inside their pockets.
On sprawling logistics bases, support troops in offices are mostly immune to the heat. ''Hey, it's only 106 today,'' cheerfully said one Marine as he walked to a dining hall on the Taqqadum air base in western Iraq.
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