I have a funny racial story from ROTC summer camp in 1964 that flatters everybody, regardless of race.
One of my fraternity brothers and I went to camp at Ft. Riley, KA, and each of us was in a different company. KA in summers is brutally, blazingly hot and we were all in fatigue uniforms that went down to our wrists and up to our necks. One day my fraternity brother and a bunch of other white guys were showering with a black guy, who looked at them and suddenly broke into uncontrollable laughter. Turned out the sun had made each of the white guys get such sun burn blackened hands and faces that they looked like their hands and faces had been dunked in melanin. The black guy couldn’t stop laughing and the whites ended up joining him.
I was stationed at Ft Riley (and never left Kansas), so I know of the heat you speak of. Its not that its hotter than other places...but there just isn’t alot of shade...so you bake in the sun all day, whe doing training.
My darkest skin tone came in Oklahoma (Camp Gruber Air Assault School). My face and neck went beyond brown and had a black tone.