Posted on 06/29/2013 4:53:16 AM PDT by Big_Harry
I try to ignore the stupidity that seems to rush in waves from our, so-called, government, but the following email from my daughter has really set me off. Yesterday, she told me that my son-in-law, (along with every other soldier and Marine in Afghanistan), was working in 125 degree heat. Now this morning I get this report:
"Just got an email from_____. He said they just received communications saying in an effort to cut costs, they want them to turn their thermostats in their living areas up to 77 when they are there and 81 when they aren't. Are you kidding me?! It's 125 degrees there! It's a crappy place! The one luxury they have and enjoy is air-conditioning!
Sorry. It makes me so angry how the guys doing their jobs are being treated in an effort to "save money." Considering all the cuts that can be made elsewhere.
I love you, Daddy. We're just going to have to keep praying these guys home."
While you are praying, also pray against the spirit of anti-Christ that is ruling our nation.
Gotta save money so Obama and his family can take those multi-million-dollar vacations.
> While you are praying, also pray against the spirit of anti-Christ that is ruling our nation.
“spirit of anti-Christ”? Try more like the anti-Christ himself
FWIW, A conditioning in the desert doesn’t promote acclimatization. Summer colds are much more common when troops/Marines are garrisoned in air conditioned environments, instead of cooled by evaporative cooling.
Many package units are designed to cool to a differential temperature of about 40 degrees. 120F outside, 80 degrees in AC. 130F outside, 90 deg AC.
Swamp cooling tends to reduce the temp by about 15deg-25 deg, but provides 3X as much ventilation. The perceptible temperature is more efficiently influenced by the cooler air flowing over the body, instead of the entire environment being reduced in temp.
IOW, It’s healthier for the grunt to live with swamp cooling in the desert.
NO money for Veterans in America
Money for guns in FAST&Furious and for terrorists' lawyers WORLDWIDE
NO money for American troops at the War Front
Money for MANPADS for al Qaeda under Obama and the US Congress.
NO money for investigations of Obama's IRS attacking Americans
Money for Billion dollar Obama Safaris taking hundreds of people all for His Majesty's pleasure.
NO money for the whistleblowers and victims of Obama's Benghazi fiasco.
We routinely keep the AC in the 77 degree range as we have to work outside part of the day. Avoids the shock of temp change, and, yes, it does save money. No reason to keep a home at a temperature where you can’t tell the difference between the living room and the refrigerator ( bit of an exaggeration, but...)
I’m not surprised.
Where I work, anyplace there is central air, the garrison sets the temperature at 78 degrees.
And they will not relent.
Thousands of American military sweat while the community organizer flies around the world on vacation in a 747.
I have no problem with this. I to work in 100+ heat all
day and I keep my thermostat at 78 night and 80 during
the day. It’s called acclimation. You get used to it and
comfortable in higher temperatures. All they have to do
is quit being whiny wusses and set an example for the rest
of the federal employees. Send them a case of deodorant.
It’s the whine effect Obama is after. Don’t give it to
him.
The time has come (long long ago) to hold the King accountable...
We routinely keep the AC in the 77 degree range as we have to work outside part of the day. Avoids the shock of temp change, and, yes, it does save money. No reason to keep a home at a temperature where you can’t tell the difference between the living room and the refrigerator ( bit of an exaggeration, but...)
_______________________________________
This is true. We keep ours at 80 degrees and turn it down a bit at night. It’s healthier and far more economical for us all.
With Obama’s plan for “global warming” carbon control...none of us will be able to afford air conditioning anyway.
what the thermostats set in the White House while barry and mooch and her mama gone?
Probably keepin it cool so the dog wont be uncomfortable
It’s Mr. Mercat’s theory that our A/C can only cool our house to 20 degrees cooler than the outside temp. So for example, if the outside temp is 100, our house can only get down to 80. I find this to be true when it is 100 plus for several days running. And we have a pretty good unit.
Part of Zer0’s climate change initiative. Those darned air conditioners create a ton of green house gases.
F U B O !
77 is 77. I don’t understand the uproar.
I pray for our troops’ safe return.
“you have no problem with this”
Oh really
Do you have a job where people are trying to kill you 24/7 Do you have to wear helmet and flak gear every time you go outside and maybe inside too every time an alert goes off?
And do you cover your mouth and nose constantly because that blast furnace air carries 1000 years of powdered shit and other nasty stuff that turns your stomach and guts inside out?
the military has been sucking it up and “setting the example” ever since Jimmuh Carter started wearing sweaters in the WH .. like anyone else has noticed
how about if the White House starts setting an example
Oh no, I bettin’ Mama Robinson call Jesse Jackson if they set her thermostat at 77
Don't worry about it too much. Most systems over here can only knock off about 30 to 40 degrees. So if it is 125 outside it will be 85 to 95 inside. In other words, the AC will be running at maximum anyway.
mean temps in the WH are 68-72 per order of Moo.
As much as I dislike our present administration and have never had high regard for the brass, in this they are right. You’re much better off acclimating to your environment than attempting to hide from it. I’ve spent enough time in the jungle and desert to know that running into air conditioning doesn’t help.
Sorry but 77 or even higher isn’t a hardship
Livin the dream since 05!
Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan!
But it's a dry heat, except for Sudan...
Well, we have to cut costs somewhere. How else are we going to pay for Tesla subsidies, Mooch’s lobster dinners, and plastic fish for the IRS?
Our troops deserve better treatment, period. That being said, we have never had air conditioning (west Michigan). When it does get hot I live a siesta style life. Get up early and work outside in the garden, siesta in the hot afternoon and then work again in the evening. We never open our downstairs windows and have a dehumidifier down there when we need it so when it’s 82 upstairs closed up (90 outside), it’s 72 downstairs. All I am doing is living. Our troops our defending our country and this news is just the latest that pisses me off.
Exactly. Seems most of these people envision Afghanistan as being "garrisoned" by 9-5 workers who commute to work each day from their luxurious home.
I’ve never met a Marine yet that was a “whiny wuss”, plenty of other service branch members, but never a Marine!
LOL! Thank you for your service!
We manage the natural convection breezes by opening/closing windows on the sunny/shady side of the house and upstairs/downstairs.
You don’t have massive sandstorms, barbarians (well, maybe to the south of you), poor food, 125 degree heat, etc. Except for Detroit, I don’t think that you have to worry about your neighbor slitting your throat when your back is turned. Just saying.
Sniveling? Possibly, she is due with her third child in a few days and would like her Gunny to be home for the birth. This mandate has nothing to do with the generators. It is in the same vein as the recent reduction of hot food rations, removal of the crosses on the chapels, and the restraints on the chaplains not to mention Jesus in their prayers or sermons. It is a well orchestrated attempt to cow the military into absolute submission to the communists in charge.
Semper Fi
What you say is true. I live in SW Colorado (high desert country). Swamp coolers are far more effective than AC.
FMCDH(BITS)
From a purely logistics standpoint, how does a chaplain do that?
5.56mm
While it's easy to be "offended" by anything that takes something away from the military, I'm all-in with you on this one Gunny (God but I have respected the Gunny's I have met over the years - thanks). The hotter it is outside, the "warmer" it needs to be indoors to prevent shock (in both directions) and 77 is perfectly comfortable down here in a Mississippi Summer.
Our soldiers deserve so much more, pray for their welfare and safety,
Its increasingly clear this is being done intentionally in a passive aggressive action from this administration, there was also a recent story about hot meals being taken away and replaced with MREs due to budget cuts, someone must’ve needed the money for a 100 million dollar kenyan vacation,
Yes, it is the spirit of antichrist at work in this country,
Believers have authority to bind that spirit and push it back, but few seem to know this or even try,
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 18:18
He will keep his promise,
We keep our thermostat set between 82 and 85.
I’m sorry to tell you, but the creature comforts like air conditioning and food, are hardly their biggest problems. The Rules of Engagement are what keeps those guys at the “pointy end of the spear” awake at night...and rightfully so.
Check the annual US death count through the duration of the Afghan war, and see when the annual average US death tolls more than tripled.
The stupidity is that they waited until now to do what should have been done a long time ago.
High heat w/humidity to match, and plenty of reasons to think someone is lurking around to slit your throat. The food is good though!
Practically speaking, living in an area with extended extreme heat needs some creativity. There are some expensive and some inexpensive ways to do this.
To start with, Americans have long looked at heat and cooling in terms of convection—hot and cold air. But just as important is invisible infrared light. You can be in a room with cold air, but if you are being bombarded with IR, you will feel very warm.
So the first thing is to paint structures with IR reflective paint. 45% of solar radiation is in the IR band, so this really, truly matters. The air of a room can be much warmer, without IR, but still feel quite cool.
Next, also important is insulation. Right now, flexible, thin sheet aerogel is being produced. 3mm of aerogel insulates as well as several feet of fiberglass. If you lined a sleeping bag with it, you could sleep through a blizzard in the arctic, and possibly overheat from body temperature alone.
Wrap an oven, or a refrigerator with it and it will use a fraction of the energy it normally uses for heat and cold. It would be worth it for the military to make an investment in it.
Next up is the heating and cooling of personnel. For years, the Army has known that when soldiers are moved to a place with a very different climate, it takes a minimum for their bodies to acclimate. But acclimation only goes so far.
While someone who has been in the heat needs several hours to cool off inside, in cool air; laying down in a shallow tub in 84 degree water, within a half an hour they will be nearing hypothermia (too cold). The rest of their off time will then *not* be spent in cooling down, but normal temperature recovery of other body systems that need recuperation as well.
In extreme heat, not just hydration, but blood salts balance are critical to operating effectively. Since they carry canteens of water, they should also carry ampules of assorted body salts to help them fend off heat exhaustion and heat stroke. A good mix of electrolytes are table salt (sodium chloride), potassium salt, baking soda as a blood pH buffer, a little magnesium salt, and a few trace salts found in seawater, and some sugar as well.
If you put one such ampule in a canteen of water, the water is much more effective at hydrating the body and balancing the blood salts.
Unless it's rainy season. Then it's really miserable.
We had a swamp cooler in NM. It was not a very good way to keep the house cool. On the contrary. We keep our air at 80 or above in Arizona. With temps as high as they are this week, our a/c would be running around the clock. Well, with night time temps I n the 80s, it is running constantly. We could not do this in a humid environment. But I am guessing that Afghanistan is not humid.
Our friends with swamp coolers in this area hate them.
I have to keep a cool mist humidifier running when it is so hot and dry outside. It says to only put cold water in the machine. There is no such thing as cold water at this time. The water out of our taps is very warm to hot all the time. It does save on the gas water heater.
I think that it speaks volumes that most of you good “Conservatives” missed the point of this post entirely! The point was not the heat, but the continued lack of respect for our fighting men and women that is coming from the White House.
The ideas for supplemental air conditioning will probably be appreciated by Mr. Obama when the NSA sends this post along to him.
... Unless it's rainy season. Then it's really miserable.Not for a grunt. ;^)
(arguing with a grunt is like wrestling with a pig,...everybody gets dirty, and the pig loves it.)
Not about to argue with a grunt. Wouldn’t be prudent.
Yes, I think that we need to make a concerted effort to see people really get saved and delivered, not anymore of the junk that passes for Christianity in 90% of our churches.
Drop the 501C3 status.
Drop denominational barriers
Win the lost (Acts 2:38)
Disciple new believers
Make the light so bright that all men will be drawn to it.
BTW, Freerepublic has change so much toward the left that I hardly recognize it anymore. What Happened?
Big Harry, YOU ARE WRONG. I am here, you are not. This decision has EVERYTHIHG to do with the capacity of the grid, and the availability of contractors to fix them when self-entitled whiners try to keep their rooms at ice box temperatures and their units freeze. It’s not like the Gestapo is going through rooms with thermometers to see if your room is 74 vs 77 like you envision. Second, I don’t like the fact that mid-rat meals have gone away either, after all, I have Marines who used those meals as their “main meal” of the day…but they have to scale back services on that contract. Do you think that the day will come when it is time for us to be gone that “POOF” everything that we brought and use here will just disappear with us on a C-17 with us? Of course it won’t. No one is starving but everyone IS spoiled. Every single person who is not out living in an F’ing hole is doing really well for comfort around here, but here is the kicker…the ones walking the patrols and living in dirt aren’t the ones complaining. Finally, not that this is a big deal or anything…I haven’t been a Gunny for a really long time. I am a Master Gunny, and I have been doing this for a really long time. Not everything is a conspiracy and our ranks are still populated with folks who care about the mission, care about our Marines and their comfort, and are absolutely taking care of business. The MISSION comes first!
Semper Fi!
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