High temperatures raise heat awareness

By Mary Barczak
Staff writer

While most American teens will reach for a frozen freezer pop this summer to cool down, Cadets in the Leader’s Training Course will be reaching for their CamelBaks to guzzle water as the temperatures soar into the 90s.

Fort Knox typically experiences several heat category five days throughout the summer, said Lt. Col. Laura Favand, LTC’s chief nurse. Category five indicates the most intense heat and humidity of the day.

Favand said that last year eight Cadets were transported to the hospital during LTC because they had something that could be heat-related, but none developed a heat injury.

“We stop it right away before it becomes an issue,” she said.

Cadets who show signs of heat exhaustion or who complain about dizziness are ordered to stop training while leadership attends to them, Favand said. She said Cadets are wrapped in an ice sheet and given an IV fluid if necessary.

Medical personnel also measure air temperature and humidity every hour during training to ensure safety.

S3 Operations Officer Maj. Don Green said the cadre has been trained to know how to take care of Cadets’ heat-related needs.

“We tell the cadre to keep (Cadets) in their uniforms because it protects them from the sun, to let them sit or stand in the shade when resting, and we have the Cadets carry enormous amounts of water with them and make them drink it every hour,” he said.

Cadets’ training schedules have work and rest cycles built in so they aren’t overworked in the heat, Green said.

Cadre also use and monitor the wet bulb to determine how hard they should train the Cadets on a given day.

“The biggest thing is that these kids, coming from home, have not had any physical training so they need to ratchet it up and build the strength so that there are no issues,” Green said.

Some Cadets are not worried about the impending heat though because they have been taking the right precautions.

Cadet Jeff Bourque, of Co. A and a student from Mississippi State University, said he drinks plenty of water each day, sits in the shade during downtime and squeezes his fingers every so often to check that he’s hydrated.

Alpha Co. Cadet Paul Wenzel is from Rye, N.Y., but attends the University of Arizona.

He said his move to Arizona for school and the change of climate was a quick transfer for him.

“It was rough at first, but now I’m used to it,” Wenzel said.

He said he is also drinking a lot of water and sitting in the shade when he can to stay cool during training.

Heat is such a concern, this year’s training schedule has been modified from years past.

Because of injuries orienteering was removed from this year’s training schedule altogether. Orienteering was training where Cadets must navigate from point to point using the terrain.

Favand said she thinks precautions aimed at preventing heat injuries have been effective for keeping Cadets safe while training in sometimes-oppressive conditions.   

“The main thing is for them to keep hydrated, eat well nutritionally and stay fit,” she said.