Cpl. Chad Hutchinson has stayed outside enemy lines during the war with Iraq, but his location hasn't kept him away from the heat of battle.
Hutchinson, 22, who grew up in Greenwood, is used to working in the desert. During peacetime, his aviation support crew is stationed at the U.S. Marine base in Yuma, Ariz. The desert there is a bit milder, though, than the one he describes to his mother, Monica Flowers, from his current post somewhere in Kuwait.
"He said it was very, very hot there, and the sandstorms gave them a lot of trouble with the jets and engines," said Flowers, associate director of clinic services at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. "One day last week, he said, it got up to like 117 degrees."
That was the report before the missiles began falling all around the base. Then, things really began to heat up for the soldiers there.
"Every time the Iraqis would shoot a missile over, they would have to get into their chemical suits and get into bunkers," Flowers said. "That would happen day or night."
While the suits would lend protection in case of chemical attack, they aren't so suitable for Iraqi weather. Still, Hutchinson and his fellow troops instinctively knew to put them on whenever the warnings sounded, said Flowers.
"He said they're terrible hot, but that doesn't matter at the time. Your heart's pounding when you're getting in those suits, and you just have to wait until the all-clear is given."
In these conditions, Hutchinson and his unit have to service eight jets that have made regular sorties into Iraq. They've been working in the dark, from dusk until dawn.
Flowers says she is relieved by the end of the bombing in Iraq and the counter fire of missiles into Kuwait. Hutchinson has one year remaining in his enlistment. He then plans to go to college for a degree, and later a career, in aviation.
So far, Flowers has sent her son two care packages, and another's on the way.
They've included Visine, Chap Stick and various toiletries, shorts to sleep in, snack foods, newspapers and magazines, pictures, even baby wipes to substitute for showers. But there's one thing Hutchinson told his mother absolutely not to send.
"He said, 'Don't send anything chocolate.' He says it just melts right away."
