TWO THINGS ARE ALWAYS TRUE.

Somebody has it better than you, and somebody has it worse.

This unit has worse living conditions than CPT Patti's crew in downtown Baghdad.

Any garrison-based soldiers unhappy with their current living conditions might like to try a few months out here at Qayyarah West Airfield, a former military air base about 30 miles south of Mosul in northern Iraq...

The airfield where the brigade’s headquarters element of roughly 150 people stays defines the word “austere.”

Looking out from the sidewalks of the main headquarters compound on a glaring Saturday morning, there is nothing but dirt piles and broken concrete revetments as far as the eye can see.

The baking heat adds to the desolation, although soldiers here say that the fierce sun is beginning to abate slightly, July traditionally being the hottest month. In practical terms, that means the nights are almost tolerable, even without air conditioning. But daytime temperatures still soar into the 100s.

Troops typically get up around 5 a.m. for physical training, so they can get the job done while the weather is bearable. They are then assigned to 12-hour work shifts...

Soldiers here use Army standard burn-out latrines. Human waste goes into barrels, which are filled with gasoline and burned every evening, filling the air with an unmistakable aroma.

There are usually two hot meals served daily, breakfast and dinner. Lunch is Meals, Ready to Eat. Occasionally breakfast does not materialize, but “it’s more rare to miss a hot meal” than to get it, Hayes said.