"HIS SOAP MELTED"

To understand what an Iraqi August is like, another soldier suggested this:

Turn your oven to 500 degrees, open the oven door and sit in front of it, with a fan blowing the hot air on your face. Then sprinkle sand into the hot breeze, and you've just about got it.

Oh yeah, one other thing, Matt said in his note:

"Had my first experience with fleas last night as I slept at some strange farmhouse. Very irritating."

Another Central Indiana soldier, Lt. Kevin McCormick, could tell you about the heat this way: His soap melted.

He is the son of Ron and Linda McCormick of Noblesville.

"He finally got a bed, but it's too hot to sleep inside the building," his mother said. It's also hard to sleep when people are shooting rocket-propelled grenades at you. But Kevin has not lost his sense of humor.

"He says the terrorists just have no consideration for other people's sleeping schedules," his mother said.