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BAGHDAD, Iraq — The staff at the 28th Combat Support Hospital will do anything to keep their patients comfortable, even if that means manually fanning a small, sick Iraqi child when the air conditioning breaks down.

But when it comes to their own comforts, the 300 doctors, nurses, medics and support soldiers at Camp Dogwood have it just about as rough as any servicemember in Iraq.

Regardless of rank, the soldiers all live in tents set up in the sand and without air conditioning. Bottled water is rationed, and telephones are rarely available, staffers said.

Off-hours entertainment is limited to impromptu volleyball tournaments, reading well-thumbed paperbacks, and searching out air-conditioned nooks and crannies in the hospital tents to snatch a couple of hours of sweat-free sleep.

The duty hours are either frantically busy or killingly dull.