Comparison of USARIEM Heat Strain Decision Aid to Mobile Decision Aid and Standard Army Guidelines for Warm Weather Training

http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA483728&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Despite the US Army's comprehensive heat injury prevention program and widespread use and acceptance of guidance based on the wet bulb globe temperature index (WBGT), there were 5246 reported heat casualties in US Army Soldiers from 1980-2002. Of those, 75% occurred during scheduled military training at sites that followed WBGT based doctrine. There is a clear need for new methods to reduce the likelihood of heat casualties during military training. This report provides the basis for the following conclusions: (1) Since weather varies in time and space, best guidance will be obtained when model inputs are real-time weather measurements in the area of concern rather than estimated values. (2) The USARIEM heat strain decision aid (HSDA) is likely to be a more effective tool for reducing the risk of heat injury than simplifications derived from HSDA such as decision aids which use categorical weather input and the existing WBGT based Flag guidance (colored flag denotes WBGT heat category and associated heat injury prevention measures), and (3) Analysis of outcomes over a wide range of conditions should be used to further improve the performance of automated planning tools for warm weather training and these tools should be provided to Soldiers and their leaders