Jungle Warfare Research Articles

Tropicalizing the Portable Radio: Electronics and the U.S. Military's Battle against Fungi in the Pacific War.

As the U.S. military became embroiled in "jungle warfare" across the Pacific during World War II, it was caught off guard by the rapid deterioration of materials and equipment in the tropics, where the air was hot, humid, and teeming with fungal spores. This article tells the story of how American scientists and engineers understood the "tropical deterioration" of portable radios and electronics and developed techniques to counteract it. Examining scientific efforts to prevent tropical decay reveals how exposure to tropical conditions during World War II shaped the development of portable electronics. Contributing to envirotech history and environmental media studies, this article uncovers the importance of climate proofing to the history of electronics miniaturization. Tropical deterioration, furthermore, provides a technology-focused lens for enriching our historical understanding of the tropics as an environmental imaginary.

The LWL–Olin Shotshell Adaptor for the M79 Grenade Launcher

This article examines the little-known LWL–Olin M79 Shotshell Adaptor for the M79 light grenade launcher, which originates with the U.S. Army’s Limited Warfare Laboratory and was produced by Winchester under a contract between the LWL and Olin Corporation. Developed in the context of jungle warfare and close-range combat encounters during the Vietnam War, the M79 Shotshell Adaptor was one of several anti-personnel developments trialled with the M79. Ultimately, it was not adopted by the U.S. military and only a limited number of prototype models were fabricated. This article draws on a review of primary and secondary source material, as well as the author’s inspection of an extant example of the adaptor, today held in the collection of the Cody Firearms Museum.

The in vivo metabolism of Jungle Warfare in greyhounds

Δ6-Methyltestosterone was reported as the main active ingredient of the purported “dietary supplement” Jungle Warfare. This compound is structurally similar to 17α-methyltestosterone, containing an additional Δ6 double bond, and is reported to possess notable androgenic activity, raising concerns over the potential for abuse of Jungle Warfare in sport. The in vivo metabolism of Δ6-methyltestosterone in greyhounds was investigated. Urinary phase I (unconjugated) and phase II (glucuronide) metabolites were detected following oral administration using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. No phase II sulfate metabolites were detected. The major phase I metabolite was confirmed as 16α,17β-dihydroxy-17α-methylandrosta-4,6-dien-3-one by comparison with a synthetically-derived reference material. Minor amounts of the parent drug were also confirmed. Glucuronide conjugated metabolites were also observed, but were found to be resistant to hydrolysis using the Escherichia coli β-glucuronidase enzyme. Qualitative excretion profiles, limits of detection, and extraction recoveries were determined for the parent drug and the major phase I metabolite. These results provide a method for the detection of Jungle Warfare abuse in greyhounds suitable for incorporation into routine screening methods conducted by anti-doping laboratories.

The Tommy Gun in Jungle Warfare

Abstract Australian soldiers fighting on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea in 1942 found the Thompson submachine gun to be indispensable. Lessons derived from this battle shaped Australian jungle warfare doctrine. Australian historians acknowledge the tactical use of submachine guns in this battle, which was one of the first in Southwest Pacific Area, but have somewhat overlooked the “Tommy” gun. The emphasis has instead been given to another submachine gun, the Australian-designed Owen gun, which came slightly later. This article examines the use and usefulness of the Tommy gun for Australian soldiers on the Kokoda Trail. It establishes that this gun was tactically and comparatively more important than has been presumed. The manner in which soldiers embraced and utilized the Thompson gun was important for their tactical adaptation to jungle warfare and the defeat of the Japanese.

More-Than-Human Emotional Communities: British Soldiers and Mules in Second World War Burma

ABSTRACT This article offers a perspective on the overlooked ‘more-than-human’ emotional dimensions of the British war effort of 1939 to 1945. We focus on the relationships between British soldiers and their mules in Burma. We argue that the British soldiers who were required to become muleteers, together with their officers and veterinary personnel, formed an ‘emotional community’ (Rosenwein), based on a shared idea of a close and mutually beneficial relationship between men and mules. The soldiers’ ability to connect emotionally with mules helped bind the community together, but the material circumstances of jungle warfare constantly threatened the viability of those bonds.

India-Vietnam in the Changing Tide: Exploring the Significance of the Relations

In the changing face of political governance and security structure in the Asia-Pacific regions, India want to play an active political and security role as the region is very critical to India's strategic calculus for many reasons, including the political and economic reasons and the growing assertive role of China in Southeast Asia which controls a significant section of the Southeast Asian economy. In this context, New Delhi looks at Vietnam in sustaining its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. India and Vietnam share a long history of shared political, culture and economic interest. India supported Vietnam's independence from France, opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War, and supported unification of Vietnam. India was also one of the few noncommunist countries to assist Vietnam during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. Furthermore, with extensive economic, defense and maritime cooperation, including oil exploration, agriculture, manufacturing, sale of military equipment, sharing of intelligence, joint naval exercises and training in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare, the relation has improved extensively. In the recent time, India's consideration in strengthening its link with Southeast Asian countries through its Act-East policy has heightened Vietnam's importance in India's strategic calculus from being a ‘strategic partner’ to ‘Comprehensive strategic partner’. Vietnam gives a strategic advantage in India's pursuance of its policy objective. First, Vietnam provides an impetus to India's Act East policy that aims to re-invigorate its historical ties with countries in Southeast and East Asia. Second, Vietnam's rich natural resources like hydrocarbon can add to India's growing energy needs. As for Vietnam, India can help in playing an alternative emerging power against the dominance of China in the Asia-Pacific region where Vietnam is in a long festering territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea. Second, India can infuse much needed capital and technology into Vietnam, thereby bringing it par with its other ASEAN countries.

A Study on the Leptospirosis Outbreak Among US Marine Trainees in Okinawa, Japan.

The US Marines operate the Jungle Warfare Training Center (JWTC) in Northern Okinawa, where leptospirosis is endemic. The JWTC endurance course involves prolonged fresh and stagnant water exposures in a simulated jungle warfare environment. Since a leptospirosis outbreak in 1987, JWTC has required prophylactic use of doxycycline at 200 mg weekly during exposure to the endurance course. This policy is based on a 1982 study in a similar environment in Panama. In August and September of 2014, an outbreak of leptospirosis occurred among 81 Marines training at JWTC. We analyzed data from the largest reported outbreak of leptospirosis among US military members. Two hundred and thirty nine US Marines who completed the endurance course were interviewed by trained personnel regarding their exposures and use of prophylactic medication utilizing a standardized questionnaire. All available personnel who went through the course during the outbreak period were interviewed regardless of whether or not they became ill. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch's case definition was used to identify cases. Eighty-one cases in 239 personnel were identified (attack rate = 33.9%). Exposures linked to being a case were swallowing water in the stagnant pond (attack rate ratio [ARR] = 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4-3.7), cuts on the body (ARR = 1.5, 95% CI = 1.01-2.11), and insect bites (ARR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2-3.4). Exposures not linked to being a case were taking doxycycline before the exposure (ARR = 3.2, 95% CI = 0.5-22.2), taking doxycycline after the exposure (ARR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.6-1.3), and swallowing water in the natural stream (ARR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.9-1.9). Attack rate data indicate that whether or not personnel took pre- or post-exposure doxycycline made no difference statistically. Increased internal exposure (via swallowing water or through broken skin) increased risk of symptomatic disease. This new study combined with a growing body of literature should prompt researchers to re-examine recommendations for those with significant water exposure in areas with high leptospirosis levels.

A Delicate Relationship: The United States and Burma/Myanmar since 1945

For many Westerners, Burma (changed to Myanmar in 1989) carries both distant and familiar connotations. The bitter jungle warfare of World War II and the more recent heroic struggles of Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, certainly stand out as bookmarks. The complex intervening years, however, are foggier. Fortunately, the veteran historian Kenton Clymer has stepped in with an enormously well-researched, clear, and cogent study of postwar American relations with Burma/Myanmar, a “delicate” relationship revealed to be fraught with peril and tensions. During the Cold War, Americans wished to forge a strong anticommunist Burma integrated into the Western economic system. Conversely, the Burmese, emerging from colonialism, sought nonalignment and autonomy. Numerous entrenched variables frustrated the aspirations of both nations. In Burma, ethnic groups pressed their own interests in the face of a state determined to assert control. The economy floundered, hampered by natural disasters and poor planning. Meanwhile, Americans struggled to control missionaries and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers clinging to their own independent agendas. U.S. officials also grappled with a Burmese government that simultaneously sought and resisted American aid.

Negotiating with the Other: Centre-Periphery Perceptions, Peacemaking Policies and Pervasive Conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Abstract Intrastate peace agreements tend to be drafted in situations of political chaos, multiple combatants and shifting allegiances within and between state and non-state actors. Despite this, such agreements continue to reflect a bilateral understanding of conflict, with the state on one side and the non-state on the other. Such an understanding was employed in the largely unsuccessful 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in Bangladesh. This article argues that the failure of the Accord to secure a durable and lasting peace is due to the mistaken belief by the Bangladeshi government that the conflict was a ‘two sides’ war between the modern Bengali-Muslim state and it’s ‘primitive’ and ‘savage’ periphery. Soon after the Peace Accord was signed it became apparent that the Government of Bangladesh had made a fatal error in assuming that the communities in question were a simple, homogenous and unified group. Rather, the communities of the CHT are a collection of ethnically and ideologically distinct groups. This failure has led to division and competition of local politics in the CHT today, and continued warfare within and between many CHT communities. Violent actors have been polarized by the terms of the peace agreement and jungle warfare continues at great risk and cost to communities.1

The Chinese Army in the First Burma Campaign

Abstract The article analyzes the performance of the Chinese Nationalist army in the First Burma Campaign in 1942. This combat demonstrated new challenges that faced the Chinese army. After more than four years of fighting, a weakened Chinese army struggled to open a new front in the remote southwestern border area and Burma. The Chinese forces deployed in Burma included some of the best Chinese divisions, but the rest were ordinary or even weak formations. Hence their performance in Burma was no better than those back in China. Their doctrine of defense in depth (and their tactics) did not suit warfare in Burma. Although they succeeded in defending Toungoo for ten days, in other engagements the Chinese units failed to halt the Japanese. They suffered further losses during the retreat since they were not familiar with jungle warfare. In addition, the Chinese troops did not handle their relations with the British forces and local Burmese population well. These failures contributed to the collapse of the front.

Detection of Δ6-methyltestosterone in a “dietary supplement” and GC–MS/MS investigations on its urinary metabolism

Since a few years more and more products have appeared on the market for dietary supplements containing steroids that had never been marketed as approved drugs, mostly without proper labeling of the contents. Syntheses and few data on pharmacological effects are available dated back mainly to the 1950s or 1960s. Only little knowledge exists about effects and side effects of these steroids in humans. The present study reports the identification of Δ6-methyltestosterone in a product named “Jungle Warfare”, which was obtained from a web-based supplement store. The main urinary metabolites, 17α-hydroxy-17β-methylandrosta-4,6-dien-3-one (Δ6-epimethyl-testosterone), 17α-methyl-5β-androstane-3α,17β-diol (3α,5β-THMT), and 17β-methyl-5β-androstane-3α,17α-diol, as well as the parent compound excreted after a single oral administration were monitored by GC–MS/MS. Δ6-Epimethyltestosterone and 3α,5β-THMT served for long-term detection (still present in the 181–189 h urine). 17α-Methyltestosterone and its 17-epimer were not detected in the urines (LOD 0.3 ng/mL). The highest concentrations were found in the 14–20.5 h urine for Δ6-epimethyltestosterone (600 ng/mL), and 3α,5β-THMT (240 ng/mL) and in the 36–44.5 h urine for 17β-methyl-5β-androstane-3α,17α-diol (7 ng/mL). For reference methyltestosterone and epimethyltestosterone were dehydrogenated with chloranil. The characterization of the products was performed by GC-MS(/MS) and NMR.

Book Review: The Jungle, the Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War, 1941-1945: Fighting Methods, Doctrine and Training for Jungle Warfare

Book Review: The Jungle, the Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War, 1941-1945: Fighting Methods, Doctrine and Training for Jungle Warfare

The Jungle, the Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War 1941-1945: Fighting Methods, Doctrine and Training for Jungle Warfare (review)

The Jungle, the Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War 1941-1945: Fighting Methods, Doctrine and Training for Jungle Warfare (review)

Essays on Latin American Security: The Collected Writings of a Scholar-Implementer

This book brings together essays, book reviews, conference papers, journal articles, and newspaper editorials produced by the author from the early 1960s to 2003. Ramsey is best know today as the academic director of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), the successor to the immensely controversial School of the Americas (SOA), through whose portals passed several generations of Latin American military officers.The old SOA, located first in Panama and then subsequently transferred to Ft. Benning, Georgia, in 1984, was alleged to have trained Latin American officers to suppress their populations through terror, torture, and other indefensible and nondemocratic practices. Even today, protesters (including celebs such as Susan Saran-don and Ed Asner) gather annually outside the gates of WHINSEC to observe the rituals of publicly excoriating the school for all its sins. Never mind that inside the students are listening to the heartbreaking description of how a young lawyer, Pedro Matta, was tortured at Villa Grimaldi, on the outskirts of Santiago, in the 1970s. Matta brings to his presentation a mockup of the torture prison to illustrate graphically the torture process early in general Augusto Pinochet’s rule. In a matter-of-fact, conversational tone, Matta describes the torture, the breaking down of the will, the pain, the isolation, the deliberate humiliation and degradation of a man.I watched this presentation in 2001. I watched as young and not-so-young Latin American military and naval officers followed Matta around the exhibit, listened closely and, with me, in some instances simply had to turn away. How could men do this to other men, no matter how violently they disagreed or hated each other? Outside the gates of the school, protesters continue to march, throwing vials of fake blood on the gates, continue the mantra which brought them there—out of touch with what is really happening and being taught inside the old School of the Americas (aka, School of Assassins). I was astounded by the disconnect between the facts and the public discourse being leveled at the school. Inside I heard human rights being taught, unexpurgated by any censorship. Outside there seemed to be a people caught in a time warp, as if I had transported myself back to the 1960s and picked up where I’d left off in my campaign for “Clean” Gene McCarthy and an end to the war in Vietnam.At the heart of the reconstructed School of the Americas has been the author of this book; if you are interested in the mind of the military as it intersects with the scholarly world, this will be a most valuable documentary source. Ramsey is not easy to typecast. The son of a general and a West Point graduate, the young lieutenant was assigned to Panama in 1960 to help teach a course on jungle warfare in the then-being-organized School of the Americas. In Panama he worked with a young captain named Omar Torrijos. He served with the 101st Airborne Division with distinction in Vietnam before acquiring a Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of Florida.The contents of the book are basically divided into five parts, reflecting the author’s interests. All can be mined for insight into the various structures and phases of U.S. interaction with the Latin American military over the span of the cold war. The last section, on the growing emphasis on human rights, is a must read for students of the WHINSEC/SOA. The 2001 essay “Human Rights Instruction at the U. S. Army School of the Americas,” for example, provides an excellent survey of human rights across history and places the U.S. commitment to these human rights and democracy within the context of Latin American policy over half a century.So, after all that is good has been said, what about the bad? These essays cry for a lengthy introduction that would put them in perspective. One gets the sense that they were compiled and published in a bit of haste. If a second edition comes out, please, an introduction! Also, this is a “browser’s book,” and an index would have been highly welcome.Not all will agree with the author’s perspectives or analyses. But the author is definitely not an ideologue. He has seen the world, rather, through the prism of a latter-day humanist who happens to have been cast into the world of the military. He is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. His prism is kaleidoscopic: sometimes military, sometimes political, sometimes Christian, sometimes all three, since they all intersect. For those who think of the cold war as a moment when the United States unilaterally and monolithically supported Latin Americans who supported the United States—no matter what their stripes, what their ideology, what their record on democracy and human rights was (or wasn’t)—these essays will be informative and enlightening.

Re‐membering Vietnam: War, Trauma, and “Scarring Over” After “The Wall”

era of Vietnam War was one of most tumultuous in American history. It was a time that dismembered individuals, families, and much of government and society- physically, psychologically, and intellectually. process of addressing Vietnam War has been helped along by distance and time, which have allowed for historical analyses, but one of main catalysts for its reconciliation in American cultural history has been Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. This article is an analysis of how a wall, something generally meant to separate, protect, or keep people in or out, has become a cultural phenomenon as an agent of healing. Vietnam Veterans generally referred to simply as The has helped to re-member, put back together, or re-engage individuals, families, and much of government and society through a process of remembering that has addressed physical, psychological, and intellectual trauma- quite an astonishing feat, since this was done primarily through a minimalist work of art designed by a college student. memorial consists of two black granite wings, each almost two hundred and fifty feet long, which meet at an obtuse angle that is submerged into landscape of National Mall, a green space between Lincoln and Washington Memorials, and in far back yard of White House, in Washington DC. Yet it is precisely nonrepresentational nature of Wall, rather than figural nationalism typical of memorials, that promotes interaction through names etched on its surface, reconciliation through items visitors are instigated to leave there, and healing because it brings subversive subject of Vietnam War into open. These characteristics have made Wall effective, and a standard by which subsequent memorials of or catastrophe are measured. When we remember Vietnam, whether itself or era that surrounds it, we bring up an uneasy past. controversy that was part of that history plagued Wall's development, particularly design itself, which was subjected to revisions and compromise. multitude of meanings inscribed in Wall reflect larger cultural issues as basic as right and wrong, good and bad, and as complicated as gender inequity, racism, constructions of identity, masculinities, and cultural, social, and political memory. A number of writers have discussed Wall as a reflection of past and present society. In her essay, The Wall, Screen and Image: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Marita Sturken suggests that the black walls of memorial act as screens for innumerable projections memory and history - of United States' participation in Vietnam War and experience of Vietnam veterans since war (163). Unlike previous wars, many of which ended with parades or some type of respectful display for those who had served, Vietnam was a travesty. Many people protested war, and many men who were drafted went reluctantly or ran away, becoming known as draft dodgers. In addition, unlike earlier accounts of war, such as newsreels that gave updates during World War II, episodes from Vietnam were shown frequently on nightly news and in newspapers. Those who fought in and those who objected to it were often vilified while dragged on with no positive outcome. Veterans who returned to United States often had psychological problems brought on by anxiety that was part of jungle warfare. Others contracted diseases related to jungle or chemicals used to aid fighting. Many veterans were treated with hostility and returned to shouts of baby killer or murderer, and veterans were even spat upon. Veterans often submitted to a kind of internal forgetting, or denial, in which they disassociated themselves from Vietnam by becoming model citizens so as not to be identified with or stereotypes that portrayed Vietnam veterans as social outcasts. …

Effects of excessive harvest on plant species and forest structures in a subtropical evergreen forest of Castanopsis sieboldii

The subtropical evergreen forest of Yanbaru in the northern district of Okinawa is famous for its treasury of biodiversity. For the most part, biodiversity continues to persist in abundance, especially in the forests inside the US Marine base - The Jungle Warfare Training Center (JWTC), which escaped the excessive harvest after WWII. However, these forests also experienced excessive use of trees and shrubs during the war. Now that the return of more than half the JWTC area is close at hand, it is important to clarify the effects of this pre-1945 impact in order to develop a biological conservation plan. Accordingly, plant species and forest structures in evergreen broadleaved forests dominated by Castanopsis sieboldii, the major forest type in Yanbaru, were investigated. The impact of severe use during the war was not detected in species richness and species composition. However, stand volumes and foliage height diversity in forests that were severely used before 1945 were found to be less developed. Rehabilitation of these severely used forests of C. sieboldii is an important mission for biological conservation, because many indigenous animals selectively inhabit old-grown forests of C. sieboldii with highly developed structures.

MacArthur's jungle war: the 1944 New Guinea campaign

When General Douglas MacArthur led Allied troops into the jungles of New Guinea in World II, he was already looking ahead. By successfully leapfrogging Japanese forces on that island, he placed his armies in a position to fulfill his personal promise to liberate the Philippines. The New Guinea campaign has gone down in history as one of successes. The author show why it succeeded and what it contributed to the overall strategy against Japan. The book tells not only how victory was gained through a combination of technology, tactics and Army-Navy cooperation, but also how the New Guinea campaign exemplified the strategic differences that plagued the Pacific War, since many high-ranking officers considered it a diversionary tactic rather than a key offensive. MacArthur's Jungle War examines the campaign's strategic background and individual operations, describing the enormous challenges posed by jungle and amphibious warfare. Perhaps more important, it offers a balanced assessment of leadership and limitations, revealing his reliance on familiar battle plans and showing the vital role that subordinates played in his victory. Taaffe tells how MacArthur manipulated the complex New Guinea campaign in service of his ultimate goal - to return to the Philippines. He also discloses how MacArthur frequently deceived both his superiors and the public in order to promote his own agenda and examines errors the general would later repeat on a larger scale through the Korean War.

Epidemiologic investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a defined geographic focus of transmission.

An outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis occurred in a unit of 608 Puerto Rican national guardsmen conducting jungle warfare training in the Panama Canal Area in July 1984. An epidemiologic investigation of reported nonhealing, ulcerating skin lesions was conducted among 540 (89%) unit members in November and December 1984. Fifteen (88%) of 17 individuals with chronic, ulcerating skin lesions were confirmed as cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis by culture or histopathology. Twelve cases yielded positive Leishmania cultures, identified as L. braziliensis panamensis by cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Evaluation of different diagnostic techniques revealed that direct examination of tissues by Giemsa-stained histological examination was the most sensitive test (87% sensitivity), with an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test being rather insensitive (67%). All but one of the confirmed cases operated in small units that trained and slept overnight at a mortar firing site for a period of three days, yielding a site-specific attack rate of 22% (14 of 64). This contrasted with a much lower attack rate of 0.2% (1 of 476), experienced by unit members who trained at other locations during the same time frame (P less than 0.001). The median incubation period calculated from day of arrival at the mortar firing site was 17 days (range 2-78) for the 15 confirmed cases. Available personal protection methods, such as the use of insect repellents, were not appropriately implemented by unit personnel and thus, were not found to effectively protect against Leishmania infection. This is the largest reported outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis in military personnel associated with a single geographic focus of infection and contrasts with the usual sporadic disease experience in Panama.

Use of doubly labeled water technique in soldiers training for jungle warfare.

The doubly labeled water method was used to estimate the energy expended by four members of an Australian Army platoon (34 soldiers) engaged in training for jungle warfare. Each subject received an oral isotope dose sufficient to raise isotope levels by 200-250 (18O) and 100-120 ppm (2H). The experimental period was 7 days. Concurrently, a factorial estimate of the energy expenditure of the platoon was conducted. Also, a food intake-energy balance study was conducted for the platoon. Mean daily energy expenditure by the doubly labeled water method was 4,750 kcal (range 4,152-5,394 kcal). The factorial estimate of mean daily energy expenditure was 4,535 kcal. Because of inherent inaccuracies in the food intake-energy balance technique, we were able to conclude only that energy expenditure, as measured by this method, was greater than the estimated mean daily intake of 4,040 kcal. The doubly labeled water technique was well tolerated, is noninvasive, and appears to be suitable in a wide range of field applications.

Influenza B, Q Fever and the consequences of febrile illness occurring during Jungle Warfare Training: a clinical and serological study

Seventy-one Royal Marines undergoing jungle warfare training were studied clinically and serologically to determine the incidence and consequences of febrile illness. During acclimatization and the early part of the deployment the incidence of illness having an impact on training was low; during the latter part an outbreak of influenza B occurred, with 25 cases diagnosed clinically. Only 12 of these were confirmed serologically, probably because the outbreak was still in progress when the second samples were taken. A further four subclinical cases were uncovered by the serological study. Five cases of heat exhaustion occurred, one Marine suffering two episodes. Four patients required case-vac from the jungle. Three Marines were found to have serological evidence of previous acute Q fever, including the patient who had two episodes of heat exhaustion. This incidence is higher than expected, and warrants further investigation.