Armed forces people will tell you that there never is a “perfect” uniform. Conditions, most often those created by the weather, vary so much that there is no foolproof outfit.

American troops froze in places such as the World War II Battle of the Bulge and the Korean War and they suffered innumerable miseries in the Pacific regions in World War II and in Vietnam-Indochina.

But it would be difficult to imagine a much more difficult outfit situation than our people have to deal with in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Further, with danger constantly lurking in every sector, there are few occasions when suits and equipment can be discarded or even lightened.

For starters, the combat helmet weighs 18 pounds. Pick up a 20-pound sack of potting soil at a garden center and consider carrying that around on your head hour after hour. Then there are the flak jackets, the ammunition, the heavy boots, the weapons, the radios and the other communications gear necessary for many U.S. combatants.

A light load for our troops, male and female, is 50 pounds. Specialists with extra items needed in the field can wind up with 80-pound loads. All this is necessary in often-blinding heat that makes the soldiers wish they could shed much of their gear.

Many former armed forces members can cite examples of how put-upon they were because of their equipment and the conditions that forced them to use it. But it stands to reason our people in the Middle East, with their 50- to 80-pound burdens and desert conditions, can match most of those tales. It is estimated that up to half our troops come back from combat with back, leg and foot problems, some of them actually disabling.

The equipment is necessary to protect them in combat but it’s just another reason so many members of our armed forces are eager to put in their tours of duty and get out of the war regions.