CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq -- Keeping the e-mail and internet capabilities working at Camp Habbaniyah and Camp Taqaddum has been made easier with a little help from some foam.
The Technical Control Facility at Communication Company, 1st Marine Logistics Group, houses the servers that provide service members their internet and e-mailing capabilities. The number of servers in the room and the Iraqi heat make it difficult to keep things cool.
The building, along with others at TQ, has been sprayed with an insulating and fire retardant foam. This helps cool the buildings and has drastically changed the environment of the TCF.
“It’s like being in a meat locker,” said Cpl. Bryan S. Busbee, a TCF administrator, about the almost uncomfortably cold room.
Busbee, a 25-year-old from Charleston, S.C., wears a stocking cap while in the TCF, which is now roughly 75 degrees, a drastic difference for those leaving the outside conditions where temperatures are more than 100 degrees.
“It helps keep the servers up,” said Cpl. Steven C. Ragan, systems chief at the TCF. “If they get above 95 degrees, they kick in their extra fans,” said the 23-year-old from Tampa, Fla.
The room is now fairly quiet. Gone are the squeals of overworked fans struggling to keep the servers at an appropriate temperature, and they now have an air conditioner that is no longer needed.
“When it was foamed, it negated the necessity of the new (air conditioner) unit,” explained Lance Cpl. Jeremy J. Sipes, a TCF administrator, from Belews Creek, N.C.
The air conditioner was brought in to help cool the place but since the foam came, it has little use and serves as a back-up for the fully functional and completely cool TCF.