The military needs to go green

I've been watching HBO's excellent "Generation Kill," a drama that chronicles the first few days of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. What fascinates me is the logistical difficulties the soldiers must have faced as they tried to move so much equipment and so many personnel across hundreds of miles of unfriendly territory.

How did they refuel all those Hummers?

I'm not the only one pondering such questions. Green Daily reports that the Army is working hard to reduce its dependence on diesel fuel, which it apparently uses for just about everything, including the generators that supply electricity in the field.

One interesting stat: 85 percent of the energy used on-base in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East is used for air conditioning.

According to Reuters, the Army wants to reduce its carbon "bootprint" by 30 percent by 2015, an ambitious goal. Expect to see solar power, wind turbines, and hybrid vehicles in the Army's future. That'll be good news for the soldiers.

Imagine what it must have felt like to be the guy driving the fuel truck through towns where rocket-propelled grenades were flying left and right.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.