Bottled water for the troops: coddling or good idea?

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-08-09 06:09am

Some Mess members opinion is appreciated:

Troops’ thirst for water drains supply resources

By David Wood
Newhouse News Service

When the U.S. military goes to war these days, it takes along water. Not canteen water. Not purified-with-iodine water. Bottled water.
Thousands, tens of thousands — millions of bottles. In Iraq alone, 45 million 1.5-liter bottles a month, drained and tossed aside.

What began in 1990 as a generous but temporary expedient, handing out bottled water to troops gathering in Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm, has grown into a financial and logistical nightmare that runs counter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s drive to make the military lighter and more agile.

While GIs consider bottled water an entitlement, some generals see it as coddling.

“Spoon-feeding troops bottled water — a mistake,” Gen. Jack Keane, the Army’s vice chief of staff, growled in an interview. “We want them to have mental toughness.”

In the sun-scorched compounds occupied by 130,000 Army troops in Iraq, soldiers have two potential sources of water.

One is bottled in Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Greece and shipped to Kuwait, where stevedores wrestle crates of it off ships. Then, in giant, windswept marshaling yards, forklifts labor in ankle-deep desert grit to stack the stuff into mountains of cardboard boxes. Next, it’s loaded onto trucks that groan north in convoys — pallets of cartons, 12 bottles to a case, truck after truck.

The military buys so much bottled water, from so many vendors, through so many agencies, that no one knows how much, at what cost, it takes to slake its thirst.

The other, traditional source is the 400-gallon steel tank sitting on a trailer in the desert sun. In Army lingo, that’s a Water Buffalo, which holds water that’s been purified by the ROWPU boys — the soldiers who man the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units. Miracle workers of a sort, they can drop a hose into any green-scummed swamp or saltwater ditch and pump out something drinkable.

These soldiers force water through a series of filters, which strain out various poisons and “most” smelly stuff, according to a recent Pentagon assessment.

Still, after the water has been pumped into a Smifty, a Semi Trailer Mounted Fabric Tank — basically a huge, rubberized bag on a flat-bed truck, hauled to a battalion headquarters and transferred to a Water Buffalo, what comes out when a thirsty grunt turns the spigot may be less than palatable. Worse, in some units this summer, the treated water was rumored to make soldiers sick.

“We have ROWPUs producing tons of water that soldiers don’t want because of expectations we set in Desert Storm,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Mahan, the Army’s logistics chief. “Was that a mistake? Absolutely!”

ROWPU water, Mahan pointed out, is produced in close proximity to troops, while bottled water is shipped from afar, overloading the supply chain. At one point this spring, about 60 percent of the supply line supporting troops in Iraq was devoted to carrying bottled water, food and ice, he said.

“Where do bullets and repair parts fit in there?” Mahan asked with exasperation.

But the guy whose idea it was to start the bottled-water fad is unrepentant.

“Yeah, I made that decision. I thought it was a great idea,” said retired Army Gen. William “Gus” Pagonis, the Army’s logistics chief for Desert Storm. “No question it tastes better than ROWPU water. And if you can’t give soldiers great food, why not at least give them good water?”

In Dahran, Saudi Arabia, in August 1990, no ROWPUs or Water Buffalos came with the thousands of troops in early-arriving units. But there was a Saudi desalinization facility nearby and a bottling plant down the road. Pagonis hired them — and made history.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-08-09 06:22am

I dunno. if Im getting shot at for my country in the desert, Id at least want good water.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-08-09 06:29am

I'm in favor of the bottled water. The logistics of it are a bit silly, but soldiers deserve water they can swallow without pinching their nose.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-08-09 06:56am

I don't like the idea of bottled water being sent to the troops, I think they should just purify local tapwater, or get seawater and purify that.

Axis Kast · Post by **Axis Kast** » 2003-08-09 10:09am

I suppose it has something to do with "local" concerns for water such as those in Mexico, Spain, or Africa.

There's also the fact that somebody would find it difficult to poison 4.5 million individual bottles of water...

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-08-09 10:14am

It would not only keep morale up, I'd think, but I'd also hope somebody has thought of the obvious expedient of using all the ROWPU units to supply water to Iraqi civilians now that they're not needed for the troops.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-08-09 10:36am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:It would not only keep morale up, I'd think, but I'd also hope somebody has thought of the obvious expedient of using all the ROWPU units to supply water to Iraqi civilians now that they're not needed for the troops.

Wouldn't that hurt more rather than help?

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-08-09 01:02pm

I think that bottled water in general is a waste of money. Put a Brita water filter in every canteen and fill it up from a local tap water source. I certainly don't think giving bottled water to men who are hauling around 50 pounds of gear in a fucking desert is coddling them, though.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-08-09 01:08pm

Vympel wrote:
Wouldn't that hurt more rather than help?

Pure water prevents disease, and the main complaint over our inability to fully restore electricity has been that without it the water plants have been partially inoperative. So I think that providing water--even poor quality in terms of taste--which would prevent disease spread, would be appreciated by the locals. We are doing this in some cases I believe; but I don't know if these purifiers are being totally utilized (would be nice to confirm that).

Have to balance out the desire to provide the local populace with water against the need to maintain troop morale--the last thing we need right now is to start giving their bottled water to the locals, which would hardly improve the popularity of the operation with men who have already been there for to long as it is.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-08-09 01:55pm

Durandal wrote:I think that bottled water in general is a waste of money. Put a Brita water filter in every canteen and fill it up from a local tap water source. I certainly don't think giving bottled water to men who are hauling around 50 pounds of gear in a fucking desert is coddling them, though.

If you're going to do that, don't use a Brita filter - they filter out most of the bad-tasting elements but do nothing to filter out single-celled critters that could put a trooper on his knees hovering over a vomit bag. You need a microfilter, and Brita doesn't sell those.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-08-09 02:03pm

but we have lots of microfilters up here

Oh I live in a place with a ton of single celled nasties...

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2003-08-09 07:31pm

The lack of microbes, and the ability to tell if there is tampering would be worth the money.
Big emphasis mine on tamper resistant.
There is no shortage of folks in the area who would do tremendous damage by putting germs and/or poison into the water. Not knowing wheather or not your water has been contaminated after a series of tamper attacks would be a big problem, moral wise.

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2003-08-09 07:33pm

At least the tylenol and drinking water is safe for our soldiers!

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-09 07:59pm

I wonder how much a bottling plant would cost?

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-09 11:26pm

Anything more than safe potable water to put into their canteens is a waste of money and time. If the ROWPU guys can't do it then by all means give them bottled water. But if they don't need it, then it's a needless expense.

Graeme Dice · Post by **Graeme Dice** » 2003-08-10 03:11pm

Iceberg wrote:If you're going to do that, don't use a Brita filter - they filter out most of the bad-tasting elements but do nothing to filter out single-celled critters that could put a trooper on his knees hovering over a vomit bag. You need a microfilter, and Brita doesn't sell those.

That's what the reverse osmosis units are for.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-08-10 03:52pm

Iceberg wrote:If you're going to do that, don't use a Brita filter - they filter out most of the bad-tasting elements but do nothing to filter out single-celled critters that could put a trooper on his knees hovering over a vomit bag. You need a microfilter, and Brita doesn't sell those.

Agreed. Brita is fucking useless.

Of course, it doesn't help that one of the highest-certified solid carbon block filter producers (MultiPure Corporation) is a multilevel marketing company.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-08-10 05:25pm

Having never served, I have no place to pass judgement. That said, I'll go ahead and do it anyway.

I agree with Stormbringer. If the ROWPU units can make safe water, then drink that. If not, bottled is fine.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-08-11 07:06am

Can’t really say if it is a luxury or not.

But in my time in the army we where issued “puritabs” a small pill that you droped into the canteen and waited for 10 minutes.

It was said that the tablet killed all microorganismes and stuff.

It was only important to fill the canteen from running water or a big lake with a in and out going source of water. And not to drink the last 1/3

Used those pills on many occasions and my platoon had no ill effects of it.

As a matter of fact I still have and use those pills when I go on hiking.

Post by **Edi** » 2003-08-11 09:01am

Stormbringer put it best, I think. It's a massive waste of resources, and the ROWPU people should be able to produce the required water. Might not taste like nectar, but shit like that happens in the army. Faram's comment is also noteworthy, that'd be a much cheaper solution. The Finnish army also uses those pills, but I have no personal experience of them.

Edi