Comments on: Another Wanat Takeaway — Purify NOW

By: nraddin

nraddin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:23:06 +0000

I had no idea that there was no unit sized water systems in the US military. Something small that could be clean water from any river, pond, lake or tap would be good to have for small OPs and FOBs. Anything you can do to reduce your dependence on supply chains is good.
In Afghanistan on FOB Wilson they have been on 2 meals a day 6 days a week for a while now, giving rise to the term starvation Tuesday for the one day a week they get no food. These poor guys go outside the wire and fight it out day after day without the food they need. It makes me wonder if the military had done a better job with water supply if the supply of food would be a little better.

By: Sam Rod

Sam Rod — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:32:15 +0000

In addition to my earlier comment on the LWPS (Light Water Purification System),that the sister unit had, but never implaced, being scare for the accountability of components, and who would had signed for, TF Rock deployed with 5ea M149 Water Buffalo, that can hold 400Galons of potable water. But just like the LWPS, they stayed must of the deployment parked in Jalalabad collecting dust. Even 1 galon of water per day, per soldier, a full Water Buffalo, could had lasted 1 week for the entire PLT, plenty of time to rotate a second one in.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:53:06 +0000

I guess boiling water for 30 minutes is no longer an approved solution? There was a bladder of fuel and five (six?) vehicles there, a river nearby, troops working 10 minutes on and fifty minutes off, and no one could boil water? Homeland Security and FEMA recommend boiling drinking water in emergencies, doesn’t the Army have the same faith in that method?
From a previous post, the Water Filtration unit was available, but not used as it would creat an accountability problem… That would be funny if it weren’t so sick…

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:32:44 +0000

Restrooms in some Sierra range parks such as at Devil’s Postpile in from Bishop have signs posted alerting users to check ones’ urine color. Clear or slightly yellow indicates sufficient water intake. Darker urine can be a signal of dyhydration although some vitamins can darken urine. The military is very aware of this in Iraq and Afghanistan. I carry a liter bottle everywhere now but I recall when I was a kid that most gas stations had a drinking fountain besides a working clock to be seen from the street.

By: Jean D

Jean D — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:00:31 +0000

What about
http://www.seldontechnologies.com/
?
In their “markets” section, they claim to be working with the Air Force and the Special Ops to include both their “WaterStick” (on the Camelback) and their “WaterBox” (at the platoon level) into their equipment. Is the Army this isolated for the other forces?
Jean

By: NV Smith

NV Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:29:35 +0000

I’m surprised although I probably shouldn’t be. I remember being issued purification inserts that fit our canteens and replaced the cap. Pour water, as clear as possible, in and suck/squeeze purified water out. Supply also had purification straws. I know that DARPA has worked on this. In most cases the trick is to get water as clear as possible. This wouldn’t have helped much in Wanat, but putting clear water into clear bottles and then letting them sit in the sun for a few hours does the same thing the UV lights do. We always had water purification devices when heading out; either issue or commercial.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:56:40 +0000

Also:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=7aa8166b-7186-4d68-8b14-f94d2a0d0354
An ominous warning on the failures of KBR and water supply contracts:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou090511_tnt_water-shortages-iraq-soldiers.16ebba1d.html
A yahoo answers claims that the water is donated. Even so, it’s still a transport burden (and I’m skeptical about donation of water).
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061005124238AAPSHsB

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:40:13 +0000

Well, that’s a consequence of when peacetime things like “palate” take precedence over pragmatism.
Remember the ‘90s when the biggest controversy was about how to make the MREs flavorful?
And now it’s back to meat and potatoes. How to kill the enemy.
Of course, some things don’t change… (like our small arms?)

By: Eric Daniel

Eric Daniel — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:26:55 +0000

I think one of the underlying issues here is the fact that the military made a conscious decision years ago to scale back on such things as field water purification.
In

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:40:43 +0000

First to Charles, no the Camelback is not bulletproof but it probably can take a small level of punishment. The inner bladder is pretty thick and seems very resilient to me and I have used them during exercises and also when on camping or outdoors trips. As for it being hit, you wear it on your back so if it gets hit, you are most likely leaving the fight or pulling back, in which case water is the least of your concerns at that point.
As far as the filtering system that was supposed to be HMMWV mounted, it still needs to be at the river to work, were our troops positioned to be able to utilize that resource or did the commander forget to plan for its usage and simply relied on the supply chain to bring him what he needed? I am not faulting the commander just so everyone knows. I just don’t know the terrain and where our forces were arrayed.
As was also said, the ANA had plentiful drinking water, but of what quality, or did they know something we didn’t? It was also stated that the ANA pulled out of the place during the fight. They left either because they were tipped off or simply were unwilling to fight.