Because that was the war of the contractors, and the Army had done just fine for 230 years without bottled water. There was no choice to buy bottled water instead of water buffaloes, the water buffaloes and blivets were already bought, owned and had been used in training. Everyone was familiar with them. This was the war where Army cooks simply warmed up Haliburton-prepared food. This is the war where Gerber tools and Camelbacks and laser sights were handed out like candy.
It wasn’t about kickbacks (at least that isn’t my claim), it was a concerted effort by the Bush administration to privatize a good portion of the military, from water to dining facilities to FOB construction. You can agree or disagree with that idea, but the congressmen whose districts were getting tons of cash for selling random things to the military certainly loved it.
Fair enough, and I’m not intending to go back and forth. But we’ve changed how we do a lot of things over the last 230 years so I’m not sure that’s the best argument you can make.
I understand that Bush is somewhat south of Satan and Hitler on The Dope, but the military overall is trying to get away from having Soldiers do everything. Military manpower isn’t viewed a free anymore (and it used to be viewed that way, especially with high healthcare and retirement costs, so lower level jobs are outsourced to contractors if it’s cheaper. We are doing that now under Obama so he must not think it’s all that bad.
The point is that volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines join up to fight and do military type stuff, and that forcing them to do stuff like peel potatoes and mow yards, and other jobs that made sense when the draft was in effect, now do very little but alienate the soldiers, and affect retention. In addition, it frees up time for more training.
I don’t think water bottles fall under that though; I’d almost guarantee it’s a ease-of-use and transport issue. Water bottles come as pallets, and can be transported just like any other palletized item- back of a truck, helicopter, train, etc… And on top of that, they’re self-contained; no need to clean the water tank/bladder, no need to sanitize, no need to source water or purify it; just take the pallet from the port and get it where the water’s needed. Maybe it’s not the most efficient use of resources in terms of packaging and volume, but it almost certainly beats the previous alternatives in terms of convenience and adaptability.
For what it’s worth, there are some standardized bulk water carriers, and they can be loaded onto pallets so that you don’t need a specialized truck. For example, the IBC tote.
Whatever the right answer is, it’s clearly not a lack of large containers that can be put on a truck.
No, those travel palletized in standard shipping containers. And of course, which container would work best depends on which pallet, which as we’re speaking of the US Army is more likely to be the standard pallet and not the standard europallet aaaaand I’m getting flashbacks to my Logistics course! Help!
That’s Camelbak with no second C, a brand name. They supplied the hydration backpacks to the US military (maybe still do) and that’s why people call them that.
Shipping was a huge issue early in the campaigns in Iraq. I saw some proefssional articles at the time with large percentages of shipping into theater being devoted to bottled water. ISTR later in Iraq there was bottled water being provided by water purification units bottling it in theater. That’s close to what the old plan was except instead of distributing it by “water buffalo” they added the in between step of bottling it.
From Joint Publication 4-03, Joint Bulk Petroleum and Water Doctrine. 2016, January 11:
“Bottled water is frequently used as a means of providing potable drinking water to deployed troops around the world. It is readily available and offers flexibility to planners. In some cases, it has been linked to Service member morale as a perceived quality-of-life issue by offering convenience and good taste compared to RO-based WPS-treated water. The use of bottled water may reduce the required force structure in a theater, particularly early on, by partially or completely eliminating requirements for potable water production and distribution units. Bottled water is frequently used extensively throughout a deployment in spite of the tremendous stress it places on transportation and waste disposal operations. An expanded discussion is available in US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, Water Quality Information Paper Number 31-034, Use of Bottled Water for Deployment Support.”
It’s convenient, offers greater flexibility, tastes better, and reduces support personnel and troop requirements. Plus it tastes better and it’s easier to Grab and Go. There are stacks of water bottles everywhere on base in a combat zone. Everywhere. There aren’t “water points” so much as there is simply stacks of water everywhere you look. This encourages Soldiers to grab more water and drink more often. Soldiers can grab entire cases and keep cases of water in their living areas and under their cots. This can’t be done with large, centralized water distribution plans.
As a general rule, more soldier productivity was lost to DNBI (disease and non-battle injuries) than to combat wounded or killed. The first Gulf War was the first time this was not true. The troops were isolated from the civilian population, at least partly to avoid offending traditions, which kept them from consuming local food and drink.
Side note, my father missed his unit’s landing at Normandy due to DNBI (broken arm) and then missed the Battle of the Bulge due to DNBI (frostbite).
Hydration systems / Camelbaks are still widely used, but this is completely independent of how water gets to the soldier. Whether he/she is filling the Camelbak from a water bottle or from a faucet, it still needs to be filled. Before going on patrol, soldiers will grab a couple water bottles and fill their Camelbaks. They don’t often drink from the actual water bottles themselves unless they are in garrison or in a vehicle. Camelbaks in general are losing popularity to Nalgene bottles, which are also filled from the plastic water bottles.
