Why does the modern US military use plastic bottled water?

[drewder]

In Iraq the bottles were filled by the DOD or more likely a contractor, but the bottling facility was in country. I know I drove by it many times while I was over there. We did have a few water recalls, which is much easier to deal with when you have bottles instead of water buffalos.

More to the point though is I can toss a water bottle in a refrigerator and we did. Every location you went to on base had refrigerators full of water bottles with encouragement to take some (and to replace the ones you took so the next guy had cold water too).

[UncaStuart]

Coincidentally, regarding water delivered in tank trailers, last night I was reading Into the Valley: A Skirmish of the Marines by John Hersey, published in 1943 about the activities of a Marine company in October 1942 on Guadalcanal, at the Third Battle of the Matanikau River.

For the next two hours and more we were to witness some waiting which was nearly disastrous to the general plan. The waiting was caused by the watering of our force. The men had hiked more than ten miles under a broiling sun, and most had emptied their canteens. No one was certain when there would be another chance to water up—and water is the most precious commodity in human endurance. Therefore it was extremely important for the men to fill up.
The disaster was the way they filled up. The water source was a big trailer tank, which had been towed out from the camp by a truck. The tank had only one faucet, and each man had to file by, turn the faucet on, hold his canteen under it, and turn it off again. This took time, far too much time.