WATER PROBLEMS

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 cardboard-box mountains. Next, it is loaded onto tractor-trailer trucks that groan north in snaking convoys -- pallets of cartons, 12 bottles to a case, truck after truck after truck.

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

But oh, that water is sweet.

The other, traditional source is the 400-gallon steel tank sitting on a trailer in the desert sun. That's a Water Buffalo, in Army lingo.

The Buffalo 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.

ROWPUs work by forcing water through a series of filters, which strain out various poisons and "most" smelly stuff, according to a recent Pentagon assessment.

Still, after the ROWPU water has been pumped into a Smifty (that's 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, ROWPU water got a rap for something other than tasting bad: It was rumored to be making soldiers sick.

Has your soldier asked you to send powdered drink mixes? If so, it is for perhaps two reasons.

Drink mixes help the 100 degree water go down easier...even the good stuff.

And the drink mixes mask, to some degree, the strong chlorine taste (and "off smell") of ROWPU water.

Granted, the bottled water is a logistical pain - although hell, we contract food service in many places, seems we could contract water delivery as well. Ultimately though, ROWPU water that isn't consumed does no one any good at all.

I was once in charge of the Army Food Program...we did everything possible to MREs to make them better and better. And they are pretty good...but not for 90 days in a row. The plan called for MREs only for no more than 30 days in a row and then fresh food would replace them.

Seems to me that's the trick we are in with water. You can't drink pool-water for 90 days in a row (or more) especially when you require a gallon or more of it every day.

And as for "mental toughness" GEN Keane...somehow I think working every day for months on end with no day off in 115 degree heat and eating mostly MREs probably serves to meet the "mental toughness" threshhold.

At least, it would for me.