Jesus, Joseph and Mary

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

Take Houston's heat on a miserable summer day and add 40 degrees, making temperatures 130 or more.

Next, add an extra 100 pounds of life-protecting gear to your body: bulletproof vests, guns and ammunition.

And then imagine not having enough water around to drink.

[...]

According to an Army Fort Bragg training document on preventing heat casualties in desert climates, water losses can reach 15 liters, or four gallons, per day per soldier. Additionally, Survival, a 1957 Department of the Army field manual, states "in hot deserts, you need a minimum of one gallon (of water) per day" just to survive.

[...]

"We were rationed two bottles of water a day," said Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey, referring to 1 to 1.5 liter bottles.

[...]

In 2003, he said soldiers were given what was the equivalent of only a half gallon of water to survive on a day - all while dodging bullets in the blistering heat.

[...]

But what about getting water from what the military calls "water buffaloes," storage trucks that are supposed to bring purified water to the troops in the field?

A number of soldiers told 11 News that it was often difficult to locate these trucks, partly because they say there was a shortage of them. In addition, many soldiers claim that a lot of the water dispensed by these vehicles was so heavily treated with chemicals that "no one could keep it down."

Robey said eventually they became desperate.

"It really hit me the day I was with my commander and we're stealing water," Robey said, describing how they raided supplies at the Baghdad International Airport.

[...]

It was in the hands of civilian contractors, who Robey claims were supposed to be distributing it to soldiers.

[...]

Private Bryan Hannah recalled a troubling situation in 2007

Private Hannah: "My sergeant told my lieutenant we didn't have enough water and he said go find some

11 News: "What does 'go find some' mean?"

Private Hannah: "It means 'if you don't want to die, then go find some water.'"

Hannah and fellow soldiers did just that, finding it once again at a civilian contractor facility.

"We'd just run out and start grabbing cases of water and start throwing them in the gunner's hatch," said Hannah.

  Truth Out

I’m beginning to despise everything about this fucking war and its fucking planners and commanders in chief.

11 News identified another problem with water in Iraq - dirty water in sinks and showers soldiers used.

[...]

You can eat Subway, Burger King, you can buy a $1,200 Oakley watch, but you can't have clean water to brush your teeth with.

[...]

"This sounds like something that definitely needs to be looked into," said Dr. Stephen Fadem, a kidney specialist with Kidney Associates PLLC, who also teaches at the Veterans Administration.

Ya think?!?

Turns out, at many similar bases, the water was supposed to be processed by Houston-based company KBR. In an internal KBR report, the company sites "massive programmatic issues" with water for personal hygiene dating back to 2005.

[...]

"That water was two to three times as contaminated as the water out of the Euphrates River," said former KBR employee Ben Carter.

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[I]nstead of using chlorinated water, the soldiers' sinks and showers were pouring out untreated wastewater.

[...]

kidney stones have become such a widespread problem among the troops that the military has set up a medical treatment center in Iraq to treat them.

Halliburton. Of course.

11 News asked military officials about the water problems in Iraq. In a statement by the Multi-National Force in Iraq press office states: "We have a proven system that works. Commanders at all levels do their utmost to provide the necessary resources required to sustain the force."

I don’t even have the words for this.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.