Weight of Combat Gear Is Taking Toll

[JMA]

What if a soldier gets a heat stroke?

What is the chance of that among fully acclimatised, fit and well led troops on a five hour patrol?

I'm being serious. We must assume that having slept in base the previous night that they woke fully rehydrated on the day of the patrol. No sick or unfit or otherwise unsuitable soldiers are selected for the patrol. Then during their final inspection prior to the patrol (do they still do such a thing?) each man drinks a litre of water containing rehydration "salts" (or whatever they are called in various parts of the world) under close supervision of the platoon sergeant and patrol commander. The patrol leader then paces the speed of the patrol to make sure the patrol members never reach a state of exhaustion where they are unable to function in combat.

So if a soldier goes down with heat stroke the platoon commander/platoon sergeant/patrol commander would be required to provide some answers.

Spoken about this sort of stuff in the Brits in Afghanistan thread some time ago. This paranoia over water is a direct result of poor officer leadership, lack of acclimatisation, an obvious failure to teach and enforce water discipline during training. This stuff comes back to bite an army later when they really don't want it to.

You will however note that I (begrudgingly) accepted the 6 litre water load as part of the unavoidable stuff.

What if they are engaged/change missions and are forced to stay for a longer tine?

What and stay out at night? You must be joking If that were ever to happen I would apply the term "resupply" (but only in the context of the local water being designated unusable due to chemical contamination) as they would also need food. I hope here you are not suggesting that when going out on a five hour patrol you pack extra in anticipation of an extended deployment?

Water is not something you want to be skim about (especially not in an environment like Afghanistan and not when carrying all that weight, notice the catch 22?) , I'd personally throw my body armor way before I'd give up my water.

The problem (as stated up front in the article in The British Army Review Number 150) was that:

...We’re getting to a point where we are losing as many men making mistakes because they are exhausted from carrying armour (and the things that go with it) than are saved by it. The weight of protection and firepower also induces some unusual and undesirable combat behaviour.

So what we should really do is accept that water is but only one component of the combat load and discuss exactly what the realistic water requirements are/should be for ISAF soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan. Always comparing this with what the locals and Afghan forces require/use.