Army Officer Accuses Generals of 'Intellectual and Moral Failures'

[jcustis]

Part of this was caused by the "What Soldiers Want" theory of (non) leadership. The Army corporate leadership knuckled under to soldiers refusing to drink ROWPU water, and started ordering huge amounts of bottled water to satisfy their tastes and prevent heat-related injury. Soldiers would rather die of heat stroke than drink water from the purification units. As a result, LSA ANACONDA started to grow into a "super-FOB" to handle bottled water distribution.

You know what 120? as I wrote my first reply about amenities and FOBs, I was about to say something about an Armor Magazine article were a former HHC commander had critiqued logistics during the march up. A lack of enough bottles of water per man was one of the critique points, and I almost blew a f_cking gasket. Bottled water right?

The only reason why I cared for bottled water was because I could refill a bottle with ROWPU water, and cover it with a dirty, wet sock to try to cool the temp down. Cold water would have been nice, for sure, but not at the expense of getting the job done.

This would be a great subject for a book. An army lives on its stomach, and can lose a war because of it.

Don't get me wrong, this was not just an Army thing. The Corps is just as culpable in many areas. Ever hear the self-licking ice-cream cone expression?