My son served in a maintenance unit in the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Cavazos (nee Hood). They participated in weeks-long exercises out in the brush of the maneuver areas regularly. They rotated through training cycles at the Fort Irwin National Training Center (NTC) for at least one month every year. NTC is in the middle of the Mojave desert in California, by the way.
At no point during his three years in that unit did anyone in his command deliver water or food to the soldiers out in the field. Nobody. Not even once. In three years.
Troopers died out in the desert. They died of dehydration and heat stroke.
And nobody in his command cared. Not the officers. Not the senior enlisted. Nobody. Not even once. In three years. It never even crossed their minds that they should.
One summer at NTC, one of the Observer-Controllers (think of them as referees) took pity on my son’s poor unit of maintainers, and ordered a water buffalo delivered to them. It arrived just before their Company Commander made one of his rare checks on them. “Just what I needed!” Then the Captain stripped down, opened it up, and took a bath in their only potable water source.
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| https://www.armyproperty.com/Equipment-Info/Pictures/Water-Buffalo.jpg |
The troops learned a valuable lesson from all this. They learned they had to fend for themselves. They learned to abandon their posts and drive into town to buy food and water. But most of all, they learned that their leaders were both incompetent and uncaring. Nobody cared if they lived or died. Not even once. In three years.
I did Army Guard AT at Irwin in '84-'85. We lacked for nothing, except for it being hotter than Hades, it was great duty. We were tank support, so we hung out with regular Army. They LOVED us, because we were all older veterans and knew everything and wanted to be there.
ReplyDeleteMy, how the once competent have turned into shit.
Keep stockpiling yer emergency stores of dehydrated H2O, we're gonna need it!
The OPFOR at Ft. Irwin were apparently well led and well supplied. There were most likely plenty of supplies for the visiting team, they just didn't distribute them to the troops in the field. Because they never practiced supplying their own troops at home. They couldn't (wouldn't?) deliver the mail or feed the troops in the barracks, for crying out loud.
DeletePeople like that don't deserve to lead a tee-ball team.
ReplyDeleteSome "leaders" apparently are asking for a fragging .
ReplyDeleteSince I've spent over two decades using Water Buffalos in the field, I am wary of this story.
ReplyDeleteWith respect I suggest the story about bathing inside the water buffalo is fabricated. No way a human larger than a ballerina can get inside the buffalo to "Bathe". That solders died in the NTC from dehydration and heat stroke because they didn't get water is also suspect.
Why? Well in the above story they were going to TOWN to get supplies and thus had cell phone access to call home and so on.
Lawyers would LOVE army abuse stories. big payouts.
Soldiers may not sue the Army for any reason.
DeleteNewer water buffaloes have a very different design with larger hatches. I just don't have a picture of them handy. This is what we had 20 years ago.
There is no cell service out in the desert.
Some troops are so disciplined, and will stay in place because they were ordered to, even unto death. Heatstroke and dehydration can come on remarkably quickly, and don't foster good thinking.