Last week we introduced the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab’s Experimental Forward Operating Base. We had a chance to visit. The experiments as well as the need to find ways to conserve are astounding.
The ExFOB is a full-blown test measuring current Marine Corps bare-bones power and water consumption for a company in Afghanistan, then comparing it to what the commercial sector gear can do to get those numbers down.
Why conserve? It certainly isn’t that the Gun Club has gone tree-hugger; rather the usage and its impact on the deployed forces are staggering.
So much so, we say the U.S. could lose the war on water alone.
Though not widely publicized, there are photos of Marines carrying cases of bottled water for themselves. One can see palette upon palette of water waiting. Clean bottled water for Marines to grab as they need it. They have Camelbaks water bladders but no efficient way to keep them filled. We’re told the bottled water is poured into the Camelbaks. This is a snapshot of a taken-for-granted item that has become a vexing logistic challenge for the U.S. military.
We’re told supply convoys are made up mostly of trucks carrying—you guessed it – water. One Marine said the estimated 60 percent of the trucks in a supply convoy are carrying water. Another fact: Most Marines killed in Afghanistan are driving in these convoys. News flash: Guys schlepping water are dying. (Captured by the heartbreak of Gunga Din a la 2010?)
Aside from water’s human toll, the monetary cost is staggering. Exact figures were not immediately available but we were told a bottle of water in theater could cost more than 10 times what it does here.
Then there are the empties. They are not going into Afghan landfills; we’re told they are shipped back to the United States for disposal. More cost. More trucks.
One ExFOB vendor showed us a table-top water purification system that is currently used by at least one top U.S. company. This system seemed practical for the smallest and most far flung unit in expansive Afghanistan. (The Marines are still in the experimentation phase. They say there are more factors to consider than those observed by the uninitiated visitor.)
In 2008, a deadly encounter between the Army and the Taliban resulted in Silver Stars as well as official Army reprimands. As an aside, it was reported the Army unit was almost incapacitated because of its lack of water. It seems the power of water cannot be underestimated.
