'Water Dawgs' keep it clean for
thirsty soldiers at Bright Star exercise
Photos and Story by David
Josar, Stars and Stripes
Spc. Sam Smith examines
one of the four filters used to purify water during the Bright Star exercise in Egypt. |
MUBARAK MILITARY CITY, Egypt — People don’t survive in the
desert without water.
Troops are no different.
“If soldiers are out here without water for a week they’d
do anything to get it,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Richards of the 559th
Quartermaster Battalion.
“They’d trade their guns, tanks and bullets for a glass of
water.”
The 559th Quartermaster Battalion has the only active water
purification unit in the Army and is providing roughly 100,000 gallons a day for the U.S.
armed forces taking part in the Bright Star exercise in Egypt.
Although Egyptian troops are drinking directly from the local water
supply, military personnel from other countries aren’t, said 2nd Lt. Jeremy Smith,
officer in charge of the water purification operation in the middle of the desert.
“If you’d drink it, you’d probably get sick,”
Smith said. “The bacteria are not so bad people would die, but you definitely would
get sick.”
He said Egyptians have acquired immunity to the bacteria.
Each of these bags holds 50,000 gallons of purified water, enough to last a
half-day for personnel participating in Bright Star. |
This is the first time U.S. troops have provided purified drinking
water for the military forces in Bright Star, said Lt. Col. Jay Hirata, commander for the
559th Quartermaster Battalion, based at Hunter Army Air Field in Georgia.
Not only did the move save money by eliminating much of the cost of
providing bottled water, he said, but it also provided a test for his troops.
“It let us see how we would do in a real-world situation,”
Hirata said. “This gave us a great test to see if we could crawl, walk and run …
we could have the same mission in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.”
The water is so popular the French Army is providing American troops
about 1,100 pounds of fresh-baked baguettes every day.
“It’s a question of logistics,” French Army spokesman
Capt. Alban des Courtlis said. “We have bread. They have water. We need water.”
Des Courtlis said French soldiers — there are about 1,100 at
Bright Star — begin baking the bread at 2 a.m. everyday. They keep about 1,100 pounds
for themselves.
“Bread is a very important part of morale for the French
soldiers,” he said.
Bright Star, which began Oct. 8, brings together U.S. forces with
military personnel from nine other countries to practice and work together for roughly
five weeks.
Command Sgt. Major Kenneth Richards, left, and Sgt. Dennis Byerly examine some of the
roughly 1.5 miles of pipe that brings in water. |
Begun after the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords, the exercise
is held every two years and continues to grow. This year, more than 50,000 troops,
including 23,000 from the United States, are participating.
The 559th Quartermaster Battalion, which is also responsible for
distributing all the ammunition used by U.S. forces during Bright Star, brought 11
trailer-sized water purification units, called Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units,
that can clean 30,000 gallons of water per hour. About 250 soldiers from the 420-person
unit deployed for the exercise.
When the soldiers arrived, they used about 1.5 miles of pipe to draw
water from the municipal water system in nearby Alexandria. The water is then run through
the ROWPUs, where it goes through four different filters that remove harmful bacteria.
The system also can be used to purify salt water, although Smith said
that requires more maintenance and is more time-consuming.
The purified water then is stored in 50,000-gallon bags that are dug
into the desert. Through a system of pipes and hoses, the water then can be tapped to fill
anything from tanker trucks to individual canteens.
The unit can purify a maximum of about 2 million gallons of water per
day; for Bright Star, they are handling about 100,000 gallons a day.
The 559th is known as the “Water Dogs” — although
Richards insists “dogs” is spelled “dawgs.”
“We’re called that because we never give up on a
mission,” he said.
They’ve deployed in 1993 to Operation Continuing Hope in
Somalia, in 1994 to provide water for Haitian immigrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and also
in 1994 to help the residents of Macon, Ga., after their water system was damaged in a
flood.
This is their fourth Bright Star exercise.
“Water is the lifeblood of the Army,” said Richards, who
has been in the service for 27 years. “Without water, you can’t survive.”
Back to October stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from September, 2001
Stories from August, 2001
Stories from July, 2001
Stories from June, 2001
Stories from May, 2001
Stories from April, 2001
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February,2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home |
