Water canteens

[39mto39g]

I would carry two canteens, and a small brown bottle of water purification tablets, Add 2 to a canteen, shake well and wait 15 min.
The worst water we would get was when they would drop a bladder to us. One of those 50 or 100 gal round black rubber things. the water always tasted like garden hose water. I still can't drink out of a garden hose because of those bladders.


Ron

[colmurph]

We used to get air-drops in Free-Fall Bags. They were about 6 feet long and about 6" across, red plastic bags with about 10 plys of material so that when it hit the ground at least one bag would not burst. The C&C chopper would fly over our position around 4 pm every day and kick out around 10 of these things. The total would be about 40 gallons of water to spread around the company. Damn things looked like big hotdogs on the way down.

[DMZ-LT]

Seems to me I carried two plastic canteens for a long time , then I got a two quart plastic one that was to thin and got holes in it easy.Prior in Germany I had a metal canteen. I still have one I take hunting , gotta love that metal canteen cup , shave , drink and eat out of it all in one day. Bet they are all plastic now

[exlrrp]

They dropped water to you in bladders?? Wow, thats a new one for me. Only water I saw coming down from the skies was rain and plenty of that too. Maybe the 101st didn't have them, I don't ever remember them bringing us water in the field. They never resupplied us in the lrrps
We carried 4 or 5 plastic canteens in the 101st and also in the lrrps. We'd fill up as needed and I don't ever remember being all that far away from some kind of water--well or creeks or something. I remember water patrols with guys going down for water with 20 canteens on a strap, looked kinda like a stalk of bananas.
We'd put Koolaid in the water to take away the taste of the purification tablets (not in the lrrps)

James

[Bill Farnie]

Like James I don?t remember getting re-supplied water in the field while I was with the 101st.
There were plenty of water sources in our AO. Lucky I guess?
Carried four canteens. Two on the web gear in the OD canteen pouches and two in the big side pockets on the ruck. They were plastic although the one cup I had was metal.
Used the purification tablets even if the water looked crystal clear.

[39mto39g]

We would get supplied with water just like c-rations, Most of the time it would come in 5 gal cans, looked like gas cans only had a white linning inside.

Ron

[frisco-kid]

Don't recall ever being resupplied with water. I carried 4 canteens and would refill them as often as possible; stream, waterfall, well in a ville, whatever. Like James said, we'd have water-gathering patrols. We had the purification tablets......most of the time.

Had a guy in my platoon that would NEVER use the tablets. He wanted to get sick enough to be sent to the rear or, better yet, home. He finally did get sent home, but not that way. He had one of the cheeks of his ass blown off by a B-40. EEEYOUCH!

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by frisco-kid He had one of the cheeks of his ass blown off by a B-40. EEEYOUCH!

HAR!!
Thought you were going to say he had one ofthe cheeks of his ass blown off from shittting after drinking the water!! That was what you got from drinking the water: the high explosive shits and numerous times a day too.
That purification stuff might have been placebo, don't forget it was supplied by the lowest bidder too, like everything else.
James

[exlrrp]

It occurred to me that at the time I was in the 101st (May--Oct67) it was the monsoon season. Lack of water wasn't the problem, staying dry was the problem, or at least the problem right after, of course, (A) Staying Alive. Creeks and springs were swollen most of the time, 2 men in my company drowned trying to cross a river in Tam Ky.
You were up in the central Highlands where it was more mountainous and drier. They would have had to resupply you up on those big hills. I sdaw it was that way when I left the 101st and went to Pleiku, BMT, etc. Drier, more forest.
Its intersting that 3 people share the same experience of the 101st not bringing out water and thats over a 3 year span of many places in 3 different units. If they didn't send out water think how cheesy they were with the good stuff.

James