I went 35 days without a shower, mail, dip, 1 MRE a day, and only *** water out of the Buffalo when we invaded back in 03. As a unit, we ran out of smokes after a week. Had to smoke haji sticks. Hot water never felt so good when that first field shower got setup. There was sand in places I didn’t know existed.
Lol. No smokes, no dip? I’m surprised you didn’t turn on each other. Yeah, I think your story trumps mine.
There were a couple of things that make my story a little closer though. The reason I had no heater was because I was in an M577, and the truck driver who brought it to us damaged the vehicle into ways. First, he scraped the top of the M577 on an overpass. He damaged my generator and scraped all the gas cans off the top of the vehicle along with all the antenna bases. Then he didn’t properly warm up the vehicle before he pulled it off the trailer. I wasn’t there, but I was told he jammed on the accelerator and broke the quill shaft. A tow tank pulled it about 3000 feet more in elevation to our location. On the in 577 you attached the tent to the back, lower the ramp, and sleep underneath the tent. Usually I would’ve left the tent attached to the back as it traveled to our location, but for some reason I took the tent down and put it inside the vehicle or we would not even have had that. But that’s why I had no heat.
When we pulled guard duty, they sent us out four at a time. Only one person stood outside a little GP small tent at a time. Inside the tent was a little Coleman stove. If you remember those little stoves, the tank connected to the front of the base and the fuel tube ran across the right side burner. When the fuel ran out I grab the tank and took it out with my bare hands to refuel it. As I pull the tank through the flaps of the tent the tank knocked out of my hand. I was on the outside of the tent already and just reach down to grab the tank. When I did I grabbed the fuel tube that seconds ago was running across the flame. I blistered most of my hand. It was 21 below and I couldn’t wear my glove. I think I was an E-3 at that time and I was the driver. The M577 head lateral steer‘s. I couldn’t grab the lateral with my right hand. I just drove it with my wrist. We warmed up the driver compartment by taking the engine compartment panel off to my right. Even at 21 below it would get pretty warm in there. But it made my blistered hand feel like it was on fire. So I would stick my hand out in the cold until the vehicle started to turn into the ditch. Then I would reach back down and correct it and stick my hand back out in the wind again.
Then there was the shower. After about two weeks we were driven down in a 2 1/2 to a small village at night. It was snowing heavily. We pulled up to a building. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe a school. Outside the building was a water tank that had what looked like a three inch pipe running into the building just below the roof. We walk into the building into what looked like a team dressing room. We walk into the open shower room. No shower heads. Just continuously running water through pipes. That’s how they kept the pipes from freezing. But the water froze in place on the floor and the walls because the building wasn’t heated. Coldest and fastest shower I ever had.
All that was on the same maneuvers.
