Are our soldiers only getting one MRE a day and 2 bottles of water?

[juajen]

I have heard and read this several times. Tonight I heard a wounded soldier being interviewed by Aaron Brown state that "I would rather be back in Iraq with my buddies having one MRE a day and two bottles of water, than be here". Why aren't all Americans outraged over this? Where is all the money going if we can't afford to feed and take care of our soldiers?

How much weight are these poor soldiers losing and what could possibly be the status of their health if this is the case? Is there any way to find out definitively? More importantly, what can we do about it? I intend to call our state Senators and my representative tomorrow and ask them to get to the bottom of our starving and dehydrated soldiers. Fifty-one Billion Dollars for the military alone and we are still hearing this? I hope you will join me in demanding from our Congress that they ensure our troops are being properly fed, watered and housed.

[proud patriot]

1. It's 2 liters of water ..And I'm outraged about it

You should of heard me yelling this at the end the occupation
rally yesterday ...I lost my voice ..Still am hoarse

[TheReligiousLeft]

2. And it isn't even Lent!!!

Shoot. We should be feeding our troops better than that. I've at MRE before, they aren't that good, but they are better than starving. One meal a day isn't acceptable.

[Marlie]

3. Plenty of Stories

Not on the media of course - one soldier supposedly lost 40 lbs.
A big guy but that's terrible. The two they interviewed on CNN
this evening sure looked thin.

The Bushies down their tenderloin while our boys live on one meal a
day - almost unbelievable.

[Marlie]

5. Another thought

That soldier who said he preferred to be back eating one meal and
receiving two bottles of water a day - he acted sweet but I think he
knew exactly what he was doing. Sending a message to the folks at
home without necessarily getting into trouble with the military brass.

[LittleApple81]

4. Ted Kennedy referred to the lack of supplies to the soldiers today. n/t

[Mandate My Ass]

6. yeah but Bush gave up sweets

so what are those soldiers complaining about, mussed hair? :eyes:

[Ilsa]

7. I heard a couple of weeks ago that KBR finally got to the end

of the supply route. They were able to start feeding the troops hot meals and set up tents with AC and showers, but that was only two weeks ago.

I don't know if there are still troops out there not getting fed.

My brother told me about a lady who works with him whose Army son just got back, lost 50 pounds (210 to 160).

[pfitz59]

8. Spanish-American War more soldiers died.......

from food-poisoning than combat! I think Halliburton is following that lead!

[oasis]

9. Belly on up to the Crawford Ranch campaign fundraiser barbeque.

Plenty of food and fun to put your "war news blues" on the run.

[leetrisck]

10. I heard him too and I have heard it

reported before but that's the first time I've heard it straight from a soldier's mouth. This is awful - like the one soldier said, most people don't know about the wounded - they just hear on the news that soldiers have been injured. I was very glad that was shown tonight - one of the few I've seen of the wounded - hurts to see it but it should be out there.

[RamboLiberal]

11. Yep it's true - some of them got 2 MRE's

Read an article in The Nation (10/6) issue Cover story that was an eye opener on how the troops felt, how they were housed (not very well), shortage of food and water (their unit was limited to 2 bottles of water a day but could get crappy over-chlorinated water that came from the local swamp from a water buffalo). Naturally the troops were grumpy, scared, pissed at their superiors and took it out on the Iraqis. Mentioned them beating the crap out of a 12 yr. old that pointed a toy gun at them.

I'm not condemning the troops here - they're in a tough situation they were not trained to deal with and they're not being supported.

And not only are they short of food and water, they were also shorted 44,000 Kevlar vests, don't have Kevlar blankets for the Humvees, many units have soft Humvees (no armor), the armor units are short of rifles (they pick up AK-47s to use).

The unit in the article were a Nat Guard unit from Florida stuck with refurbished M-16s of the Vietnam era.

Where the hell is the investigation? And who the hell was controlling the purse strings since 94 for the most part? Repugs better not blame Clinton for this one.

[juajen]

13. How right you are

Sorry, I got hung up on a long thread. I think we should have an investigation about this. I will tell my rep and senators tomorrow how I feel. Hope everybody does. This is unconscionable.

[leanings]

12. I seriously doubt it.

There were some supply problems when combat was going full swing; catching the logistics tail up to the combat units with this incredibly mobile doctrine has been, is and will continue to be a problem. The army is not dependent on KBR for field rations. One MRE a day is emergency rats; I really doubt they're still in those circumstances. I'm sure people are losing weight; it's 120 degrees, most are in an armored vehicle of some sort, wearing 20 pounds of body armor and equipment. You don't feel like eating when you're that hot and you just want to go to bed at night. When I was in Saudi during peacetime I lost 20 pounds in a couple of months, and everyone else I knew did the same.

As far as the two bottles of water, well, it's a luxury. Bottled water never used to be available for troops; they drank out of a water buffalo like they do during training missions in the US and Europe and everywhere else. During GW1, they starting giving out bottled water as a morale booster, and continued to do so in the desert during the 90's. But it's not an entitlement; the Army's equipment table includes water buffs for a reason. There's a lot of disgruntlement among some of the older NCO's about the younger troops getting "soft" in regard to water; the Iraqi civilians sure as hell aren't sipping Evian.

[juajen]

14. So far, we aren't supplying billions and billions of dollars to the Iraqis

We expect a large amount of our money to go to the comfort of the troops. They certainly aren't paying Sadaam rent on all of those castles and warehouses our troops and personnel are occupying. So, where is all the money going? The Pentagon has a huge supply of arms and munitions or at least that's what is part of the Pentagon budget. Oh, stupid me, must be going to Brown and Roothog for supplying all that fried chicken and swimming pools.

I don't expect that any soldier realistically expects more than creature comforts, and not those all the time. However, toilet paper and water and food are necessary to keep soldiers fit to fight. This is stupidity. I want to know now exactly how our soldiers are being treated and what conditions they are living under.

Any explanation as to why they can't receive or send mail?

[leanings]

16. Any explanation as to why they can't receive or send mail?

Link?

[Doug Decker]

15. Could you explain on what you base your assumptions...

when the article clearly states a position in direct opposition to your post?

It's not that I doubt your sincerity, but your post is long on suppositions and short on backup.

You sound as though you were in Iraq.

[leanings]

17. I'm not in Iraq

I got out back in 2000. I spent about two years in Saudi, Kuwait and Turkey, however, and am still in touch with several people who are in the AO right now. Two of those soldiers are in Iraq, and are not facing the kind of conditions described above. Beyond that, I'm generally familiar with the way the military operates, and I don't believe any claim of widespread issuance of one MRE a day for sustenance is credible. Maybe in the early stages, and maybe in isolated incidents where somebody fucks up, but not widespread and sustained.

As far as being short on backup, there's no article cited to begin with. Show me an article stating that US troops are being issued one MRE a day and then we'll talk. The bottled water thing I don't doubt, for reasons explained above.

[juajen]

18. Not an article

Stated by a wounded man just back, who said it on taped segment of Aaron Brown's newsnight last night. As far as the mail is concerned, this came from posts read on forum of Military Families. They are not hearing from their soldiers. Have been told to "be patient".

I had heard on another military forum, can't remember which one, that soldiers who were not at special headquarters, were eating one MRE a day and limited to two two-litres of water for all their needs. This has been widely talked about.

[leanings]

19. Again, I still can't find anything

about this being a systemic failure. I found lots of articles that talked about being down to one MRE a day when supply lines were being interdicted, or in other exceptional circumstances. That's not unimaginable; one MRE a day is considered sufficient in emergencies. Ranger candidates eat one MRE daily for 58 (I think it's 58) days of extremely arduous training. But I don't see anything saying troops are being issued one MRE a day for any extended period. Ask a troop just back what it was like, and if he received one MRE a day for three days during the fighting, he'll most likely say something like the guy quoted in the article. It's an anecdote designed to give weight to a complaint; not to belittle anyone, but the right to gripe is timeless and inalienable for a soldier.

Water buffalos are company level equipment; they go anywhere the troops do. Yes, the water sometimes tastes like ass. Such is life in the Army. Generations of US soldiers have dealt with it. There is a limited amount of transport available, even to the US Army, and many things have priority over better tasting water. Here's a passage from a "lessons learned" AAR written by a 1SG in Afghanistan:

"We outsmarted ourselves on how much water to carry. We took in over 12 qrts per man on our initial insertion, which greatly increased our weight. In the old days you did a three-day mission with 6 qts of water, and that was on FT Campbell in the summer. Granted we were all heat
exhaustion at the end but it's more than doable.
We didn't even think to take iodine tablets until we decided we were going to do a mission, then there were none to be found.

Once you get hooked on the water buffalos and water bottles you lose water discipline. I think one of the worst things we have done is every time we train we have a water buffalo next to us. We made it very easy to drink as much water as we want. Problem is when the buffalo isn't there; all of a sudden we have a water crisis. I watched young soldiers drink all their water (2-3 qts) in half a day then watched everyone panic because were out of water. "We're not out of water they've got 3 qts in there belly." They were probably better off than the people who still have it in the canteens."

http://www.squad-leader.com/romero.htm

I think these issues are just common military problems that arise during circumstances such as these and are coming to light in front of a public with no real mass understanding of what military life entails.