More from: "My Time in Service:"
SHIT, SHOWER, SHAVE. Oh...my.
I was in the Infantry in both Basic and AIT, our Barracks had those same toilets you see in the picture. Then in Germany, and again over in Hawaii in the Quads, we moved up a bit to communal showers...and half a stall between commodes.
So you would be at the sink brushing your teeth, as the stench of guys guts - and the accompanying sounds, blared out behind you.
If you were shy, an introvert, or just overwhelmed...you got over it. Sure some folks tried to poop, or shower, in the middle of the night. But with fifty guys in the Bay...other folks had the same idea.
By week four of Basic Training...you didn't care anymore. You could pee off the back of a moving Deuce and half. And shower at the Half Time of the Super Bowl. You just wanted to be clean.
And if you thought Basic and AIT were bad...well, Permanent Party Duty was another level. For there you has the same side by side commodes, but this time the guys next to you, or maybe all around you - were coming off of benders, hangovers, or spicy foods...and that cacophony of sounds and smells, could drive you to constipation.
Oh, but there is yet another Level. Field Duty. After just five days out in the Field, and showers were a thing of the past. Like Christmas memories of your childhood. You remember, but not really. Cross the ten day mark in the Field, and your clothes are asking you to at least use your tin pot and shave. Or stand on your shelter half, and dump water over your naked bum and get at least your nether regions clean.
And maybe, if you are lucky, somebody from Supply set up a field shower on wooden plates with a 55 gallon drum over your head, and a pull cord. And maybe...warm water. Maybe not.
But wait, there is another level too. One I never experienced...Vietnam.
My brother's Platoon would drive their APC's into a river, turn on the bilge pump and use that as a shower. Another Buddy would land his Huey in a shallow stream, and they would not only shower by dropping buckets of water on each other from the inside of the Huey, but they would clean the Bird herself.
Some guys just waded in deep, checked for leeches, and left their clothes on the bank to dry.
And a month in the field, and your uniform and you are just one large dirty pile.
I remember once, after an extended six week Field Exercise...we came in stinky and muddy. But nobody noticed...until...we got clean. We had all piled our uniforms outside the showers, intending to do a communal wash. But once we were clean...we could then smell our clothes. We just stared at the stench. I swear you could see it. We were dumbfounded to think we had smelled like that. We never noticed because we were all that dirty.
But now, a dozen guys stood looking at a pile of clothes. Standing back a bit so the smell didn't make you cry.
Finally one of the Sergeants said:
"Maybe we should just burn them all."
And we thought about it.
Civilians have no clue.