More from: "My Time In Service: "
The green plastic canteen. Didn't make noise batting up against your gear. But in Germany - out in the Field... they froze. And if you didn't partially empty them or stuff them in your sleeping bag with your body heat to keep them warm- they split. And so, we learned how to keep them safe. Some folks drank half and just let them sit outside. And some guys, to lazy to get out of their "fart sacks" at night, used them to pee into. And that is where our story begins.
One of the guys used a spare canteen to pee into at night. When we broke camp, he would empty it out, and just throw it back inside his sleeping bag. That way he never got it confused with the two he carried for water. He also had a little duck tape on it...so he never mixed them up.
Well, they had us break camp in the middle of the night, and do a night maneuver. Four hours later, we stopped and set up a perimeter. He goes to set up his sleeping bag, and it smelled like piss. And it was wet as all get out.
Turns out it had split, but was still frozen. So he didn't notice it had burst. Since we were caught off guard by the call to break camp. He just tossed it in without emptying it. Figuring when we stopped again, he could empty it then.
But it got warm enough inside his sleeping bag, inside the track...it thawed.
Well, nobody carried extra sleeping bags. And his was rank smelling...and wet.
So he spent the rest of the night trying to sleep inside an open 81 mm gun track with the top open; squeezed in on a bed of duffel bags.
Miserable.
The next day, the First Sergeant let him go back to Supply and get another sleeping bag. From then on...his nick name was "pee pee." And everyone checked their canteens before going to bed.
There were other odd things put in those poor canteens too: Coffee...once. After that, you couldn't put water in it anymore.
Vodka...you can't really smell it, but once an NCO or Officer found that in your canteen...well, one sip...one stripe.
Chocolate milk. Same result as coffee, but with the added attraction of bugs, and slime mold on the inside.
And we had one guy, who hid his slim Jims - cut in half, and stuffed in his canteen. But slim Jim's do make you thirsty, and he was always borrowing a canteen for a swig.
And I learned a lesson on a Forced March about "Trust but verify" and that lesson was from canteens. But that is a different story.