Some GIs Forced To Steal Water In Iraq

(CBS)  Stories of short supplies for American forces in Iraq, such as inadequate body armor or unshielded Hummers, have been around since the war began. CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston has discovered that some soldiers were forced to ration water, perhaps as little as 2-3 liters per day, because there was never enough.

It is less than the one gallon minimum a day that an Army manual says is necessary just to survive in a desert environment. In fact, an Army training document on preventing heat casualties states that water losses in the desert can reach 15 liters (about four gallons) a day per soldier.

Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey told KHOU correspondent Jeremy Rogalski that soldiers would throw up or pass out from dehydration.

Chronic dehydration can lead to such problems as kidney stones, urinary infection, rectal afflictions and skin problems, and can have long-term health problems, including kidney injury.

Robey said in 2003 his company would run out of water on missions, forcing them to improvise, like drinking water from whatever taps they found.

Unfortunately, the often-untreated Iraqi water can cause intestinal illnesses. Robey said 50 to 60 members of his company got dysentery.

Desperate, Robey said he and his commander were reduced to stealing water from supplies stored at Baghdad International Airport.

They found plenty, in the hands of civilian contractors who Robey claims were supposed to be distributing it to soldiers.

"You just had pallets upon pallets upon pallets of (bottled) water," Robey said.

According to Private Bryan Hannah, in 2007 his lieutenant said that they didn't have enough water and he was told, "Go find some."

Hannah and his fellow soldiers did just that, finding it once again at a civilian contractor facility.

While many soldiers have said they had adequate access to water, and even Gatorade, KHOU found that the differing experiences seemed to have a great deal to do with when and where a soldier was deployed in Iraq, and their assignment.

In 2008 at Camp Taji, Sgt. Casey J. Porter videotaped the water - yellow and filthy - that came out of pipes in the soldier's showers and bathroom sinks. Yet the camp itself looked more like a mall, fitted with franchises and shops, than a war zone.

"You can eat Subway, Burger King, you can buy a $1,200 Oakley watch, but you can't have clean water to brush your teeth with? What's the real priority here?" Sgt. Porter told KHOU.

The water was supposed to be processed by Houston-based company KBR.

KHOU's Rogalski says that an internal KBR report reveals "massive programmatic issues" with water for personal hygiene at its Iraq facilities dating back to 2005, and outlines how there was no formalized training for anyone involved with water operations.

Former KBR employee and whistleblower Ben Carter told KHOU that he discovered that soldiers' sinks at Camp Ar Ramadi were pouring out untreated wastewater. He described showers as "essentially a sauna of microorganisms. Your eyes, ears, anyplace there's a cut, a person would be at risk of containing a pathogen," Carter said.

Carter says he received a verbal lashing from KBR supervisors when he raised his concerns.

KHOU obtained a statement from the Multi-National Force in Iraq press office which read, "We have a proven system that works. Commanders at all levels do their utmost to provide the necessary resources required to sustain the force."

KBR told KHOU that a Department of Defense Inspector General's report has concluded "KBR has (since) satisfied applicable water standards," adding that "the DoD has not found any illness which it attributes to water in Iraq."

Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey disagrees. He says he's passed hundreds of kidney stones since returning form Iraq, and because of his condition the Army forced him to retire. His family is now facing foreclosure.


For more on this story you can watch the KHOU video report by clicking here, or read the complete article on the KHOU Web site.

[beentheir1]

If anybody thinks that this story is true, then let me tell you about their not being any MRE's in Iraq. If the military has MRE's, they have water. When I was there in 03 05, and 08, I had at times work detaits to pick up and dump truck loads of bottle water. Their is enought bottle on the ground at this verry moment in Iraq, not to float a battle ship, but to sink one. This story is a lie, it was written by someone that had smoke blown up his skirt. This person needs to show his facts to the Maror Cell on Site, this is a Camp fuction, this is something that would hit command, this is something that would get people fired, civilian and military. Plus what about all of the guests that always show up at these camps, Dallas Cheerleaders, Bands, Senators, What a JOKE of A STORY!!!!
CBS This Is About The Damest Story You Have Given!!!

[barbaram99]

i hate war. Bring them home where they belong. we know bush sent them over there. President Obama we put ye in there snd wamt them boys and girld home. They have to steal water. Get the money from bush as he sent them.

[naj1953]

Can we get our boys some water?

[democracy1]

I hope the people on here who are posting that this is a bunch of nonsense actually DO something to "Support the Troops" besides just having a yellow ribbon on the back of their gas-guzzler.

Even though I have always been against this war of choice, I make every attempt to write to my representatives in the Senate and House to demand that we give our young men and women serving overseas the best treatment.

We have seen issues with:
-soldiers not being paid on time, sometimes for absurd periods of time
-denial of medical and/or mental health treatment or shoddy treatment
-repeated tours to a level that is abusive
-etc.

This has been going on for years. And I don't give a hoot where you stand politically, but it is shameful to any American that we treat our military personnel in such an uncaring fashion.

[KiskaIsland]

In reply to luilun

These problems existed before Obama, your outrage needs to be focused somewhere else, Hint shrub.

Robey said in 2003 his company would run out of water on missions, forcing them to improvise, like drinking water from whatever taps they found.

According to Private Bryan Hannah, in 2007 his lieutenant said that they didn?t have enough water and he was told, "Go find some."

In 2008 at Camp Taji, Sgt. Casey J. Porter videotaped the water - yellow and filthy - that came out of pipes in the soldier's showers and bathroom sinks

[democracy1]

Obama cutting funds instead of supporting funds for troops he provides Accorn and UAW their funding . Now the troops must drink mudding and coffe that taste like turpintine
Posted by luilun at 1:59 PM : May 14, 2009

Get an education and learn how to spell and use proper English before you expect anyone to take your opinions seriously.

And since Obama's administration wasn't responsible for originally giving the contract to KBR, and this hasn't only occurred since Obama took office, you can't dump it solely on him unless you are willing to blame the previous administration as well (but apparently from your post, you don't).

[p_syrus]

KBR has since its inception been the "low cost government contractor" extraordinaire. It exists solely to rip off the u.s. government and by extension taxpayers. No doubt this figured in Cheney's thinking when he first went to work for them decades ago.

[desertpro]

Gqb11:
It is waste of time trying to expain to that "cough expert". The fact that in every part of the world the local water is fine for those who live their but not usable to outsiders who are not used to the local fauna is lost on them. The world is as it is based on there political view not on reality. I also never saw or heard of any water sortage while in country. Nevertheless, now this ignorant lib will go through life convnced that the evil Americans are making the Iraqi's go thirsty based on his own Imaginative enterpretation of a short article.

[gqb11]

" The Iraqi people don't have pallets of bottled water available whenever they want it. I thought America invaded Iraq to make life better for Iraqis? I don't see the American media running a story about the Iraqi people not having safe water to drink. Why not?

AMERICAN HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"

You've got to be kidding me. I didn't see a single Iraqi suffering from dehydration on any of my deployments. First of all...their immune system is downright amazing because they drink that crazy water from the Tigris and Euphrates and don't croak. Secondly...do you know how much supplies (to include water, food, medical) the IA, IP and local civilians get on a monthly basis? It's like welfare on steroids for God's sake. We give more free stuff to Iraqi's than we do to our own homeless back in the states. You need to quit with this idiotic the sky is falling down mentality and get a reality check.

[paddyhayes]

CptKirk38 claims to work for KBR.

He also claims to have been in 82nd Airborne for 15 years. And he speaks of the "NCO Corp".

"Dammit, Jim!"

It's NCO Corps.

And if you spent more than 4 years in any Division, you must have been doing it in the CCF.

Of the 23 years I was in the Army, the most I ever spent in one Division was four years.

Lying sack of Shyte.