Army decides to honorably discharge canteen
By Carl Heintze
The Army is doing away with the canteen. Jeez, what next? The C ration? For what seems like forever, the canteen has been a part of every infantry soldier's life. In the big war, several wars ago, the canteen was made of aluminum, held a quart of water, fitted into a cup (called, logically, a canteen cup), all of which, in turn, fitted into a small canvas bag with a hook which allowed the entire assemblage to be carried on the hip.
The canteen, et al, was never very comfortable there, as I remember it, but it was handy.
It provided every soldier with a ready supply of presumably potable water, provided he observed water discipline and didn't drink it all in one gulp.
A quart of water was considered an adequate supply of water, except in the tropical battles of World War II when infantry soldiers carried two canteens. One needed more water in the tropics.
The canteen cup was almost as valuable as the canteen. It could be used for brewing coffee, making soup, stews and anything else one could mix in it.
However, the days of the canteen being a soldier's best friend are coming to a close.
The Army has decided to substitute what it calls a "water bladder" for the trusty old canteen. A water bladder apparently is a kind of plastic waterproof bag.
Such water containers, bladders or not, have been around for some time. They are the equipment of choice among backpackers for transporting water. They are light, can be folded flat when empty and have other advantages, none of which come to me at the moment.
Indeed, some water bladders of the civilian type are now carried on the back of the neck with a long plastic pipe draped over the shoulder so one can, more or less, continuously sip water while walking.
With such a device, one is not likely to get dehydrated or even have to sit down to drink for that matter.
I'm not sure if the new Army water bladder is going to be so arranged. But however a soldier carries it, it just won't seem right to me.
And what about the canteen cup? The canteen cup was as valuable a piece of equipment as the canteen itself, almost as valuable as a helmet. Helmets were good for sitting on, for washing in (both clothes and people) and, incidentally, protected one's head from stray shrapnel and bullets.
I have even heard of cases in which either the canteen and/or the canteen cup deflected bullets and shrapnel--something they never were intended to do. You can't do that with a water bladder.
Well, I guess one has to be resigned to change in the military, just as in civilian life, even if it comes only slowly.
A prime example of such change is the pup tent, known to the Army as the shelter half.
Every infantry soldier got a half a tent in World War II, plus half a supply of tent pegs and one folding tent pole. He then had to go around in search of another soldier with another shelter half, the other pole the tent needed and the rest of the tent pegs.
The two men then buttoned the two halves together, put one pole in each end of the tent, pegged down the sides and crawled in to seek shelter from the elements (clever, huh?). The Army never revealed to me what one did if one could not find a soldier with another half a tent.
But the most fascinating thing about the shelter half to me was that for all the years between its invention in World War I, and its reintroduction into Army life in World War II, the pup tent was closed only at one end.
The omission of a second flap to make it possible to close the pup tent at either end did not dawn on Army planners until well into World War II.
Then some functionary deep in the Quartermaster Corps suddenly realized the second flap would make it possible to sleep without the rain, wind, sun or whatever coming in the open end of the tent.
The double-ended pup tent was born, and millions of Army troops slept dry for the first time in 25 or more years.
Much the same thing happened to the infamous Army C ration. In the opening days of W.W.II, troops were stuck with three basic C rations: a can of meat and vegetable hash, a can of meat and vegetable stew or a can of meat and beans. Accompanying this was a second "light" can in which "biscuits" so hard they broke teeth were layered along with a couple of pieces of hard candy--and later (horror of horrors) three Raleigh cigarettes (no matches, though), designed to take your voice away after smoking them for a week.
In the middle of the war, the three basic C rations were succeeded by three or four others. I can't remember their content, but they were infinitely better than the World War I rations.
I offer all this information to show how the Army--and presumably the Navy and Marines--are slow to change.
So drain your canteens while you can, soldier. Water bladders are coming, and it's only taken about half a century for them to get here.
Who knows what improvements will dawn with the next millennium.
Carl Heintze is a frequent contributor to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
