Posted on 08/28/2019 12:56:51 PM PDT by robowombat
US Troops Deprived of Hot Meals, In-Door Toilets as They Train for Possible Conflict With Russia, China 22:02 28.08.2019
Tim Korso
In its latest defence strategy guidelines, Washington outlined Russia and China as two possible adversaries in a real-life conflict and has since been conducting numerous military drills in a bid to prepare for a possible war. US Air Force crewmen were forced to live and train under unusually harsh conditions during their stay at Poland's Powidz Air Base, being cut off from running water, hot meals, and indoor toilets, the media outlet Defence News reported, citing US Colonel Donn Yates, the commander of the 4th Fighter Wing.
Such conditions were imposed on them deliberately, as Yates sought to provide his soldiers with "field"-like experience. According to the media outlet, such "Spartan conditions" are used to prepare soldiers for operations in conflicts with a "near-peer adversary" like Russia or China.
"The more it sucks out here and youre eating MREs [Meals Ready-to-Eat] and youre pooping out in the Porta-John the higher the morale is. We had people out in Poland sleeping in hammocks and stuff, not because we had to but because I wanted them to feel what it is like to live in the field", Yates said.
The crewmen were also trained in resolving everyday problems, such as maintenance and repairing damaged jets, forcing them to be creative. Namely, members of the 4th Fighter Wing had to cut their request for F-15 spare parts in half after finding several solutions to optimise repairs.
The latest US National Defence Strategy, adopted last year, named China and Russia as the two most probable adversaries with whom Washington could fight a war in the future. The White House specifically exploited the idea of potential "Russian aggression" to boost its military presence and conduct regular drills in Europe.
Moscow, in turn, has repeatedly called on Washington to instead establish constructive dialogue and mend relations, as well as slammed some recent US initiatives, such as its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, as harmful for global stability.
SMH.
24 year Army vet.
The crewmen were also trained in resolving everyday problems, such as maintenance and repairing damaged jets...
All you need is a good set of tools and the right wrench/screwdriver :)
That reminds me i gotta go work on my Cessna in the backyard.
Yawn
They aren’t called shit hole countries for nothing!
I was in the Navy Reserve Seabees. We spent two weeks at 29 Palms, Desert Warfare Training without showers, no hot water, latrines, only cold MRE’s, slept on cots in aluminum roofed hooches with about 1 foot opening all around so the desert creatures could transit the inside without barriers. It’s not a job, it’s an adventure.
That sounds a helluva like basic....
C rats are better than MREs.
C rats are better than MREs.
Then as I read on I saw it was the Air Force. Poor babies had to use a porta-pottie. They had to eat MREs, oh the horror! After the MRE they are lucky they had the porta johns.
When you have to share a tent with someone who has not showered in three days, which is ok because neither have you. When a bath consists of baby wipes to your unmentionable regions, you shave with cold water and get inspected every morning for hygiene. When you think MREs are gourmet food and you throw your uniform away rather then wash it because you know you will never get that smell out of them. Thats field training.
Never had MREs.
Early 80s, 29 Palms, USMC 2nd Bn 7th Marines (2/7) infantry, maneuver war training.
Sleeping in the dirt. Had a gila monster run right into my face one night.
Wasn’t unusual for a Marine to wake up with a rattlesnake sharing body warmth from the cold nights.
Digging a fighting hole and watching scorpions pour out of the their little tunnels in the side walls.
Yep. An adventure.
It just occurred to me that in Poland, they won’t have to suffer being in an alcohol free country as they were in Iraq.
The horror, the horror!
If we were going to be in a location for more than 24 hours, the German forest meister/government required that porta-potties be brought in.
Or a country that literally smells of burning sh*t all day every day.
Wow! Makes me cringe that some idiot with the AF might have helped put out this crap.
I started as an enlisted Marine and ended up as an AF officer.
Learned as a Marine that those conditions were part of daily life for many Marines. In my AF assignments I was mostly buried in an underground launch center or confined in an Airborne command post with limited comforts.
The AF these days needs to get more of this. My father was on a bomber crew in WWII and not based in England. He lived in battlefield conditions in North Africa and on Sardinia as well as on Okinawa near the end of the war.
Nut up AF. You’re going to potentially be deployed under the same conditions as the remote AAF units during WWII.
I’ll have you know my Air Force son takes his hammock with him where ever he goes. It didn’t take but one haul on a cold C-17 for him to learn. Air Force is pampered some what but I know the ground troops love to hear those jets when things are getting tight.
The Koreans didn’t tell the US Army what to do.
Ham and Mothers was my favorite. Always had plenty to eat
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