Field Sanitation. A skill that will save more lives than level 4 plates.
One thing that gets commonly overlooked is hygiene in the field. Talk to any servicemember that spent time in the field and they will tell you a story about someone that failed to take care of themselves and had to be taken care of medically. Whether it be an ingrown toenail, ridiculously large abscess, or some kind of fungal issue. These things happen mostly when people refuse to take care of themselves in a field environment because “it’s the field, man”. While we may be able to swing on by the urgent care and get these issues taken care of but if it happens during a class you could be out quite a bit of money because you missed out on vital instruction. What’s that old saying, “for the want of a nail?”. Just imagine trying to handle any of those things during a grid-down emergency. “Oh but Mech, I’ve put stuff away to handle medical emergencies”, do you really want to burn through your antibiotics because Leroy couldn’t be bothered to cut his toenails properly? As with all types of medicine, preventative is always the best kind.
Field sanitation is something the military has figured out relatively well. They even have a field manual on it. Don’t just download this one, print it out, and place it in a three-ring notebook with page protectors. Make copies of the important parts and laminate them. You will want this easily accessible.
It is indisputable fact that being in a field environment lowers your immune system. Between the decreased sleep, less-than-ideal food choices, higher stress levels, and decreased hygiene all add up to negatively affect your body’s ability to ward off sickness. There are some aspects of this that we can control, the biggest is the hygiene aspect. Simple things like waste disposal (the human variety of waste) and keeping yourself relatively clean can make a huge change in your immune system. Talk to anyone who has spent time in the field and they will tell you how invaluable baby wipes are. Most won’t leave without a few packs of them in their ruck. You can use them for cleaning up after using a latrine, wiping yourself down before you climb into your sleep system, to even basic weapon maintenance.
The skin, feet, and mouth should be your biggest priorities. In that order. Your skin is the largest organ in your body. This includes protecting it from sunburn and scrapes or scratches. Sunburn can severely decrease your effectiveness, just ask anyone who has been burned from a weekend at the beach. Wear sunscreen or utilize clothing to protect your skin from the sun’s rays if you can’t limit exposure. I am not denying the positive benefits of vitamin D, but too much UV exposure can damage your skin. One thing to not forget is your major sweat-producing areas, your armpits, and your groin. Wear moisture-wicking undergarments. And change them daily or every other day. Use some sort of fungal spray if you notice jock itch starting to rear (ha) its ugly head. Castile soap(unscented) will always have a place in my ruck because I can wash myself and my clothing with it. I prefer the bar variety for ease of packing. Scrapes and scratches can cause abscesses or cysts that if left uncared for can lead to sepsis, a life-threatening infection. Cover your skin if you are going to be moving through thick vegetation and treat any scrapes/scratches with soap and water followed by some sort of topical antibiotic cream and a bandage. If no soap is available use hand sanitizer until you can wash the area properly.
Your feet are how you get around and you only get one pair. Take care of them. Wear properly fitted boots and socks. Stay away from cotton. It doesn’t wick moisture. Stick with wool, my preferred type is merino wool. Get different thickness socks for winter and summer. Use foot powder if your feet are sweating a lot. Trench foot is not something you want to temp. Neither are blisters. Always pack extra socks. Change them frequently. Wash your feet with soap and water if a full shower is not possible. Have more than one set of boots so you can change them out occasionally to allow them to breathe. Sprinkle baking soda inside of them to assist with moisture and odor removal. Apply antifungal powder to your feet if you notice or suspect athlete’s foot.
Oral care is extremely important but also very simple. Brush your teeth. At least daily. If you can use toothpaste, do so. But simply using a toothbrush and water is better than nothing at all. Your mouth is 8 finger-widths from your heart. I’ve had a few dentists in class and the consensus was to avoid oral issues rather than try to fix them. There is a reason why dental school is as long as is. Pack some floss sticks as well. Yes, floss can be multi-use, but a floss stick is easier to use when you’re sitting in an lp/op on a multi-day snoop and poop in the woods.
What hygiene tricks have learned over the years? Throw them in the comments.
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GUNS N GEAR
What to add…maybe what type of washcloth. I carry a small and large chamois, light and dries quick. A folding basin or bucket for hauling water.
I use a Norwex brand body scrub mitt while hunting for a week. Keeps the skin clean and scrubs off the filth.
ADD ITEM: pack some ANBESOL or ORAJEL or generic knock offs (Dollar Store) or even clove oil for tooth ache, tooth and gum pain.
You ain’t had pain until you’ve had a molar go bad or bust on you out in the field. Merciless pain 24/7. Like a jackhammer in your jaw.
Best have 10% or 20% Benzocaine to ease pain. Apply with cotton swab tip.
Treat severe pain with equal does of ibuprofen AND acetaminophen (1 + 1 tab, or 2 + 2 tabs) As a kid, Ma would give us a shot of Pa’s rye to slosh around the bum ivory to deaden the pain; we were too poor even to have aspirin, let alone Tylenol.
**NO MEDICAL ADVICE GIVEN HERE: CONSULT WITH YOUR OWN SAWBONES**
https://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/field_sanitation/field-facilities-for-huma.shtml
Will give you more detailed information about safe disposal of human waste as not to create issues like polluting your drinking water and biting flies.
I wish my dog had not had puppies on my actual manuals for field sanitation.
Water is life, disease will harm or kill more of us than weapons fire.
“ also protect your skin or prepare for poison ivy poison sumac etc in field condition this will get on you.”
Get a bottle of Tec-Nu. You can buy it at any Walgreen’s and I’m certain many other places. Apply it if you even think you have been exposed to ivy, sumac, etc.
Speaking from personal experience, anytime I have had exposure to poison ivy and not applied it, I have needed steroid injections to get rid of it.
An old Master Sergeant once told me, “Taking care of your feet is one of the few things you can do to make your life better in the Army.”
Yup.
Something I did when training for a selection course was soak my feet for an hour in rubbing alcohol to toughen them and harden the skin. I’d finish that by rubbing them in Vaseline for another hour. Saves you from extreme blistering that would shut a lot of guys down.
man i seen some bad blisters from Dudes not taking foot care serious after rucks purple feet looking like a plum guys getting sent off base to civ dr for repair. shit cause they were too cheap to buy their own boot insoles better than what was in issued boots.
i still have discolored toenails and messed up skin athletes foot etc from wearing boots 24/7 in hot environment sweating. that foot care i still deal with now
oh and gents if you have bad foot fungus and athletes foot. put your socks on first. that fungus and such can transfer from your feet to your junk = jock itch.
tinactin type powder spray or gels help for foot issues and or ringworm.
foot care is huge use insoles air dry ur boots. i used gold bond type powder kill smell and absorb moisture
clean skin is key look out for skins infections such as pylonodial cysts. mrsa. cellulitis and a bunch of other wierd shit u never heard of until being in field or training conditions go ahead and google pylinoidal cyst however its spelled. it is like a cyst over the tail bone usually starts as an ingrown hair and less than clean conditions quickly turns into a puss filled infection usually requiring expression or excision and course of antibiotics in some cases they get so bad it require major surgeries to remove infection! it happens a lot to recruits at Parris Island. kids will have a dirty itchy swamp ass and a week or two later they are in med platoon. so that is also a subjectto consider.
keeping your hair clean is key. lice and such can spread quick.
think about body and hair lice
scabies etc when dealing with people outside your group in a shtf time people will be carrying disease and lice stock up on premethrin bottles. lice wash and so on
also protect your skin or prepare for poison ivy poison sumac etc in field condition this will get on you. ask me how i know. takes washes gels and sometimes cortisteroids to clear that up and it can spread quickly.
baby wipes hand sanitizer is good to store
i had baby wipes in my pack cargo pocket and anywhere else i could think of on deployment
proper disposal of waste. some dudes will piss in gatorade bottles and leave it in their post. b hut camp etc. no beuno piss and foul smells bring flies.
trash disposal due to vermin is important rodents bring lice ticks and fleas. police call your trash and food waste
pack vitamin tablets disolving or powder like emergenc that helps also cough drops etc in case its night and quiet is needed keep from coughing
i would also add visine or eye drops for those with contacts to keep those peeper lubricated
pink eye due to poor hygiene can be a major issue and requires eye drop antibiotics to clear up. stock them too if u can but that is not an otc item.
get them class four non deployable yuk mouths fixed now while you can. you dont want tooth infections root canals needed etc because you didnt correct a failed filling or get one on a small cavity fixed when you could. tooth issues can be exacerbated in field conditions.
just some ideas
If you are having problems with foot fungus, infections, etc you can soak your feet in a solution of water and a little bit of bleach for 20 minutes once a week. Don’t go too heavy on the bleach, you’ll get chemical burns, but it’ll clear up just about any kind of infection or fungus over a period of time.
And it definitely isn’t doctor recommended, but a light dusting of Sevin dust will keep most external parasites away. It keeps for a long time, and it’s cheap. It’s also pretty safe as far as pesticides go, as long as you aren’t eating it or snorting it.
For Permethrin, Synergized De-Lice is a good, cheap source, it can be had for around $25-$30 a gallon
WWES
That bleach soak is sound gouge. It’s effective for killing and drying many skin troubles.
My middle sons had bad eczema when they were little. Of course being boys they were constantly getting dirty which led to infection. We took them to a dermatologist who suggested bleach in their bath and a good scrubbing twice a week. Follow up with a good moisturizer. Worked like a charm. It’s still our go-to for mild skin infection.
Powdered sulfur works well for parasites too. Available at most drug stores in one pound tins. My first platoon sergeant suggested it and used it himself. We still use it. Will try Sevin as we have it around anyway. Sevin is good stuff and pretty safe. Washes off easily too.
-Jon
Yep, bleach is a wonderful thing to have around for a lot of ailments. I had never thought of using sulfur, for parasites. I know it works for a lot of garden pests, and you can buy powdered sulfur at the farm and garden store as well.
The sevin shouldn’t be harmful, but like everything else, use at your own risk lol I haven’t used it personally, but know folks who have. I did used to dust dogs and livestock down to keep fleas and ticks off, and it always worked well. My grandparents showed me that trick, they had done it for many years- I just wasn’t allowed to pet the dogs for a few days when they had been dusted when I was a little boy. When I was learning about different pesticides in school, my teacher told us that you could come in from the garden for lunch and dust your sandwich with sevin without any harm, although I never did feel like putting that theory into practice.
For camping and deployments, I learned to keep at least 10 full size papers towels in a ziplock bag in one cargo picket to use as tp. If it gets wet somehow you can dry it out and its still useful, whereas tp just turns to mush.
For blisters, tincture of benzoin, both inside and out. It will make you a man my son. Another SOP from the old days was you carried a bar of unscented Ivory soap. You could wash your body, your hair and your clothes with it. And then the good old whore bath with half a canteen cup of water and your dew rag. Face, feet, pits and crotch every day no matter what. Then wash your rag out, shave with the water that’s left, rinse it out and make your coffee.
Remember this. You only have to brush AND floss the teeth you want to keep. Toothpaste not necessary.
This past spring, had a nasty bout of weeping leg wounds that would not heal without hyperbaric oxygen tank therapy. Two hours a day, five days a wek and still took nearly two months. This was part of the regimen, a weekly debridement, powerful antibiotics and leg wrappings with gaue,
The cause – bite from a kitty cat. No joke, a playful nip in my calf and me blowing it off landed myself in this predicament. Animal bite can introduce germs under the skin. Clean those bites and not a bad idea to go to a leg wound specialist to stop it before it gets out of hand.
Lots of good advice on this topic. One thing that I can add is on the issue of poison ivy, oak and sumac. As a youngster and growing up in the northeast, playing in the woods, I had it constantly. I would have to get shots for it at times. I owned a tree removal/logging business for over 25 years and the best product that I found to keep me from ever having anything more than a little spot here and the was a laundry soap called Fels-Naphtha. Soap up a wash cloth and scrub down. I would do it twice from head to toes just to be sure. I suggest shopping around for it. I’ve seen it on store shelves for between 1-8 dollars. I’d buy a dozen bars at a time so that I always was sure to have it.
I had to learn this lesson the hard way. Got a gnarly foot fungus that made any sort of footwear almost unbearable. Even socks. Even barefoot was pretty awful for about a week before the burn and itch went away. Then the cracked skin underneath my pinky toe…the worst. I was useless. I couldn’t focus on anything but my stupid feet. Extra socks and foot powder.
I got stuck in a giant dust twister once and didn’t have goggles and no eye drops for miles. Also made me a total liability to the team.
Ate some nasty gas station food on the way to a TDY to train up some Virginia Beach bros. Thank God for Imodium.
Take care of yourself so your teammates don’t have to.
On foot care, wearing a thin liner sock inside your regular wool socks helps prevent hot spots, blisters, wear and tear when on those long trekking expeditions.
Living in austere conditions for many years now, I’ve run into a good portion of the issues already addressed. Much wisdom here for those who have not lived it, and for those who have. When the comforts and convenience of modern life are no more, uninitiated persons will experience a new set of health issues already covered here in the comments. Take notes and get the items mentioned to be apart of your med and hygiene kit. It is cheap insurance to what will be a very serious problem later.
Antibiotics were also mentioned, but I could expand on that. I have much personal experience with antibiotics over the decades. Get some. Having a background in biological sciences as I have is useful, but with this book anyone can successfully use antibiotics: Dr. Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Diseases. It is written intentionally at the 5th grade level. It was super smart to make it stupid simple, so simple I was able to blaze through it in less than a day. But you do not have to read the whole thing. Simply find out what antibiotics it recommends and where it tell us to buy them without a prescription, and if an infection happens, you’ll be able to handle it, if not complete, in part. Even if we cannot stop an infection entirely, the antibiotic used will likely slow the infection down and buy time to get to a doctor or dentist who can do better. Fortunately the book will guild anyone on how to diagnosis many common infections, and how to use several different kinds of antibiotics for that particular infection. If you do not have one type, it provides the directions for another type. However, it is best to have the widest selection of different antibiotics on hand as possible.
I have not had my coffee yet, but will say, even if you screw up the protocol, or the first choice was not effective, and have to use one or more different courses of antibiotics, you will likely be successful. There are antibiotic resistant bugs out there and veterinarian grade antibiotics are the older generation that might not be as effective. Early diagnosis and treatment greatly increases the odd of success. Antibiotics are the single most powerful tool that can be in the average persons hands. Even if I am not a medic or anything else, and I am certainly not a medical professional, this book and all the free videos Dr. Alton provides, can save lives. We are more likely to catch a bug than a bullet, yet if we do catch a bullet, you might survive if there were antibiotics to help. They will be worth their wieght or more, than if they were gold. Gold or lead, where there is no doctor, will not save lives.
Fortunately I was able to stock up years ago at very low prices, while in recent years, prices have doubled or tripled. There will never by a better time to stock up and round out your preps. Dry chemical compounds will store for decades in a dry cool, and dark place. Do not freeze and otherwise store antibiotics correctly, and they will retain 90 percent of the potency for many decades. Do not throw anything out. Here is my short list for those on a very tight budget.
If really broke and can only afford one bottle of anything, amoxicillin, but buy only one big bottle, and go for a different type to broaden the options. Next would be Doxycycline. It is expensive, but it can handle Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that many antibiotics available as veterinarian antibiotics can not handle, and it is broad spectrum antibiotic. It is good for many of the common infections we are likely to experience, and that Amoxicillin can not. Without further a’de and elaboration, as we have an outstanding video that goes far beyond my ability: 3. Metronidazole (Flaygl), 4.Azithromycin (Z-pack), 5.Sulfamethoxazole-Trimethoprim (bactrim)(also good for MRSA), 6. Clindamycin (good also for MRSA). Ideally I would have at least one adult course, and then a spare, or addition course of all of these. Then I would attempt to acquire one course of all these per adult person in the group, or at minimum, 3 courses of all of these, before I expanded the list to include other antibiotics.
I’ll stop here and not bore you more, because the Dr. Alton has the real scoop on this stuff:
My Top Antibiotics to Store for Preparedness, by Dr. Joseph Alton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIWM-6oY2c
One time while out in the field, being put in a location
for an extended period of time, we dug out a large pit
and put an about 3 inch diameter PVC Pipe at around
a 45 degree angle about halfway down into the pit and
let above ground at around average weiner level,
filled with rocks and topped off with sand/soil. Turned out
to be a pretty good urination pit/hole.
MechMedic
Great post and timely as we move into winter. Folks don’t want to stay clean when it’s cold. Always good to remind everyone of proper practice.
The doctrine on field sanitation is excellent if followed. Once upon a time field sanitation was an extra duty for me. PITA To get youngsters to use piss tubes and wash their paws before eating. Thanks for posting a link. Foot checks were a common thing back in the day for all the reasons you suspect.
Field sanitation is PMCS of the most important weapon system. Folks ought to treat it that way.
If you can pack / carry it: baking soda. Great for washing feet or whatever if no soap is available. Makes a great alternative toothpaste. Apply directly to a canker sore in the mouth–stings, but it helps. 1001 other uses. Cheap. Keep the boxes in a zip loc.
Thank you for the article. Very good information. The comments were also very beneficial.
Ticks. Were never more than an itchy annoyance until I got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever some years back. It can leave you completely useless for a long time and can be fatal. Antibiotics and time is all you can do.
More PPE than hygeine but protect your eyes. Especially in brush at night. Poison ivy in eyes from wiping sweat with contaminated gloves or skin is also no fun.
*I am not a trained medical professional, only a parent of 4 with a decent background in the natural sciences*
Activated carbon. Any kind of food poisoning will put you out of action. If fresh water is scarce, a nasty case of the runs _will_ kill you. “Terminal diarrhea.” Can you imagine that on your tombstone, assuming you have the privilege of a tombstone? We have the powder form at home, but carry the pill form when we travel. Justly slurry 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon with water and knock that blackened water back. Hold it down as long as you can… even if you toss it back up, it will help by binding the toxins that are making you puke, and carry them back out. It’s super light and does not take up much space. It even seems to help with “nerves” puking… worked wonders with my 10 y.o. son during Trail Life camping trips. He’d run himself ragged and then wake up at 10:30 puking in the tent. Started giving him one pill before bed and he’d be fine.
Repeat every 2-4 hours, not more than 1 and 1/2 teaspoon a day. And don’t take any other medication for at least 2 hours (perter to wait 4) after or before you take carbon. It will bind up the medication.
Bactine and bandaids; treat every little break in your skin and keep it protected until you are healed.
Endorse baby wipes, Fels-Naptha and baking soda through use and experience. Also have used Castile soap on me and my eating/cooking utensils