Why should I care about Field Hygiene and Sanitation? – Part One, by LiquoredRabbit

Fun Fact:

During the Canal Clearance Operation in Egypt in 1975. Eighty percent of the US Navy personnel deployed to Egypt in support of clearance operations suffered diarrhea and dysentery from eating in poorly maintained food service facilities.

Upfront honest disclaimer. There’s NOTHING glamorous about field hygiene and sanitation. It will never match executing that perfect “V” ambush or giving an IV on the first stick. No one is writing any movies or action films based on the responsibilities entailed because that would just be… shitty. Yes, I see the pun and I’ll try to keep them to a minimum for your own sake. Although field sanitation is not “cool” it is imperative to prevent the spread of pathogens and diseases that would otherwise cripple someone where medicine is readily available but could become fatal to an individual without the proper treatment.

Remember no one is doing any “cool” stuff if they are permanently bonded to a toilet.

So, what is field hygiene and sanitation?

Field hygiene and sanitation is a form of preventative medicine whose main goal is to prevent the spread of pathogens and illness. This is a very broad and multidisciplinary field of study that includes sanitary food, water services, pest control, waste disposal, and generalized personal health and hygiene. Within a guerrilla camp, we recognize that each able-bodied person is extremely valuable, and this practice is essential for the health and well-being of everyone. By using field hygiene and sanitation as a disease management strategy, you not only bolster the health within any size group, from one person to hundreds; but also, do not waste vital resources on preventable illnesses. It is also important that one person can’t do all of this, you might be lucky enough to have someone who takes on the larger responsibilities involved, but we’ll go over that position in a later article. Each group member still needs to have a level of responsibility for their hygiene and sanitation, if individuals choose to not use the facilities properly, or maybe they aren’t using them at all, it does no good for anyone. Without proper sanitation, health problems within your camp can compound quickly.

Let’s discuss a hypothetical, we will call him John Doe. So, John just did a whole bunch of tactical training today, such as where and how to employ an L-shaped ambush.  His rifle is well-maintained, and his gear is nice and taped up.  John really has his shit together, and all the guys like and respect him. As he is headed back to camp, he realizes nature is calling so he heads over to the trench latrine that was dug a couple of days ago. He takes care of his business, and as he’s getting ready to leave, he hears commotion about dinner being served.  Hungry from all the hard work going up and down the hills, he rushes to get some hot food.  Quickly zipping his little man away, he ignores the pile of fill dirt he was told to use.  It probably isn’t that important anyways, right? It is not like there were too many flies around. He arrives at the line for dinner, but the hand washing station is out of water again.  Luckily all he has been touching is his oily rifle and the fine mountain soil and hell, it’s only a little dirt and dirt won’t hurt.  He curses under his breath that some lazy jerk didn’t refill the station, but once he grabs a plate of hot food and sits down to eat that is all forgotten. The food and drink are amazing as always, and the night runs late with great conversation and friends before his bed beckons him. Maybe it was dinner or maybe it was the beverages passed around, but his bladder is full again. The latrine is so far away though, so he decides to use a bush that was close by instead. Other members walk by John and realize it must not be a big deal to worry about where people pee. Hell, if squared away John is peeing on the bushes it’s probably fine for them to do as well.  So, they use other areas around the camp to relieve themselves rather than the latrine.

A couple of days later John is not feeling so good, dare I say he was just feeling… shitty.  Nauseated, he had to visit the latrine multiple times in the past couple of hours alone.  The flies taunt him with each visit now, and his body aches as they land on him.  Annoyed, he swats at the flies as he passes the fill dirt pile again too tired to cover his mess.  He decides to go see the one medic who tells him that he probably has the flu. With some limited drugs in hand, he heads back to his tent to rest. John is unable to do any of his daily tasks so others in the camp had to pick up the slack for him. After a fitful night in his bed, John doesn’t feel any better.

Knowing he isn’t doing well he heads back to the medic, only to be stopped by a line of other sick people.  The crowd outside the medics’ tent are carrying buckets and the miserable expression on John’s face now matches everyone else’s. A sickly smell lingers in the air, but John can’t smell it because he has the same odor hanging around him. Little does the medic know that he is currently treating an E-coli outbreak which requires lab testing to diagnose and that there are no cures for the infection beyond time. The only thing that’s going to help these people are a lot of fluids and rest.  In a perfect world, the medic would probably put some of these guys on an IV, but those are reserved for the wounded.  The medic continues to hand out more medical resources to help deal with the blossoming flu symptoms.  As he does this, he notes his stockpile shrinking rapidly, which was already limited to begin with.

On John’s way back to his tent he realizes that he seems to not be able to escape the smell of urine as he walks through the camp.  Normally he would have been appalled by the smell, but now his only concern is rest and feeling better.  Looking around he noticed that many of the people he usually sees working are absent.  It was as if the camp, teaming with life only a few days ago had become a shadow of itself.  His view of the once amazing camp would only be broken by someone running to the latrine. There was no dinner that night at camp, because the cooks were sick. John wonders how this happened, not recognizing that his laziness screwed over the camp. By him choosing not to use the facilities properly and setting a bad example to others not to use them. He couldn’t even be bothered to wash his damn hands.

Did John make it, or did he just become another Doe?  Did his group have enough supplies, or was the medic only trained in trauma overwhelmed?

I hope that this brings some light to how things can spiral out of control when sanitation practices are neglected. I feel strongly that field hygiene and sanitation are incredibly important topics to know about for any Patriot. I also recognize that there is a lack of information, and that it is not being discussed that much between us. My plan is to change that by using my experience within this field to help those who are interested in preventative measures in medicine beyond just trauma. Due to the size and how diverse this field of study is, the information will be broken up into multiple articles focusing on many of the resources and practices that make up field hygiene and sanitation as well as detailed information on some of the diseases and other illnesses that may be found in a field environment.

Citation:

Preventive medicine services FM4-02.17

Headquarters, Dept. of the Army – 2000