Hello,

I wonder if commercial water (Mozn, Masafi, other) is still being used by US forces in Iraq? I am building a 2006 - now era LAV-C2 and while searching for reference photos I can see hardly any showing the soda boxes.

Is it just a lack of pictures or does the army/usmc use water in jerry cans only?

If there is a commercial water used by military in Iraq, could you let me know which one?

Thanks a lot

Jiri

They still use bottled water for drinking. The 5 gal cans are fine for washing with, but it is much safer to drink the bottled water, there is less chance of contamination. Legend makes a nice stoage set for the M1A1, and it comes with a card of MRE cases and a card of bottled water cases.

Accurate Armour out of Scotland also makes very fine transparent resin water bottles in clear, blue and green. Complete with decal labels, very nice sets.



Bob

It may depend on where you are, but at least for the last year the only bottled water on several fire bases had no box at all. The bottles are shrink wrapped in clear plastic, arranged in a 4x6 bundle of 24. No labels either. Not even a cardboard base underneath.

Yup, the majority of water used by US troops since about '05 has been made by the US Army and put into clear bottles w/no label. They are then shrink-wrapped 12 to a bundle. There is a big water plant here on Camp Victory in Baghdad. The water is shipped out to the units. I haven't seen commercial water boxes in a while up in Iraq. They are still used in Kuwait though.

They look like this:




Shrink-wrapped bottles on the back of a truck.



The other reasons you don't see them on vehicles much any more is:

1. Tanks and Brads are not used for patrol very much any more.
2. Most vehicles have a cooler full of ice w/the water bottles in them.
3. Not a lot of gear and provisions are carried on vehicles anymore since we are operating ot of patrol bases on short patrols. Most gear and supplies are left at the bases and not carried on vehicles. The heavily laden vehicles you see pictures of are from the initial invasion before we moved into FOBs (Forward Operating Bases). Since we were on the move, all of our gear had to come with us.