Hygiene in the field:post TDM

[dude_uk]

So post nuclear strike how will a soldier look after his hygiene when he is on deployment? The prevention of disease will be at an all time high.

The average British infantryman at the moment tends to deviate towards 'wet wipes' (moist paper towels) for washing with, which are disposable and crucially save on water. Along with the requisite razor and toothbrush/toothpaste.

However along with other items western society demands that are mass produced and meant to be disposed of, these things will no longer be around.

Will this mean a return to facial hair? Or will LCPL Smith and Marine Harper be designated platoon Barber? Carry a cut-throat razor? Old school soap and flannel means using a lot more water.

I know the Romans used urine as a toothpaste, but there might be a mutiny!

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by dude_uk

Will this mean a return to facial hair? Or will LCPL Smith and Marine Harper be designated platoon Barber? Carry a cut-throat razor? Old school soap and flannel means using a lot more water.

I know the Romans used urine as a toothpaste, but there might be a mutiny!

I think facial hair would be situation dependent. Believe it or not, lice prefer clean hair to dirty (natural oils foil louses attempts to attach to the follicle; clean scrubbed hair with modern shampoos is a playground for the bastards), but if a group fears an outbreak then shaved heads/beards for all might be the order of the day (sorry, ladies).

The idea of a "unit barber" is cool; some units coming into Bremerton or those that made it back to the FRG prior to OpOrd Omega might want to put on a bit of spit and polish before presenting themselves to "th' ol' man".

As to oral hygiene, I think it's going to be a must to come up with some way to keep one's teeth clean...an abscessed tooth can mean death if not properly treated, and there's a lot of "not properly treatable" stuff going around post-bomb. Just yanking it out still leaves the possibility of a dry socket which has it's own issues. Plain baking soda mixed with water will absolutely clean the hell out of one's teeth. A drop of mint oil on the brush before the baking soda will kill the taste a little.

Regarding water...everyone in T2k is running around with a still. If you know how to build, maintain and use one of those, a small one can be made for distilling water.

Like alcohol production, a simple knowledge of chemistry (like, a high-school chemistry textbook in the hands of a competent person) and one of the aforementioned stills means you can create bleach, which will be invaluable in disinfecting - and guess what? Bleach can neutralize some nerve agents, too! So, like many other vital items I imagine bleach production would see a resurgence as a cottage industry, or on-the-fly production by military units. A capful of bleach in 5 gallons of water will pretty much sterilize it.

[Legbreaker]

Water in Europe shouldn't be too much trouble for units to come by. Clean water on the other hand...well, that's why there are medical and logistics units with specialist members assigned to cleaning up water prior to consumption.

Water in drier areas such as the middle east could be somewhat more problematic with battles fought over just one potable well....

All in all, a decent soldier should have received training on field hygiene and one of the many tasks of senior NCOs is to ensure these practises are carried out. Facial hair is likely to become more common, particularly moustaches (many members in my unit(s) grew them when in the bush for more than a week or two) as shaving with a blunt razor is somewhat less than comfortable (as we all probably already know).

[HorseSoldier]

In western societies, soldiers are probably among the people most experienced and best equipped to deal with the post-nuke decline in cleanliness and hygiene (the homeless possibly excepted as a more experienced group . . .). That said, hygiene and sanitation in the field by 2000 is going to be a problem, and all military organizations are probably going to be back to the bad old days of most casualties on campaign coming from disease and illness rather than enemy action.

[Trooper]

Basic military hygiene is not a problem if you have water!

In northern Europe there is plenty of water. Usually it’s quite clean. You really don’t need specialist to clean it up before consumption- boiling is enough. If you have heavily contaminated water source, it’s easier to find new water source than to clean water. Water table is near surface so you don’t have to dig too deep to reach it. In northern USSR water situation is same as in northern Europe. Outside urban areas clean water is not a problem. In central Europe there are more problems to find potable water. I guess you can still find farm wells? In FGR there are also emergency wells that are maintained by THW.

Cutting hair is easy job. Basic buzz cut takes 5-10 minutes ( without any experience in art of barbering). All you need is pair of “crew cut scissors”. You can also use same “crew cut scissors” to facial hair if you don’t have enough time for proper shaving.

Oral hygiene is easy to maintain if you have toothbrush. Normal healthy young men don’t need toothpaste.

REMFs have plenty of time to boil water, make soap and distil alcohol. In legion etrangere recruits have to keep their uniforms clean with bar of soap + clean warm water. It takes time, but it’s possible.

In Finnish army training areas there is usually at least one sauna. It’s great asset and I don’t understand how other armies can manage without them. In sauna you don’t have to use a lot of water to clean up. One bucket of hot water + two buckets of cold water is enough. You can also use sauna to kill louse and other vectors from clothes. In Finland you can find sauna in every residential building. In rural areas and small building saunas are wood- heated.