Camping and Camp Sanitation.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES:
Great care must be exercised in selecting a camp site, but it must never be forgotten that the tactical situation is of paramount importance.
The following principles govern the selection: (1) Sufficient supply of pure water.
(2) Good roads, but not too near a main highway on account of dust and noise.
(3) Wood and forage must be obtainable.
The ground should: (1) Give ample room without crowding.
(2) Have porous soil.
(3) Have high elevation to make site dry.
Avoid: (1) Marshy ground and mosquitoes.
(2) Woods or dense vegetation.
(3) Ravines or depressions in terrain or dry stream beds subject to sudden freshets.
Water must be obtainable: (1) Arrange immediately where to obtain (a) Drinking and cooking water.
(b) Water for animals.
(c) Water for bathing and washing.
In the case of running water, the point furthest up-stream shall be guarded for drinking and cooking water. Bathing shall be done at a point furthest down-stream.
Successful military camping depends upon three (3) things: (1) Discipline.
(2) Cooking.
(3) Sanitation.
Discipline means control; it means order. Nowhere are these more essential. Confusion is loss of control, loss of time, and loss of respect by the men.
Upon arrival at a favorable camp site get the men off their feet. Do not wait around. As C.O. have your decisions made and the work organized, so that each squad will be under a leader. Keep squads together, allowing none to stray off until the work is done, then let everyone rest except the sentinels.
Do not omit to post sentinels over the water supply and at important points, even though you have not decided upon the exact location of camp.
Organize the work by platoons or squads and rotate, if camp is to be made every few days.
Discipline in camp means more than order and dispatch, however, men must understand that they are under discipline when off duty--that they cannot disregard sanitary measures, eat promiscuously, destroy property, vegetation, or timber and must police the grounds at all times. Papers, cigarette b.u.t.ts, and newspapers, should never be allowed on the ground near camp. Eatables should never be kept in tents to draw vermin. Where possible, in dry weather, the company street should be wet down to keep the dust out of the tents. Have men ditch around tents immediately upon making camp. Though it may seem somewhat of a hardship, a sudden down pour of rain, will recompense them for this labor many times over. In ditching the tents, completely circle them, for if this is not done a great deal of rain will come in the front of the tent.
Food means everything to a soldier. The camp cooking is a barometer of the organized efficiency and of the enlisted men"s att.i.tude. Nothing else can do so much to help or hinder.
The Company Commander should realize the controlling power exercised by the company cook and keep the matter in his own hands. He should accept no excuse for burnt or dirty food.
If officers mess with their companies they will appreciate the att.i.tude of the men and be able to judge the real situation. Officers will be well repaid for doing this, as it gives them an idea of the food that is being served their men.
In the mechanical details of preparing food, the fire is of first importance. A quick method of cooking is by laying a pair of large green logs on the surface of the ground just wide enough to place the pots between them, so that the bottom of the pots will be resting upon them. Build a fire between these logs, making sure to place the logs parallel to the direction of the wind.
A pit may be dug, with a sloping bottom, and across this may be placed the pots, and if iron rails are available, the utensils may be placed on these. For longer stays this pit may be lined with stone. Stones retain the heat and less wood is required. Four trenches radiating from a central chimney will give one flue whatever may be the direction of the wind. (For more specific data on the subject of fires and camp cooking, see Manual for Army Cooks--U.S.A.--also notes in i.d.r., pp. 154-155.)
Make a rule never to allow food to remain in tin cans after opening them. Remember to place kitchen near available water supply and furthest from latrines, horse picket lines, or dumps of any kind.
Sanitation comes last in the thoughts of the enlisted man, but it is no less important for that.
The first requisite is cleanliness. Food receptacles must be scoured and covers and cracks in tin ware sc.r.a.ped as well as scalding the tins themselves. Have boiling hot water in tanks (galvanized iron ash cans are good) for men to wash mess kits in after meals. One can should contain soapy water so as to cut the grease from the dishes, and the second tank should contain clean, boiling water for scalding the kits.
Sc.r.a.ps of food should be sc.r.a.ped from the mess tins before immersing them in water, otherwise washing water becomes filled with small particles of food. Wiping cloths will greatly add to the convenience of the men and takes but a short time to make them clean and fit for use again.
Care must be exercised over three kinds of waste: (1) Garbage.
(2) Kitchen slops.
(3) Excreta.
Garbage can be burned in the kitchen fires. It should never stand exposed to the air, but should be tightly covered in iron cans, and should be disposed of every twenty-four hours. Kitchen help have an aversion to prompt disposal of garbage and need watching. Fly traps should be made of muslin and used freely about the kitchen.
Kitchen slops, fats, greasy water, etc., must be drained into covered pits, never allowing them to be tossed on the ground around the cook tent. A hole dug and partially filled with stones with a barrel placed upside down on them, makes a very good receptacle for kitchen slops.
The barrel should be placed so that the inverted top will be a little way beneath the surface of the ground. A hole should be bored in the bottom of the barrel and a funnel inserted, through which the slops may be poured. If the soil is porous, a trough may be dug and covered with mosquito netting or cheese cloth, and the water poured through this and allowed to drain off.
Excreta is the most deadly form of waste, and too much care cannot be exercised in disposing of it. Impress upon every man that he must cover completely with dirt all excreta so that flies may not have a chance to approach it.
For short stops and while working in the field "straddle," latrines are the best. These are shallow trenches the width of a shovel, about 12 inches wide, and several feet in length. For long stops a deep latrine is dug of the following dimensions: 2 feet wide, 6 feet deep by 15 feet long. Two posts with crotches, driven at the ends of this trench, supporting a substantial pole to make a seat * * * for convenience a hand rail placed in front of this improvised seat will add to the comfort of the men.
A more permanent latrine is made by covering the pit with a wooden box, in the top of which are cut holes of the necessary diameter. To these holes should be fitted spring covers which will shut down tightly. A wooden frame boarded around this arrangement makes a satisfactory enclosure.
A urinal made of two long boards joined together to form a V-shaped trough and drained by a pipe into the pit completes the whole. A pitch sufficient for rapid drainage should be given the urinal trough.
When necessary to utilize separate urinals, a hole filled with stone and sprinkled daily with quicklime is sufficient for short periods. At night there should be a galvanized iron can placed in each company street and emptied before reveille each morning. This can must be disinfected by burning out, as must be the latrines when earth or sand is not used as a covering each time.
Pits must be covered daily with quicklime, ashes, earth and filled when within two (2) feet of the surface. Their position should be distinctly marked so as to prevent reopening.
It is a safe rule never to use an old camp ground, but select a new one, even if less conveniently located. Camp sites should be changed if it is found that the soil is becoming polluted, or if the ground is cut up and dusty from constant use.
The condition in which a camp site is left by an organization will clearly indicate the efficiency and discipline in a command.
CHAPTER 10.
Personal Hygiene and First Aid.
This is a purely arbitrary grouping of topics for the purpose of saving s.p.a.ce. Either of the topics mentioned could be treated at length; detailed information will be found in any of the reference books mentioned in the bibliography.
PERSONAL HYGIENE means "the preservation of health by attention to the care of the body;" it is determined by the formation of correct habits. Cleanliness of person, clothing and bedding should become a habit of life with the soldier; but some men will always require watching and admonition. These habits are: personal cleanliness; regulation of diet; avoidance of excesses (eating, drinking and s.e.xual matters); wearing suitable clothing; keeping the bodily processes at work (kidneys, bowels and skin); taking sufficient exercise, preferably in the open air; rest of body and mind, with recreation for the latter; maintaining the surroundings in which one lives in a cleanly state.
BATHING is easily the most important requirement in matters of personal hygiene; men should bathe as often as conditions of life in barracks and camp will permit. On the march a vigorous "dry rub" with a coa.r.s.e towel will often prove an excellent subst.i.tute when water is not available. _Teeth_ should be cleaned at least twice daily.
_Clothing_ should be kept clean, particularly underclothing. _Diet_ is not a matter which a soldier can determine to any extent for himself; but he can follow a certain few precautions:
1. Don"t eat hurriedly; chew the food properly.
2. Don"t overload the stomach.
3. Don"t eat green or overripe fruit.
4. Don"t eat anything while away from camp or barracks, whose materials or manner of preparation seem questionable.
5. Don"t bring a "grouch" to the table with you.
6. Don"t eat on the march; don"t drink too much water on the march.