Announcement - "Weapons of War" series

[maple_leaf_eh]

In Mar 91, I went north from Bahrain to Kuwait City with an ad hoc Canadian EOD engineer troop. We lived at Camp Freedom (!) which was a Kuwait Ministry of Education warehouse south of the city opposite the international airport. The camp was run by US Army reservists, and had a large reserve medical unit. Because the US Army likes to be mobile, the shitters were plywood affairs with cut down oil barrels that were emptied from the back. The challenge is to find one that is piled just high enough to not splash diesel fuel on one's backside while still have, so to speak, freeboard below the seat.

The alternative was much better, but required some improvisation. Like every Middle Eastern "facility" I saw, the as built norm was a bomb sight shitter. Some resourceful soul brought a proper toilet seat from stateside, and mounted it on a plastic milk crate. A bit low, but more relaxing for a person to achieve success for their constitutional.

So there I was seeing a young American female soldier with her old school M16 and a roll of toilet paper. "Where can I find the latrines?" pause "Would you like a real porcelain shit? "Oh yes!" I stood guard out the bathroom door while a grateful soul enjoyed our hospitality.