Drink-on-the-move for the Soldier U.S. Army Soldier, 1965. However, today we are still drinking from the same type canteens, using one hand! Is he ready to return fire? Imagine entire units drinking like this. 1st Tactical Studies Group (Airborne) Director Mike Sparks as a young marine had seen this "clusterfu*ck" of entire units stopping, taking a knee and facing weapons outboard just to take a drink from a canteen for 6 years when he decided in 1987 to do something about it. Friends in the Army side of the house at his college said at Special Forces selection some candidates took I.V. tubing and golf tees to hook up drink-on-the-move capabilities to stay moving. Currently, you have to stop to get a drink from your G.I. one quart canteen, this tactical liability gets worse when entire squads, platoons and companies stop to drink water. When moving from point A to point B, over time each one of these stops reduces the speed of the ground force and exposes it to enemy observation and fire. But, if we can drink-while-on-the-move and not stop, our speed will increase. Such systems are vital to maximize the mobility potential of human powered vehicles (HPVs) like the All-Terrain "Mountain" Bike and Cart/Sleds or simply move faster on our feet--4-7 mph to outfight mountain , jungle and urban guerrillas who may hit you & run. We must be able to chase down that roadside bomber with a detonation device in his hand or RPG gunner so they cannot strike again. The way to do this is with a drinking tube. A simple drinking tube that plugs into the CAP of the G.I. canteen was demonstrated by the then USMC PLC Officer Candidate Sparks in 1987 to U.S. Army Natick labs via the marine liaison there. Sparks' idea was to cut costs by using a G.I. 2-quart canteen with a NBC cap inside the top flap of the ALICE rucksack connected by a schrade valve via a drink tubing so the Soldier would drink water in his rucksack first and then drop it like a fighter pilot drops external tanks when time to fight. This is still a good idea---you should drink water from your ruck "Existence Load" first so your "Fighting Load" stays full for the fight. All the military would have to buy would be the adapter and drink tube with a nylon sleeve on the rucksack or LBE shoulder strap with a velcro flap to secure the tube when not in use. We had contacted the maker of the M17A1 Field Protective Mask (FPM), Mine Safety Appliances and after a lot of convincing got them to supply a valve for the drink tube on the mask. And there it was! A fully functional drink-on-the-move system with NBC interface despite everyone saying it was too hard and expensive to do. BEFORE THERE WAS MILITARY CAMEL-BAKS: RAIDER DRINKING TUBE The System Attached to ALICE rucksack Rest of the article here: Drink-on-the-move
I bought a Camelback a couple of years ago that was placed in a sale bin. If memory serves me correct it was about $15. I thought it was a steal.
They must have bought the idea, in the clothing sales stores right now, there is a canteen cap with a drinking tube attached for just this exact reason. They don't sell well now because everyone has a camelbak now.
All I can say is....."Institutional Inertia" If it had been a problem for congressional representatives or officers of flag rank keeping hydrated...the Capitol and the Pentagon would be throwing barrels of money at the idea. But for grunts in the boondocks??? Sometimes it's grunts having to buy commercially stuff that the system can't or won't buy that shames the system into coming to the party (usually only after a journalist expose article causes a SHTF and please explain moment at the military head-shed)
