September 1968. This picture is similar to the very efficiently constructed sinks I used morning and night in basic training. Maximum usage by multiple users, elbow to elbow. We were gone all day marching, running, shooting, marching, doing push ups, marching and other necessary training to use these during mid-day. (no known pictures of the rows of toilets without stalls exist; memories of those are not good) Then things got better with in Ft. Eustis; less compact sink area and the toilets had stalls. 
This posed picture below was actually how it was in basic training after bran muffins, fried potatoes, grits, eggs and weak hot chocolate. And we all only had ten minutes for the S.S.S. (shower and shave were two of the S's) Army life taught me things I would never had experienced. :-0 
Then I was exposed to the latrine in Vietnam; below. If the door was open you'd see a built-in plywood, wall to wall flat seat, unpainted, with four to five circular holes cut in the seating area. No stalls, no running water, 55 gallon drums cut in half below was the "sewer." JP4 jet fuel burned it all. (Of course before burning, the drums were removed from the back via a large, horizontal-hinged door, using a long metal pole with hook, by the GI who pulled that duty for that day. Yes, I did it a few times. There was no measurement ~ recipe to burn it ~ and a few guys actually used too much JP4 and burned down the latrine with too large of flames and drums too close. Hey, 19 year olds with fire! Go figure.) 
(And I wonder why one of my returning nightmares involved, dirty, unusable bathrooms. . . .What I couldn't show y'all is a photo of the old ones built by the French when they were in Vietnam. "They are number 10, GI" ~ very bad.)
Then in 2004 I found the Loos on the streets in Prague. I looked for "Men" when I was told that they were unisex and I needed correct change. We're spoiled here in the good, ole USA.
1 comment:
Another reason why I would not have survived the military!
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