Wag Bags and Piss Tubes

On this most recent deployment, I was given the opportunity to provide BIOMED support to one of our outlying FOBs (forward operating base) in Afghanistan. The one I visited recently is one of the most active and there are all kinds of extreme medical cases that happen all the time there. The action started almost as soon as we got out of the CH-53 Sea Stallion.

Me and Fred got settled in our tent around 2 a.m. and about 3 hours later, people were running in and out of the tent.

I heard very clearly, "We got a patient!!!"

I got up and put my boots on and walked out to hear that the patient had shrapnel wounds on his arms and legs. 

I was thinking "wow... This is cool."

And then I remembered that I was just there for BMET support, not corpsman support. There's lots of corpsman around here for that.

Now, that was just the beginning. I haven't even found the bathroom yet and I was starving. I asked someone where the urinals were. I was directed to these "piss tubes" which are large plastic tubes that stick out of the ground. I guess I am supposed to aim and pee into these tubes. Hmm... Okay. After trying that out, I couldn't help but be disgusted with myself after trying to aim into a piss tube and swat at flies at the same time. They all seem to swarm around nasty places and I had just intruded on their party.

The next thing on my agenda was getting breakfast and finding the real bathroom. After wiping the crust out of my eyes, a young female walked out of her tent.

"Excuse me! Can you point me to the head?" I asked.

"Oh, I see that you just got here. I heard you coming in early this morning." (refering to the distinct deafening noise that a CH-53 makes)

I followed her to the wooden structures which appears to be outhouses. She opened up one of the doors and showed me a toilet seat with a hole in the ground.

"Hmmm... that looks gross." I said in disgust.

"Everyone has to do it! And once we're done, we all have to do the walk of shame." she said.


"So what is the walk of shame?"

"Here, after you fill up this wag-bag, you take it and seal it shut like a ziplock bag. And then you walk it a quarter mile to the waste collection point."

"Oh. How embarrasing."

"Yeah. Everybody does it."