Water is best when you’re thirsty. Water is best for hangovers. Water is best for sports hydrations. Cold water is best when you want a cold drink. Water is best for lunch. Drink more water.
Ex-Army infantry guy here.
In basic training, location Ft. Benning GA, late August. Hydration was important, and that was impressed upon us by the drill sergeants, who would pause the activity at hand for the moment and do the ‘Drink Water!’ call, to which we’d reply mostly in uninspired enthusiasm ‘Beat the heat drill sergeant beat the heat.’
We’d then down a canteen (a quart) of water. On especially hot days, we’d do two canteens. No dumping on your head or on the ground - you had to finish one or both. We’d refill canteens and get back to the day’s task of doing push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, and in-between those, learning Army stuff (sir).
One guy, Peterson (name changed), couldn’t do a canteen of water. This guy was the opposite of Joey Chestnut. He ate and drank like a bird but never lost weight. Slow metabolism and high energy conversion I guess. He never seemed dehydrated I would say. But water and food were just minimal for the guy. He’d drink a pint, maybe a sip more, and done.
Our drill sergeants weren’t having that. You had to finish the canteen and flip it over your head. Failure to comply was met with drinking more water, until you finished the canteen, while your platoon did push-ups. No pressure.
The rest of the story transpired really quickly.
The drill sergeants hit him with the order to drink more water, and he did, and he stopped, and then they said keep going private, and he was in obvious pain, and he said no drill sergeant, and you could see the crinkle in the eyes of the questioned, but before that drill sergeant’s body language became verbal, Peterson puked up water, gallons of water it seemed, then breakfast, and the upper contents of his colon I’m pretty sure (j/k being illustrative). A medic, who just happened to be Starship Trooping on by, got on the horn and got the kid to a clinic. He was water intoxicated, we later found out.
One of the great things they forget to show you on the recruitment brochure lol. He was eventually fine, and we were relegated to drinking until we could spit out saliva a few inches.
For fellow citizens of the civilised world: a quart is basically a liter, and a pint is half that.
Anyway, jeepers creepers. They literally poisoned their own guy so bad he was hospitalised. The US army is evil.
The army takes hydration VERY seriously.
Maybe they should have taken it seriously enough to recognise too much of it
Listen I’m not defending the army but I’d be willing to bet 5$ that more soldiers are victims of any of the heat related illnesses (trying to sound smart here hehe, like heat exhaustion or shock or whatever) then they are of water intoxication.
Also we did the same thing when I was at basic in south Carolina. Except we didn’t have to drink the whole canteen. Just take a couple of sips, but we did it frequently.
“All trainees are reminded: drink 1/2 to 3/4 canteen per hour, not to exceed 12 canteens per day. You will drink 3 non-caffeinated, non carbonated beverages with each and every meal.”
Is what was recited daily when I was in basic training. And yeah, heat stroke is a big issue. I don’t think you can blame the instructors really; everyone knows someone that says water tastes bad or whatever. All the instructors know is that everyone better be drinking their water.
