The field (at least in 29 Palms right now) is a hot dirty sweaty place and after a few days you really start to become ripe.  You get so stinky that you can’t even stand your own smell.  There are no bathrooms and hygiene facilities are nn existant.  When you need to answer nature’s call you grab a shovel and head out into the hills.  If you are lucky you or one of your fellow Marines in the pos found a milk crate and attached a toilet lid to it so you can actually sit down and not have to pop a squat.

Baby wipes are a man’s best friend out in the field and can at least cut down a little on the stench that permeates from your body.  The only thing though is that they can only get you so clean and you become more and more rancid the more you have to run around and set up nets and the more yuo drive through this infernal hell of an area.  Some time or another you are going to pray for a trip to the rear so that you can get a proper shower and shave and all that good stuff.

Unfortunately that trip never comes for the most of us so you are down to a couple of options:

  1. You can do nothing and stink more as well as get crotch and foot rot.
  2. You can continue to use baby wipes and hope that you are getting clean enough.
  3. You can find a way to take a shower.

Well eventually you are going to go with option 3 but how are you going to do that.  Well if you are lucky (not a grunt) there will be plenty of vehicles around to give you a high platform and a little shelter from the wind and elements.  You grab a 5 gallon can of water throw it on the hood open it up, wet down, scrub the cheese from unda and rinse off.  Most of the time this will work and you will be clean, relatively speaking of course.  It works but there is a better way

I went to Wal Mart the night before my trip up to 29 palms for the necessities, granola bars, poptart, slim jims etc because I can only hande MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) and Tray Rat ( Big MRE’s to feed dozens) for so long.  I ventured into the camping section to see if I could find anything of use.  That is where I found the best piece of geat that I have ever brought to the field a solar camp shower.  All it is is a heavy duty platic bag with a hose and nozel on it.  It is clear on one side so you can set it in the sun and heat up the water.  I have used that thing out here twice climbing up behind the cab of my 7-ton and setting it on the cab.  I was able to “run” the water most of my shower and was able to get that disgusting funk off my body.  This thing cost me 5 1/2 dollars and is awesome.  I will definately carry this with me whenever I think I might not have a shower facility.

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