ROWPU team keeps clean water flowing

Photo By Staff Sgt. Ty Stafford | Soldiers from the 186th Quartermaster Detachemnt ROWPU team, put away hose line and check the 3,000 gallon pump after filling a water truck at Camp Habbayinah, Iraq.  

11.12.2005

Courtesy Story

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The air Soldiers breathe and the water Soldiers drink are as vital to survival as any armor plating or piece of equipment they use in Iraq.

The 186th Quartermaster Detachment, from Fort Bragg, N.C., is making the water supply for the servicemembers of Al Taqaddum and its surrounding forward operating bases better everyday.

Using a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit, the detachment is funneling 3,000 gallons of water an hour from a canal of the Euphrates River and a nearby lake and storing them in 50,000 gallon raw water storage bags or transporting it directly to Camp Outpost, Ramadi and Habbinyiah.

The detachment, which has been in Iraq for only a month, has three teams of six Soldiers at the three FOBs and the headquarters team at Al Taqaddum.

"We operate for 20 hours and spend four hours on maintenance," said detachment 1st Sgt. Monalisa McCullough.

The detachment can produce up to 360,000 gallons of potable and non-potable water a day using the ROWPU system.

Using semi-trailer mounted fabric tanks, the detachment ships water to two of the FOBs for use.

To prepare for their mission in Iraq, the 186th spent a month honing their soldier skills and using wash racks at Fort Bragg conducted a two-week validation process to test their equipment.

"We ran a lot of crew drills and attended a lot of FTXs [field training exercises] prior to mobilization to keep the Soldiers trained up," McCullough said.

The training was beneficial, McCullough added, because the unit has several new Soldiers from Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lee, Va., added to the unit prior to the deployment.

"We are in high demand and don't have the people to do it," said Staff Sgt. David Kauffman, NCOIC of the Camp Habbayinah site.

Although new to Al Taqaddum, the 186th was stationed in Talil, Iraq in 2003.

"Living conditions have improved ten-fold since our last deployment," said Sgt. Edward Beatty. The unit replaced the 704th Qm. Det., and has begun making modifications to the current living quarters and equipment.

"We've had one of their ROWPUs go down since we've been here, but everything else has gone pretty smoothly," Kauffman said.

The 186th, like so many ROWPU units across Iraq, are doing their part to keep the Soldiers clean, hydrated and focused on accomplishing the mission.

• Date Taken: 11.12.2005
• Date Posted: 11.12.2005 05:42
• Story ID: 3717