Safe water, safe food, ready force: JB MDL turns field sanitation into force protection

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Before a unit deploys or heads to the field, someone has to think through the basics: Is there safe water to drink? How will food get to the troops and how will it be stored?

Where should latrines and hand-washing stations be placed, and how far must they be from water and food sources? Where will service members sleep, and will mosquitoes, rodents or other pests share their living quarters?

These are not the details that typically dominate a military operational briefing but overlooking them can have consequences far beyond an uncomfortable day in the field.

At Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, a team of instructors teach service members how to manage those risks through the 40-hour U.S. Army Field Sanitation Team Certification Course, arming service members with the necessary skills to identify environmental health hazards and protect the health of their units, particularly when deployed conditions leave little room for established infrastructure.

The course covers potable water, food safety, waste disposal, personal hygiene, vector control, heat and cold injuries, toxic industrial materials and other measures intended to prevent illness and injury from becoming operational liabilities.

U.S. Army Maj. Jason L. Graff, medical operations and training officer with the U.S. Army Support Activity Fort Dix Training Division and lead planner for the course, said the goal is for students to graduate with more than a passing familiarity with sanitation requirements. He wants them to know how to put that knowledge to work in order to keep service members healthy.

“The Army can plan for its equipment, its personnel and its objectives,” Graff said. “Field sanitation addresses another requirement that cannot be left to chance: the health of the people expected to carry out the mission.”

To accomplish that, Graff and his team combine classroom instruction with hands-on training so students can apply the material rather than simply recognize it on a presentation slide.

“It’s one thing to talk about this stuff and show pictures,” Graff said. “It’s another to physically walk them through it to enforce retention.”

Just outside the Medical Simulation Training Center, that distinction becomes tangible. Students move beyond classroom instruction to test water-purification methods, inspect water buffalos along with other equipment and use wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT, instruments to assess heat stress. They practice treating uniforms with permethrin, setting mousetraps, reading water-quality test strips and conducting site surveys to identify hazards.

Ashley Davis, lead instructor for Regional Training Site – Medical based at Fort Gordon, Georgia and instructor for the course, said the sanitation team members provide an added layer of knowledge and oversight at the unit level.

“The sanitation team members serve as an additional set of eyes and ears for commanders,” Davis said. “They do not replace preventive medicine specialists or independently certify water trailers. Instead, they help commanders recognize overlooked requirements and ensure deficiencies receive attention.”

A commander preparing for a range exercise might consider ammunition, transportation, medical coverage and equipment. A trained sanitation team member can raise other questions: When was the water buffalo last sanitized? Are there enough hand-washing stations? Are the latrines stocked? Is food being transported and stored properly? Those questions could prevent problems before they affect personnel or readiness.

Military forces have spent years operating from established installations where water, sanitation and other services were generally available. That assumption becomes less reliable in large-scale combat operations where infrastructure may be damaged or unavailable and units may have to manage essential requirements themselves, Graff said.

“We take for granted that we will deploy to established bases when we arrive in sector,” Graff said. “That’s no longer a guarantee and we need to prepare accordingly."

Applying what students learn can make the difference in remaining combat effective in austere environments or losing an entire company to preventable disease, Graff added.

The military’s attention to sanitation traces back to George Washington’s Army at Valley Forge and early military directives that established sanitation as a matter of force preservation, said Christopher Carbone, MSTC manager and course coordinator. He added that during the Civil War, disease claimed more lives than combat.

“Two-thirds of the deaths during the conflict were caused by disease, not rifles or cannons,” Carbone said. “We’ve come a long way, but only because we have placed such emphasis on field sanitation.”

Other examples Carbone referenced included the Army’s coordinated efforts in the Pacific theater against mosquito-borne diseases like malaria during World War II, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake response, where infrastructure destruction limited utilities and forced Soldiers to operate amid damaged buildings that spawned rodent and insect nuisances.

“[The Haiti] team used the lessons we’re teaching in this course to remove rats, order mosquito nets, ensure clean drinking water — and they quickly turned what could have been a disaster into a manageable situation,” Carbone said.

The lesson was straightforward: A force can have the personnel and equipment necessary to complete a mission and still be undermined by something as basic as unsafe water or inadequate sanitation.

D’Andre Brown, a RTS-MED radiology instructor at Fort Gordon and FSTC course instructor, said a crisis, like a natural disaster, can have unpredictable consequences, making this particular course especially important for personnel outside of the medical and preventive medicine professions. The responsibility, he said, belongs across the formation. Service members need to know what questions to ask before a mission begins, including where supplies originate, how they are maintained and who is responsible for monitoring them.

“It’s very interesting to me that, for some of these training exercises, water is just there, but nobody ever inspects it. Nobody ever checks it. Nobody ever questions, where did it come from?” Brown said. “We want to be proactive, not reactive. The more that you can question towards the beginning of your mission, the less mistakes or instances that may occur during the mission.”

U.S. Army Sgt. Danequa Smith, a motor transport operator assigned to the 991st Transportation Company in Salisbury, North Carolina, said the course changed how she views food transportation and vehicle use during field exercises. The instruction emphasized using a vehicle designated for food transportation and keeping it separate from vehicles used to transport personnel and trash, reducing opportunities for contamination.

“You have germs from people going in and out, especially when you’re on the range,” Smith said. “You don’t know what’s in the sand. And you’re transporting these people in the van, then you’re going to go get the meals.”

U.S. Army Sgt. James Esrhunmwunsee, a logistics specialist assigned to the 338th Medical Brigade in Horsham, Pennsylvania, said the course challenged assumptions formed over years of working with military water buffalos.

“I’ve been dealing with water buffalos for almost my whole career and coming here I realized there’s more to learn than just putting water in a water buffalo,” Esrhunmwunsee said.

He said he plans to establish a field sanitation team when he returns to his unit and incorporate its responsibilities into the unit’s standard operating procedures.

The course, which will be offered quarterly, is open to all branches, components and ranks, including active duty, National Guard and Reserve personnel.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Olivia Lawson, 87th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron bioenvironmental engineering flight commander, said she sent her Airmen to the course because it complemented their existing expertise and provided additional hands-on experience.

“The Army offered this training, so we took the opportunity,” Lawson said. “It’s been a great course that consolidates much of what we already do while providing more in-depth, hands-on instruction.”

U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Marina Goncalves, 87th OMRS bioenvironmental engineering specialist, said the course expanded her understanding of field sanitation and reinforced skills relevant to deployments.

“The joint training offered an opportunity to learn how another service approaches similar sanitation requirements, gain additional hands-on experience and prepare to support Army units during future operations and exercises.”

The joint interoperability is a crucial element to the course, as units continuously deploy together. Standardized training can help identify and manage an improperly inspected water source, food left at unsafe temperatures or standing water that attracts disease-carrying insects. Once an entire unit is exposed, however, they can become much harder to contain.

That is the responsibility Graff and Carbone want students to carry back to their formations: not simply knowing the standards but recognizing when something is wrong and understanding what to do about it.

Service members interested in future Field Sanitation Team Certification Courses can contact Maj. Jason L. Graff at mailto:Jason.l.graff.mil@army.mil or the U.S. Army Support Activity Fort Dix Medical Simulation Training Center.

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