We were told the same thing in Italy, between '96 and '99. We were sternly
warned to only drink bottled water, brush our teeth with bottled water, use
bottled water in any food that wasn't heated to boiling. After I'd been
there a bit and befriended a doctor and some other folks who worked at the
Naples naval hospital, I learned that "some" local water would fail tests
once or twice a year. After considering the odds for a bit, I started
drinking the water from the tap when needed. Never got sick from the water.
When I was "in the sand box" for a year, working in one of Saddam's
palaces, we got the same warning. There was an Army colonel that I worked
with who was a Ranger and thought himself pretty tough. He drank the water
in the palace every day. One day I asked if he ever got sick from the
water, he laughed and said no.
I suffer from years of sun exposure on my Irish skin, and develop
pre-cancerous spots on my face, neck and hands which my dermatologist
freezes or burns off every year or two.
The military dermatologist didn't have the patience I guess, and prescribed
a cream for me to apply to my face for two weeks. This cream is basically
a very strong chemical peel, "sunburn in a tube" I called it. After the
first week of applying this cream, my face was bright red and quite
painful. By the second week, it was blistered and really looked awful.
During this painful episode, Colonel Ranger asked me one day if I was ok,
and what happened to my face. I told him I started following his example,
washing my face and drinking water from the palace bathroom. He turned
pale and his eyes got big, but I couldn't keep a straight face and started
laughing, and told him the real story. I will never forget the look on his
face.
Max Dillon,
Charleston SC
_______________
THAT, SIR, is a GREAT one! Worthy of a MASH prank!
_______________________________________
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