全球智库信息集成服务系统

Policies Controlling Food, Water, and Fuel Consumption Are Key to Maintaining Quality of Life Under Logistical Constraints

• Fresh food is one important part of soldier quality of life (QoL). The fresher the food, the greater its weight. A B-ration (meals prepared using canned or preserved ingredients) diet would require a 44-percent convoy premium over meals, ready to eat (MREs). An A-ration (meals prepared using fresh, refrigerated, or frozen foods) diet would require a 58-percent convoy premium over MREs.
• Showers and laundry are other important factors in soldier QoL. An estimated 75 percent of the water required at contingency bases is utilized for showers. Using just one shower water–reuse system at its full capacity can result in saving potentially 3.2 million gallons of water per year. The Army is investigating other opportunities, including gray-water recovery from laundry and food preparation and similar sources.
• Privacy and climate control are also important for QoL. Base-camp energy is an area rich in potential savings, both in terms of electricity and in terms of fuel. One potentially very effective fuel-saving option is the selection of soldier housing and work location structures. If 90 percent of the fuel consumed goes to living, dining, and office space provided in barrack (wooden) huts (B-huts), a switch to huts made from structural insulated panels (which demand just 60 percent as much energy as B-huts) would reduce energy demand by an estimated 42,000 gallons per month.

Among Army logisticians, one of the key insights from military operations since September 11, 2001, is that quality-of-life (QoL) goods and services for soldiers operating from contingency bases represent a key component in terms of morale and both physical and emotional well-being but also a substantial logistics burden, especially in austere theaters, such as Afghanistan, where roads are few and the terrain is difficult. The questions, therefore, are "how much is enough?" and "what policy options would allow the Army deputy chief of staff for logistics to prioritize QoL support with the other tasks facing the Army sustainment community — delivering enough QoL to contingency bases to keep soldiers in the fight while also avoiding unsustainable logistics burdens?" The authors find that policies controlling food, water, and fuel consumption are key to maintaining QoL under logistical constraints.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  What Is Quality of Life?

• Chapter Three

  Opportunities for Improvement

• Chapter Four

  Recommendations to Improve the Efficiency of Quality-of-Life Support

• Appendix A

  Base-Camp Case Studies from Southern Afghanistan

• Appendix B

  What Crowdsourcing Reveals About Quality-of-Life Demands at Contingency Bases

• Appendix C

  Restorative Effects of Quality-of-Life Goods and Services

• Appendix D

  Shelter Options