Years ago, an unknown German army officer said that, “war was chaos, and the American Army practices chaos every day. That is why America was so good at war.” I couldn’t have said it better. In the six years I spent in my Uncle Sam’s Army, we rarely did anything that was green, though efficiency was practiced all the time. Occasionally, the practice of efficiency lined up with the mission and the environment benefitted for it.
In one of my training camps, my platoon of 45 men was housed in a long barrack. Midway down the long hallway was a bathroom with three showers. At the conclusion of our morning workout, each man was expected to shower, clean the barracks, get dressed and back in formation in a matter of about 25 minutes. That’s right. Let’s do the math again. 45 Men, 3 showers, 25 minutes. What transpired was an ingenious system of efficiency which equates to a minute long shower.
All three showers were turned on. The men would line up behind each other and progress sequentially through the showers.(Thank God we weren't in the Navy)
Shower 1: Step in and get wet. Step out. Soap up.
Shower 2: Step in and rinse off. Step out. Wash hair.
Shower 3: Step in and rinse off.
Believe it or not, you could get all 45 men through the shower in about 7 or 8 minutes! What a score for water conservation.
Today I still take about a 2 minute shower. Yesterday, Carrie clocked me at 77 seconds. I preach water conservation to the point that my kids tune me out sometimes... until I turn the hot water off at the tank if their shower runs long. -Jason
I take "navy showers", Flick on shower get wet, turn off shower soap up, flick on shower rinse off.
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