Needle for invention is cunning.
How not to die of thirst, and at the same time celebrate a birthday.
It was September 1984 of the year. At that time I was a green sergeant of the Central Committee of the KGB of the USSR, the first year of service, in one of the northern provinces of the DRA, therefore, together with my dog Buran, I modestly and meekly carried out our minroboznye duties. And more specifically, we escorted from the border to our base - to the motorized non-evolving group (MMG), a convoy with cargo for MMG needs.
Because of the heat, the mountain-desert landscape on the route, our BTR-iron (Iron - the first BTR in the GPP (head marching outpost)) "drank" all of his and our water.
Nobody has water in the crew, well, almost none. And this “almost” is me. I have a third flask of hot drinking water, but this is not for me, but for the dog, and then not to drink, but just wet my nose so that it does not dry out, so that the scent does not disappear at all. Because there is one more pass ahead that we will sniff - from this side 2 km ascent (the dog will pass 4-6 km in zigzag), the descent is shorter and more abrupt.
And we would rather like to get over this pass because there is a small aryk on the other side of the pass, at its foot. The water in this watermark flows all year round and is always cold. It can be poured into radiators, you can swim, only you can not drink it, it is bitter-salty, like in the sea! But still, with this water we filled all the containers available on board, for such water is better than none at all and moved towards the place of the overnight stay of the column.
At the place where the columns spent the night, we chewed dry nuts and went to bed. My shift to the service fell, of course, in the second half of the night. Having run up during the day in the heat, I got a little exhausted and just lay down, so I immediately disconnected and .... I see: I am on the armor of an armored troop-carrier in zero camouflage on familiar courtyards of my city, at the porches of my grandmother are sitting, in the front gardens there are flowers smelling sweet, in general, everything is extremely beautiful and soulful. Suddenly, a friend of a girl jumps out of the entrance, takes off onto the armor, kisses me on the cheek, gives a colored postcard and congratulates me on my birthday!
I open my eyes ... EPRST! Around the night, I lay on a vest all covered in dust under an armored troop-carrier (the safest place to spend the night on level ground). And not the girl kisses me on the cheek, but Buraha pokes his dry, rough nose, my grandfather stands by the call and invites me to join the service, since my time has come!
Having recovered from the shock, I immediately declare to my grandfather that today, it turns out, I have a birthday and it should be noted instantly! They began to think about something to mark him or at least something to drink. And then a brilliant formula came to my mind. I remembered that in our BTR, in a box with suhpay there is an open three-kilogram can of tomato paste! And salt water from aryk + tomato paste + stir as it should = TOMATO JUICE! And a lot of cold tomato juice! Sample method established the necessary proportion for the ingredients and began to celebrate. That was a thrill !!! True Birthday! Burahe also mixed, he laughed the floor of his helmet and did not wince. The men from the crew got up in the morning, I also mixed them, and mixed them with the next crew. In general, celebrated in a big way.
By the way, since then I adore tomato juice, and that girl that jumped with congratulations on the APC became my wife.
So there!
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