After the search and rescue operations are finished and the survivors have been accounted for, the next step in recovering from a disaster is securing the one resource that keeps us alive- water.

  In the final part of our series that takes us to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, where the US military is training for a brand new home-bound mission, KSPR's Joanna Small shows us how Missouri soliders are turning liquid waste into the resource that sustains us.

  "That's our primary mission in life, to produce water."

  It may not sound that challenging; after all, nearly three-quarters of the Earth's surface is already water.

  But a vast portion of it is practically impossible to swallow.

  "This had a range of 27, a TVS level of 27,000, which is not consumable. There's rust agent in there, and that will basically break down your immune system and you'd have kidney failure probably in 72 hours," explains section Sergeant Aaron Forbes.

  In the event of a disaster, Natural or man-made, though, that's water we'll need.

   "This right here in the TWPs, the tactical water purification system," Forbes continues, pointing to a large, box-shaped machine.

  "This is the main one for the battalion. It has the capacity to roll out 1,500 gallons a water per hour," explains Lt. Colonel Charles Demery, Battalion Commander for the 193rd BSB attached to the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade out of Fort Leonard Wood.

  Demery's soliders, led by Forbes, are using the TWPs to purify thousands of gallons of water for transport to thirsty survivors.

   The assumption: all treated water has been lost in a nuclear explosion.

  The water purification system is designed to clean water of everything from E. coli and other bacteria to dead bodies.

  In fact, the only thing it can't remove is nuclear radiation.

  So once this source has been deemed radiation-free, the process begins.

  This is what Forbes and his team spend their careers preparing for.

  "We train all over the country. We train up in Michigan, at Fort Story in Virginia for salt water training."

  But this training exercise is the TWPs' first debut in the field.

  "We're replacing one of the axle seals on the wheels- it had blown," says Specialist Andrew Nord.

  He is with the people who make sure the TWPs and all other equipment gets to the field.
 

  "We're capable to work on anything from generators to trailers, trucks, engineering equipment, dozers- anything that comes into contact with this task force," Sergeant First Class John Baze tells us.

  Also from Fort Leonard Wood, his soldiers have a different mission within the larger recovery mission.

  "We really can't mess up on this effort. Everybody relies on these trucks and it's our job to actually push them out," Nord says, as he works to repair the wheel he told us about earlier.

  What goes on there ensures the TWPs can go on to sustain survivors.

  "Right now it's tested, so it's chlorinated, pottable, and ready for human consumption," Forbes says, as he pours a sample of the newly cleaned water into a bottle.

  He hands it to me, and I drink up.

  It's good, but it doesn't have to be.

  It just has to do its job- easy, because the soldiers are doing theirs.

  Explains Forbes, "You know that your mission means more than yourself."

The goal of the c-cmrf (c-smurf) mission is that it never has to be put to use in the real-world. But military personnel say- unfortunately- recent events of the past prove that c-cmrf will likely be needed in the near future.