That's fucking awesome.



Slayer.







 

Music is an awesome tool. No way I'm going to admit what goes through my mind when I'm off on my own, though. My mind wanders a lot...

 

Boot modification is an old school thing. We all know the SOPC specials on Yadkin. Thing is, nobody ever wears them after SOPC. . Most guys learn what they are looking for by getting mixed in with guys coming from other units and find an aftermarket boot that will work instead of cutting up the issued boots. FWIW, most guys who ruck a lot (and I mean a fucking LOT), and have to wear boots compliant with AR670-1, go with S2Vs or Garmonts.

Holy shit, I thought I was the only one

Not Slayer, but after a couple of weeks of no music in bootcamp, it turned out that I had MP3-quality recordings of Funker Vogt, Flogging Molly, Nine Inch Nails, etc kicking around in my head.  I could pretty much pause, skip and rewind.  It was absolutely uncanny but it went away after I got back out into the real world.

Guess I'll have a built-in soundtrack for TEOTWAWKI



Re the thread, I'm gonna try modding up my jungle boots to get rid of the hotspots at the heels.  I've been working around it with socks and moleskin but they still piss me off.  Also the footwraps look neat.  They could be a lifesaver in emergency situations.

Absolute fucking truth.




Also, would this be the thread to discuss ruck set-up?

On the barefoot issue.
I'm a fan of barefoot, but it has no place when rucking.

barefoot is for carrying YOUR weight.

But when you are carrying 100 pounds extra, your foot is simply not structured for that.  Ancient romans were essentially barefoot, but they also carried less weight while being conditioned as young children to be more effective.

Stiff boots, 6" ankle to provide the extra support your feet require.

To add on, you also have to add in the "approach" load, which can exceed 100 pounds.  

There was always the debate in light whether or not to drop your ruck on contact or fight with it.  My attitude is to drop it.  Take every advantage in the fight you can.  Too much weight, not enough movement.

I don't see why not.

Eta: I mean for the ruck thing. As for drop rucks or not, I never did. It sucked, but I never had to worry about going back for it.

anal entry 95.

I only did a month of engineer support but had a lot of fun there.

I think the REI in Buford had a few Lowas and Asolo's in stock. Its wear I went to try on a pair of Zephyers before I bought the size and color I wanted off Amazon.

Its generally not an allergy.  Cheap wool is thick.  and I mean the individual strands are thick (coarse)  So when they press against the skin, instead of bending, they poke into the skin.  Some guys (like me) are irritated by this.  I guess I am "thin skinned"

Good wool has finer strands that bend against the skin and don't cause irritation.  So the old green wool sweater drove me nuts, but a fine wool sweater feels fine against my skin.

Wool is good.  but you have to pay extra if you are a little bitch like me.

This.  Your ash and trash is useless to you if you die because you were too slow.

And if you win the fight, you get to come back for your ruck anyway, versus being dead where someone else gets to get your ruck.

 

If you ever want to see your woobie again you'll fight like a hell hound!!!!  

I'd stack bodies like cord wood for my woobie.
 

ost

For years, the best practice at JRTC was for the OPFOR to hump in carrying whatever they needed in their ALICE packs, then cache them under a bush in a creek.

I wasnt a big fan of dropping rucks on contact, its already too late; troops would be smoked from humping in with their gear and were not ready to run and maneuver; additonally, during consolidation and reorganization noone knew where they dropped their stuff. Saw a few patrols hump in exhausted from moving with 100lb+ loads and as soon as they made contact they were out hustled.

The key was cache your gear, guard it with a small team, then patrol forward light and clear the area to your front. Go back, pick up your gear, carry it forward, recache and repeat.

It worked best  to treat it like a semi athletic event; start at the fight, the decisive point, and work backwards. Seek to make contact light on load and relatively rested, and work your way backwards.  Doesnt matter how fast you move and how much you carry if you die on contact.  Sometimes that is not the situation you are faced with but it is the goal. The bad guys fight that way.

I did it for a 24 day course that involved a lot of individual movements every day with 85lb rucksack, and many of those routes involved going through water. A guy in LRS recommended the technique to me, and I tried it out. It worked for me extremely well, and the only blisters I got were those tiny little pressure blisters at the tips of some of my toes, nothing to write home about. I caked on Vaseline on my feet every morning in that course, and even re-applied it if I had been on a really long movement where you start to lose track of day and night, and are by yourself.

I was one of the first ones to complete the final 24 mile ruck march, with no real foot issues other than swelling and tenderness.  I would soak my feet in ice water every chance I got at the end of the day while doing hand-wash laundry, and sleep with my feet elevated on my rucksack religiously to deal with swelling.  I went from a size 11N to 12R in that 24 day period.

As far as making contact with your existence load, it sucks.  Most conventional infantry units will put the rucks on vehicles if there aren't enough trucks to move everyone, and long movements with the ruck are usually conducted along routes that are relatively secure.

For smaller units where your existence load is crucial, and you have very limited or no contact with a logistics chain, we did our battle drills with and without rucks, day and night, front-left-right-rear contact scenarios, with each team member rotated through every duty position. It makes for a long training week, but will knit you together as a unit in ways that almost no combat arms units ever even go near, because of the time and effort required, as well as leadership competence to plan and supervise it.

Here are some pics from my first Scout Platoon, which actually took the time to do everything I described over an 8-day period in the summer, and later followed-up with the live fire + claymores training after we built up each Recon Team proficiency with blanks and M18 smokes. Notice the open pouch on top of my rucksack-that was Platoon SOP where we carried a claymore mine specifically for break contact drills like this:




Speaking of boots, as a young PFC, I went out and had a set of my OD Green Jungle boots re-soled with the sharktooth soles, and learned the hard way that there is no lateral traction with that sole pattern. That's what I'm wearing in the pic, and I think you can even see the mud caked up on them.

In that Platoon, we had SOP's where we had to have 3 canteens, 3 M16 30rd mag pouches, 2 Compass/First Aid Pouches, and a buttpack. As a kid, well before I even joined the Army, I had sewn a USMC nylon first aid kit to the side of my buttpack, and you can see it in this pic.  We had to have 1 broken down MRE, 2 pairs of socks in zip lock bags, and some other survival items in the buttpack.

I took my nylon LC-1 "Y" harness, and turned it into an "H" harness by removing the center piece of webbing, and replacing it with two lengths of 1" webbing, but I re-routed them on themselves through a heavy duty tri-glide so that there was no running end to tape up, and I could quickly adjust the length so the buttpack would be below my kidney pad on the rucksack, then hike it up once the ruck was off in a hide site or Objective Rally Point. It also made life much easier when rigging up under the parachute harness.

We still had some of the older NCO's with M-1956 H Harnesses, and they are a lot more comfortable, but rot quickly because of their cotton canvas construction.  I basically was around to watch the transition from LC-1, to the TLBV/LCS-88, the variations of TLBV from OD Green/integrated with the assault pack, to woodland 500 Denier, to 1000 Denier with mesh backing, then to the original MOLLE/Land Warrior, to the Army-wide MOLLE system.  MOLLE was a heaven-send compared to the meat hooks and ALICE clips of the old pistol belt-centered M-1956 and LC-1 days.

I used an H-Harness but ground off the hooks and used gutted 550.

Nice and flat.

Same here. It was pretty standard in some units to take the Squad Special Items of Equipment bolt cutters, and cut off all the meat hooks, then replace them with 550 cord. 550 cord is a lot stronger and will take opening shock impact better during airborne operations as well.  It's also quieter, but those days are gone now.

The vests I have made from scratch based on years of individual AAR's are light years more comfortable and user-friendly than anything the Army ever issued.

Very good thread.

I did the schools, but never lived the life.  My son is enlisting infantry and I am going to have him read this thread.

A lot of lessons learned the hard way in this thread.

Most of the things I learned were passed on to me by NCO's who not only cared, but were the class of men who internalized being a professional soldier at a personal level-the kind that is with many from childhood.

I could tell the difference very quickly between guys who knew a lot of helpful TTP's and tricks, but were really just marking time until retirement, versus the ones who breathed being a professional warrior.  LRS was filled with guys like that, both the LRS "hippies" and LRS Ranger types-the ones who had spent all their time in Battalion, but couldn't get or keep an E-6 slot in their unit due to numbers.

One thing that was very prominent in the institutional knowledge of the reconnaissance community even in the 1990's was the lessons learned from Vietnam, and that was the main driving force in the way we did out Immediate Action Drills in my first Scout Platoon and in LRS, but the other 2 Scout Platoons allowed big Army thinking to weasel it's way in and hand over battle drills from 7-8, try to force the fire team wedge when it wasn't appropriate for the terrain, and let the Company Commander have too much input into how a 6-man or 5-man Recon Team conducts its IAD's because of a Risk Assessment matrix, versus effective IADs.

The Marine Reconnaissance Community has not lost all the lessons from SEA, and there are kids I've spoken to last year from one of the Battalion Recon units in 1st MARDIV that mentioned some of the details in their IADs that are bread and butter to them, whereas 2 out of the 3 Scout Platoons I was in never even breached the subject.  I think it's best left for discussion at the unit level, but it is a room least traveled with a lot of units that should be using it as one of the go-to techniques. It's basically straight out of Sun Tsu.

I would very much like to start a cadet training program, the likes of which have not been seen before. Send young selectees into active duty and commissions with their individual skill sets having been trained on for months and years, with a heavy study load of geography and history, combined with language training, without the government leashing the training to the typical POI's we see where the chow hall is priority, followed by droning morons who really don't care about the outcome, as long as they hit 20 and get dat check.

Combine the knowledge base of guys who have BTDT, and structure a private sector solution to individual and collective training tasks that the military drops the ball on, in preparing out Nation's youth for exporting the force tool of our foreign policy.

Never was high speed.  Never went anywhere cool.  I wore jungles nearly every day, mostly because there was less leather to polish.  

I knew something was wrong with my feet when I ETS'd.  About four years after I got out I was walking down some stairs and I felt my right foot essentially break in half across the middle.  Apparently my metawhatevers had broken across and I had hundreds of bone fragments just floating around.  One large piece rotated 90 degrees and was trying to push through the skin on top.  It hurt.  The surgery hurt.  They basically cut my foot lengthwise down the center, used spreaders to get to everything and vacuumed out all the chunkage.  The recovery just plain sucked.  It took a few years to get feeling back in my toes.  Even now I have to wear larger than necessary shoes to accommodate the height disparity between my feet.  I wear Crocs all year round when I'm not at work.

I remember the senior NCOs in my mortar platoon as being old.  They seemed ancient even though they were likely 35-37 years old, significantly younger than I am now.  Their backs, hips and feet were trashed from two decades of humping 60mm and 81mm systems all over the world.  I imagine they are old men now and living in agony.

Take care of your feet and back young infantrymen.  NCOs, docs, officers, take it upon yourself to educate and push these guys into the right footwear and equipment and methodology of carrying heavy loads.

Does anyone still make a good pair of jungle boots?

The new rockys look promising. There hasn't really been a great option since belleville stopped making theirs.

tag

Im waiting for coon skin and alligator hide...

Thats for jump boots, cherry.

Foot Fungus and other Personal Hygiene Considerations

I got a bad case of foot fungus from the showers in JRTC at Fort Polk, Louisiana, after being out in the swamps & forest for 3 weeks.  When we got back to our duty station and I was finally able to look at it, there was this huge black pus filled blister under my toes. It was foul.



When in an area behind the wire, or where large numbers of troops are marshaled, you need to have some good flip flops. Don't waste your time with the crappy 2 dimensional ones from the PX or Clothing & Sales or the Marine Corps/Navy Exchange. Get some very comfortable, thick soled, contoured sandals that will keep your feet happy in times when you are not outside the wire.

Most forward-deployed locations I have been in had either gravel or mud for grading, with a few exceptions. Gravel will tear your sore feet up after being out in the boonies, when you are recovering from mission and are walking to the showers.

Most contractor-built shower trailers allow water to pool in the floor, and ones that have proper drainage get clogged with all of Joe's filth of the bottom of his boots, feet, socks, buttcrack, and crotch-rot.

There's nothing like the smelly sensation of a shower trailer, with a view of all the collections of fromundercheeze clogging the drain, leftover personal hygiene items in various stages of life, rags, camo stick residue, and butt-streaked scivvies to welcome your allotted time in the shower.

An ounce of prevention is worth a lifetime of "cure" at the VA hospital.  This is another reason why I religiously powder my feet every morn.  

For sandals, I like the Adidas. They are lightweight, contoured for the foot shape (especially my fallen arches), and deal well with sharp objects on the ground.



I use Birkenstocks when I was in the Army, because they had high arches in the contoured foot beds as well. They were always packed in my A, B, C, or D bag, depending on where the unit dictated the packing list for that level of personal hygiene and logistics structure.

I also painted my Duffel bags with unique patterns to distinguish them from others in a huge green pile, while not making them a high-visibility eye sore like I saw a lot of the Armor and Mech units do with sand colored paint on the bottoms of the bags.  One of my bags was painted woodland camo, which stuck out like a sore thumb. I also lined my D-bags with sleeping mat to protect the contents.

The Army brown towels are about useless for anything other than drying your feet off. I packed a huge beech towels in the bag that was set up for those types of sustained deployments.  I roll and fold the towel the same way I was taught at encampment as a kid, which is the same way we learned in basic for the T-shirts. It cuts down on space consumption bigtime.

I also made my own stuff sacks for my woobie and other snivel gear to make life easier when packing the rucksack. After my first few field problems as a PFC, I learned really quick what was important, and what wasn't, and packed accordingly. Top of the list:

* Woobie
* At least 2-3 pairs of socks more than they called for on the packing list
* Foot powder
* Baby wipes
* Lightweight polypro shirt

Good post.

Always have more than one wash cloth and bar of soap. Don't be that guy that drops it in the shower and keeps using it. The ANA and TCNs do things in those showers. Horrible, unspeakable things.

crocs are good shower shoes.

Gold Bond powder and/or Shower To Shower can make you feel a bit fresher after a shitty whore bath.

I think runners use tape on their nipples lots of times. There was a picture of a guy posted here in a marathon not too long ago who had a bloody shirt from his nipples. On a long elliptical session at the gym the other night my left nipple started to get sore. I might have to start doing the same for that.

Couple of thoughts from a Foot Dr's perspective.   (Not being 'heavy user' of my own feet...not a runner or hiker).   Very good info above...and I've learned some from reading it.

Friction causes most blisters.     The shear between the layers of skin allow the separation of the layers and fluid accumulation.    Keep the feet dry (as mentioned above) and you'll do significantly better than wearing sweaty socks as moisture can increase the friction.  

Polypropylene liner socks (Coolmax or Thermax) socks can help a lot.

Blisters...I'll de-roof them (of course most of my patients are diabetic and elderly), and have them apply Betadine to them to dry them quickly (and prevent infection).

Tinea Pedis (athletes foot) is normally associated with moisture...so if you're keeping your feet dry, you'll not only help prevent the blisters but the tinea.    Betadine actually works well for the splitting between the toes from tinea (dries it quickly)...then using a good antifungal regularly for several weeks will help to eliminate it.

Not applicable for soldiers...but for people who work in boots...you'll do a whole lot better to have two pairs and alternate wearing them to work...that lets them dry out and helps to prevent most moisture issues with your feet, and will help with prolonging their lifespan.

Retgar had good info above about boots, but I'll throw in a bit more....there's actually 3 measurements that are important to a boot/shoe fit.    The third (in addition to the length to the longest toe) is the 'metatarsal length' or 'arch length'...basically the heel to the metatarsal heads (where you're measuring the width).    Boots/shoes are designed to flex in that area...so if you've got stubby toes, you may be wearing shoes that are trying to flex in the wrong spot for your feet.     I'll generally tell people to go with the longest (either overall length or metatarsal length) measurement for the shoes/boots...which means you need one of these for a proper fit:

That old 'where's your toes in the front of the shoe' isn't really a proper way to fit (other than to ensure there's adequate space in front of the toes).

AFARR

This may actually be the most relevant part of your post. If you're in a position to do so, alternating boots will do wonders for keeping your feet healthy. Not having to dry them in the sun every day will also help the life span of the boot.

And on that, if you take a bit and rub it into your hair/stubble it absorbs that greasy feeling that baby wipes just can't get.

It's not just boots.   Any shoes can trap moisture...the first thing I do when I'm treating tinea (or nail fungus...since that generally starts as tinea that got into the nail) is to get the patient not wearing the same shoes two days in a row.    


AFARR

Great info.  I bought some slightly used military boots a little while back.  In great shape with little wear. Started wearing them and my feet would burn!  Ended up pitching them and have been on tinactin for a few weeks now.  Have also done vinegar and cornmeal soaks.

Lesson to take away, never buy used footwear.

A boot dryer can also help, if you have access to electricity. Does nothing for the problem in the field of course.



Johnson's Foot Soap has worked for me to kill fungal infections on my feet. Borax, bran and iodide foot soak. I actually use the Walgreens equivalent. Again, not something you can do out in the field.



(Note: I'm not in the military, but spend most of my days in boots, working outdoors)



 

There have been a few times in my career where I was very, very envious of the one guy that thought to bring a boot dryer.

If you have access to one, they are awesome to have when things get cold, wet, and nasty... Nothing like slogging around a mountain all day, getting wet, and being able to start the next day with bone dry boots.



The only thing that sucks more than slipping on freezing pants in the morning... is putting on damp, frozen boots, knowing that is as dry and warm as your feet will be all day.



 

Living in Alaska we had 6 boot dryers lined up.

Thank's for this thread OP.

As someone who is trapped in steel toed work boots during the day I will see if some of this will translate.

I don't want this to die, I've learned so much.

People with experience, please keep contributing!

This. I was active from '91 to '93 and in the guard after that.  Y-harnesses sucked balls but I kept one for show and used an old canvas H-harness in the field.  I never took off the hooks but used electrical tape to keep them in place and quiet.  Mattered less to me because I was a track borne medic.

I was in ROTC during that time frame, whenever I could get away with it, I wore an H-Harness with old canvas buttpack in the field.  Some nylon H-harnesses were starting to be available, but I didn't bother with one.

Still have my set hanging in the closet, doesn't fit anymore... Doesn't help that my brother used and rearranged it while he was in high school and Army ROTC...