In Search of the Perfect Combat Boot

From Mercury and his winged sandals to Puss n Boots, the Seven League Boots, Cinderella and the Old Man Who Lived in a Shoe, footwear has long held a special place in human history and folklore.

Shoes of some type have been worn nearly as long as people have walked the earth. Our cavemen ancestors strapped shoes made of grass and rawhide to their feet for protection against sharp rocks and rough terrain. Plaited grass sandals, discovered in a cave in Oregon, have been radiocarbon dated to be 10,000 years old and are the oldest shoes on record.

But it's doubtful that any group of people throughout history place more importance on their foot and their footwear than do foot soldiers. As Napoleon surely knew, armies don't really travel on their stomachs. They traveled, then as now, one step at a time on their aching, sometimes bleeding feet. Ironically, the man who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo certainly knew the value of proper footwear. When asked what equipment was most important to a soldier, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, replied, "First, a good serviceable pair of shoes; second, another good serviceable pair of shoes, and third; a pair of half soles."

A century before Christ, Roman soldiers were issued calgae, leather-soled, hobnailed sandals sturdy enough to carry the troops throughout the then known world. "In earlier days, soldiers went into combat with whatever clothes and shoes they had on at the time," said D.A. Saguto, a master shoemaker and the USA's leading expert on the history of shoemaking.

"The Romans brought military footwear to a high art," Saguto said. "They were also the first to mass produce boots in different sizes for the troops, just like soldiers get today from the Quartermaster Corps. These boots were sturdy with hob nails in the soles for traction and durability. They also made a wonderfully impressive noise when they marched down the road, and armies have always liked to sound aggressive. These boots probably ran in two sizes like everything always does for armies-too large and too small. Before the Romans, some armies would go into combat buck naked with nothing but a sword and a shield."

Simply having footwear has never been good enough. Boots must be durable, flexible and comfortable to be of any real value to the military. No less an expert source than the 1928 U.S. Quartermaster Review insists, "A soldier can attend his routine duties, march and fight in almost any kind of clothing, but unless his shoes are properly fitted to insure freedom of movement and comfort, he is of little value to the service. Nothing is so hopeless as a lot of men with foot trouble."

Still, there have always been "a lot of men with a lot of foot trouble. " Americans in the Revolutionary War were issued footwear; the cavalry wore high top boots and the soldiers wore low shoes. Nevertheless, Washington's troops at Valley Forge were forced to wrap their frozen and bleeding feet with strips of cloth when their issue shoes fell apart.

Progress in shoemaking is painfully slow. Until the mid-1800s, cobblers made shoes by hand with tools similar to those used by the Egyptians in 1400 B.C. Many new shoemaking machines were introduced over the years, but most proved useless until American shoemakers and inventors turned to the task.

In 1846, Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, which revolutionized the industry to the point that modern shoemaking is now done almost completely by machine. The quality of shoes and of military boots in particular took a great leap forward in 1858 when Lyman R. Blake invented a sewing machine that improved the method that soles were attached to the bottom of the shoes. Previously, soles were stitched by hand, or attached by hand with pegs and nails. This new machine allowed the outside and upper materials to be joined to the sole by a waxed thread.

According to Saguto, Civil War contracts provided the financial incentive to get many of the new machines into production. "Lyman Blake's machine, later improved by Gordon MacKay and known the world over as 'The MacKay,' is one major example," he said. "MacKay glad-handed around Washington in 1860-61 to convince the Quartermaster Corps to bankroll his machine to make Army shoes."

American manufacturers and the military have often been leaders in the march to construct the perfect combat boot. Before America entered World War I, soldiers wore field shoes called the Russet Marching Shoe. Machine made with calfskin, they looked good and the troops liked them because they took a good shine. The Russet wasn't durable enough for a hard marching army, however, so the military adopted a new boot that American manufacturers were already selling to the French and Belgian armies. This boot evolved into the 1917 Trench Boot. They were made of tanned cowhide with a half middle sole covered by a full sole with iron plates fixed to the heel. The doughboys of the Great War wore them proudly.

But the Trench Boot also had its problems, including a lack of waterproofing, so the search for the perfect combat boot continued. In 1918, a panel of officers made recommendations for improvements to General John "Black Jack" Pershing, who forwarded the study to the War Department. This was the birth of the Pershing Boot, or the 1918 Trench Boot. Keeping the 1917 version's strong points and correcting its weaknesses, the sturdy Pershing Boot was made of heavier leather and the troops dubbed then "Little Tanks."

The best type of boot to wear into combat is dictated by the climate of the battlefield. Unfortunately, the heavy Pershing Boot and its successors proved to be remarkably unsuitable for the soldiers fighting in the jungles of the Pacific during World War II. Troops in hot and humid Burma and the Philippines would sweat five or more quarts of water a day and it didn't take long before sweat soaked their uniforms, then ran down their legs and into their shoes. The leather rotted and the nails rusted and their shoes literally fell apart during jungle marches.

American inventiveness once again came to the rescue when the World War II Jungle Boot was introduced. They had water permeable cotton duck uppers that permitted water and sweat to run our and to prevent mud and sand from entering. Jungle boots evolved again when the U.S. sent troops to Vietnam. The Vietnam-era Tropical Combat Boot sported nylon duck uppers, leather covering for the foot and small drains to prevent water from collecting. A cleated, vulcanized sole was embedded with a thin steel plate to prevent injuries from bamboo traps. Its sole collected mud, however, and soldiers had difficulty climbing slippery jungle trails.

Jungle boots with minor modifications continue to be used, but in the early 1990s, American GIs were also issued tan desert boots during the Gulf War. A synthetic woven liner kept moisture from the skin and eyelets were removed to keep sand out of the boot. Too hot for the desert climate, the embedded steel plates were also removed.

The most recent development is the Improved Jungle-Desert Boot, which the Marines introduced this year. Made with olive colored nylon uppers, the leather bottoms are rough-side out, can't be shined, and supposedly won't stand out in a jungle environment.

Reportedly, the boot is nearly invisible when viewed through night vision goggles, while black boots tend to glow. A Gortex lining makes the boot waterproof.

Belleville Shoe Company in Belleville, Ill., manufactures the new Marine Combination boot. Founded in 1904, the company makes more than one-half million pairs of boots each year and sells more footwear to the American military than any other company. Vice president David Herr said that the military is always looking for ways to improve its footwear.

"The military is turning to more comfortable boots with biomechanical properties that will reduce injuries in the lower extremities," Herr said, "Today's boots are more shock absorbent, require less break-in time, offer better protection and are more comfortable and durable."

So, is this the perfect combat boot? Probably not. In the shoemaking business, progress is made on step at a time.