Just the Thing for the Feet of Leathernecks
Rudyard Kipling knew the importance of good footwear to the fighting man. So does Pepe Ramirez.
In his poem “Boots,” Kipling provides the infantry’s vision of hell on earth:
It-is-not-fire-devils, dark, or anything,/But boots-boots-boots-boots-movin’ up an’ down again.
Ramirez, a Marine Corps staff sergeant and drill instructor at the recruit depot here, has his own way of describing the same age-old devotion.
“If your feet feel bad, it’s not long before your head feels bad,” said Ramirez. “But if your feet are OK, you’re good-to-go.”
In an effort to keep American troops “good-to-go,” a quiet revolution is underway in how U.S. military personnel are shod. Expensive, high-tech items like the Seawolf submarine and Super Hornet jet fighter may get more headlines, but to the rank-and-file, nothing has had a more immediate impact than what is happening to their footgear. The change is most profound and widespread in the Marine Corps, possibly because it has been championed and made a top priority by the corps’ commandant, Gen. Charles Krulak.
For the first time, the military is buying boots that were designed for civilians--especially hikers, mountain climbers and outdoor enthusiasts--featuring state-of-the-art fabrics and designs.
They are stylish and comfortable, two attributes not often associated with combat boots.
The Matterhorn brand being purchased by the Marines from Cove Shoe Co. of Martinsburg, Pa., is lighter, cooler, more shock-absorbent and more water-resistant than the traditional combat boot. Cowhide has been replaced with Gore-Tex and Teflon.
The bottom of the sole has a Goodyear welt to provide more grip. The inner “bootie” is softer and yet more resistant to insidious fungi.
And the label is stamped boldly on the heel, meaning that the next time Marines are ordered to an international hot spot, they will become the first troops to go into combat in designer footwear.
“The new boots are like something from heaven,” said Sgt. Bryant Hawkins, assigned to an engineering battalion at Camp Pendleton. He wore the new boots in the muck and mud of Alaska during a road-building project.
“By getting good quality gear out to the field, our people will not only be happier, but they’ll also be more effective and lethal,” said Major Sherman Bierly, project officer at the Marine Corps’ Systems Command at Quantico, Va.
The Marine Corps began issuing the new boots to recruits in November and then to troops in the field and at sea. Every Marine is scheduled to have the improved footgear by September 1999.
The old system for procuring footgear consisted of the military bringing small tomes of government-written specifications to American shoe manufacturers and instructing them in how to build a military boot from the ground up.
The result was a combat boot largely unchanged from World War II. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the boot was cold in winter, hot in summer, devilishly difficult to break in, and once wet tended to stay soggy for days.
“The old boot was barely better than going barefoot, bio-mechanically,” Bierly said. “All the stress of walking or marching was transmitted to the foot and the leg with little cushioning or support.”
Key Role in History
The battle of the blister, the raw heel, the toe fungus, the rash, the fallen arch, the ingrown toenail, “trench foot” and the shin-splint have long been a daily part of the infantryman’s life.
During the Crimean War, English soldiers nearly revolted after quartermasters gave them boots with flimsy soles. Ill-shod Confederate troops first went to Gettysburg not to confront the Union troops, but in hopes of raiding a brogan-filled warehouse.
Allied troops on D-Day were immediately weighed down by combat boots full of icy seawater. In Operation Desert Storm, Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was reportedly furious that the footgear given to some of his soldiers was ripped apart by desert heat.
“I think it’s fair to say that every Marine since 1776 has talked about his footgear,” said Lt. Col. Leonard Robert, assistant chief of staff for operations at the San Diego recruit depot.
It is one of nature’s perversities that the human foot is nearly impossible to toughen up in the same manner as the rest of the body. The most squared-away, buffed out Marine can have feet as tender as the proverbial baby’s posterior. Old-time Marines used to soak their feet in brine to harden the skin.
Every Marine seems to have his or her strategy for protecting their feet: Some prefer powder, others Vaseline, some even wrap their feet the way boxers wrap their hands. You can get a disagreement in any barracks about whether it makes more sense to wear a thin pair of socks or a thick one, or a thin one and a thick one.
“I’ve been in the corps 19 years and I’ve never seen a march where you don’t have guys working over their feet and preparing for pain,” said 1st Sgt. David A. Francisco, in charge of drill instructors for L Company at the San Diego recruit depot.
The footgear change had to buck a school of thought that says if something was good enough for Marines at Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal and Phu Bai, it is damn well good enough for modern Marines.
“We finally told the military: You guys are stuck back in the 1940s when it comes to shoe technology,” said Chuck Covatch, president of Cove Shoe Co. “We told them they should take advantage of all the research and development that has gone into the civilian market.”
That idea found an especially receptive audience in Krulak. Shortly before becoming commandant of the 170,000-person corps in 1995, Krulak had experienced an equipment epiphany.
Standing in the cold wind and rain of South Korea, he realized that the jacket he and the younger Marines were wearing was essentially the same jacket that his father--retired Marine Lt. Gen. Victor Krulak--wore at the Inchon landing during the Korean War. The two-man pup tent was even older, vintage World War I.
Krulak signed a directive pledging the Marine Corps to provide better combat boots, clothing, sleeping bags, tents and other gear.
The Marine Corps is now in the process of distributing that equipment to its troops around the world. “This is a great boot for you,” Krulak told Marines at Camp Pendleton recently.
In making the switch, the Marine Corps asked American boot makers to submit models that could fit the corps’ needs. After testing and an initial purchase, the corps selected two boots for the future: the Matterhorn from Cove and the TLS-700 from Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Co. of Belleville, Ill. The Marines are paying more for the new boots-- $82 a pair compared to $69 for cowhide.
With approval from the corps, both manufacturers also are marketing their “Marine combat boot” to the civilian market. Even at a retail price of about $133, sales are good. “Every weekend athlete wants to think he’s as tough as a Marine,” Covatch said.
The Army is studying the Matterhorns and using some civilian designs for specialty footwear, like its boot for cold and wet weather. But it is still using the old GI specifications for its main combat boot worn every day by hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Recruits First to Benefit
Among the first to benefit from the new Marine boots are the 42,000 yearly recruits trained at depots in San Diego and at Parris Island, S.C. Not for nothing is Marine Corps training known as boot camp.
A study by the Navy and Johns Hopkins University found that lower-extremity injuries--including shin-splints and stress fractures--were the leading cause of recruits washing out of boot camp.
“We say these kids are the Nintendo generation because they play so many computer games,” equipment officer Robert Padilla said as he handed out Matterhorns to new Marines at the San Diego depot. “But they’re also the Nike generation. Many of them have never worn hard-soled shoes when they come here.”
There are downsides to the new boots. They are not particularly suited for parade-ground marching. Also, the boot does not spit-shine as nicely as its predecessor.
Cove, which made other changes for the Marines, is exploring further modifications to keep the Matterhorn heel from being worn down quickly during marching. The Marines march more than other services and use a unique marching-style that puts significant pressure on the bottom of the heel on each step.
New boots or no, the Marine Corps is not relaxing its vigilance against foot problems. Research is underway to develop better socks, known in military jargon as “sock systems.”
At boot camp, drill instructors preach the value of foot care and the proper way to trim an ingrown toenail. Navy corpsmen visit frequently. Each squad bay has a “witch doctor,” usually a recruit with some health care training, who asks his fellow recruits about their feet.
On long marches there is an official protocol. During rest periods the Marines are expected to inspect their M-16 rifles and their feet before they even think of water or food.
“In the Marine Corps,” said recruit Chris McKeon, 19, of Burnsville, Minn., “feet are everything.”
