The National Defense Education Program’s “Lab TV” has a great video on the Army’s Modular boot program. They interviewed Natick Soldier Center’s Mike Holthe who is a footwear engineer and he discusses some of the factors that go into developing effective combat footwear.
Check out the website. In addition to the footwear episode, there is information on a wide variety of programs ongoing at our military labs.
Remember the old paint by the numbers sets you used to get from your Great Aunt for Christmas? Looking at the condition of these CADPAT-TW Temperate Combat Boots currently undergoing trials, you would need the boot polish equivalent to get them back in shape. This photo of a pair of the trials boots was sent to us and identified as having reached this condition after three weeks of field use. Granted, boots usually get scraped up in the field. The difference here is that with so many colors going on, there is no way to use polish to restore the leather. That is unless there was a polish by the numbers kit.
Here is this week’s batch of interesting stories…
Call of Duty: Black Ops announced for November
Bushmaster A-TACS M4-Type Carbine Now Available
New Vector Mountain Boot from Pro Force
“Slim†Compact Bluetooth Keyboard From Brando May Be the Perfect iPad Accessory
How Much Would It Cost to Make a Real Iron man Suit?
According to an article in the Townsville Bulletin Soldiers marching in this year’s annual ANZAC Day parade suffered numerous blow outs. It seems that the spec was changed on the black dress boots to a glued rather than stitched soles. During the march in the pavement several Diggers lost their soles. Townsville is like Australia’s Fort Benning and the celebration is big, so something like this garners national attention. Granted, the issue has only affected black boots which are only worn with dress uniforms and the issue was rectified, but Soldiers still had not received the proper footwear prior to the event.
We contacted readers in Australia who confirmed that they also saw this at other ANZAC Day parades but the men soldiered on without missing a beat. We don’t have anything quite like ANZAC Day here in the US. It’s what Veteran’s Day probably was like after the War to End All Wars and ANZAC does have it’s roots in the memory of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops who served the empire in World War One. One of the most reverent experiences I ever had in the military was honoring ANZAC Day at a sunrise memorial service at Ali al Saalem airbase in Kuwait in 1998. It’s unfortunate that the Digger’s boots fell apart during such an important event, but what is even more unfortunate is that they fell apart at all.
Over the past several years we have seen numerous images of boots printed in CADPAT TW but now they are finally undergoing a test to determine the best color scheme for Canadian military footwear. Presently, DND has pitted CADPAT TW against the solid DND Maxi-Brown in a large-scale user wear trial to verify whether or not the latest version of the Temperate Combat Boot passes user acceptance for comfort and durability. A visual detection test will be conducted later this year to determine which version (CADPAT or Maxi-Brown) performs better in term of increasing soldier survivability through reducing their visual signature. Once the results of the user wear trial and visual detection test are compiled, the final version will be put to contract sometime in the 2011-2013 time frame.
All photos Canadian DND
Salomon took their most popular Gore-tex lined trail shoe and adjusted the height to protect the ankle. They are lightweight yet keep your feet stable in scrub or on the trail. I have been wearing a pair for a week and appreciate the comfort as well as Salomon’s friction-free lace eyelets. You just pull on the laces and tuck the excess in the pocket.
They are available in two color schemes, Black/Asphalt/Turf (shown) and Detroit/Black/X-Games which are mainly Grey with Orange accents. They will accept paint for those who need the extra camo. It is important to know that Salomons run a little small.
The best place to find the 3D Mid GTX Ultra is Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. As soon as they saw them, they laid in a good supply for units in the Tidewater of Virginia area. For those of you in Hampton Roads be sure to stop by Blue Ridge’s Hilltop store in Virginia Beach were there will be plenty on hand.
Magnum boots has launched a new website to host boot reviews. This is a great opportunity if you are a Magnum boot user to not only provide feedback directly to the company but also to score some free schwag.
This is a good example of a review. Visit www.magnumboots.com/us/fieldtesters if you think you have what it takes to become an official field tester.
Deliveries begin this week for the much anticipated Bootistan from OTB Boots. The waterproof Bootistan mountain boot is lined with Sympatex and features a dual density Ortholite footbed covered with Dri-lex. They are currently offered in Desert Tan for use with uniforms as well as Brown with a Black Vibram sole and rubber rand for those who are looking for something a little more discreet.
Look for them at OTBboots.com or wherever OTB footwear are sold.
