Milsurp After Hours

Moved to a new house and was sorting through the boxes of stuff...much which probably should have been pitched instead of moved.... and I came to my mismatched set of combat boots. These actually came home with me, as my "good" pair, from Vietnam in December of 1970. I could only have one pair and the one that looked like hell stayed.

Long and not interesting story about how they got mismatched, but what is interesting is the different tread design and the different manufacturers.

My Dad still has the pair he wore home in 1969. They have the smaller size tread on the sole if I recall.

Had an Australian all leather upper pair in 1970. Wasn't in 'Nam but was a civilian working for the D^D at the time. A number of trucks came in for repair and in the back of one there was a crate of Combat Boots.

Naturally no one wanted to upset Ordnance and return the boots, this would have caused untold trouble and paperwork and expense so we decided to do the Government a favour and save the taxpayers' money.

I had those boots for years; they were top quality and had a spring steel plate sandwiched in the rubber sole to stop sharp objects.

Eoin.

Bata boots are still in operation making various kinds of footwear. Although these seem to be surplus. Check out this link.

http://www.galleria-e.com/cgi-bin/Colem ... uct/084601

Ro-Search is still in operation too. Here's a link to their offerings. Hard to figure which is most like the actual thing we had in those days.

Probably whatever the cheapest version is. They weren't "speed lacing" for sure.

http://www.wellco.com/html/vietnam_jung ... green.html

I ordered a pair of the Ro-search to see if they look any different.

This is more in the way of a question of how alike are the modern made versions of the clothes we wore back then. I did this with a jungle hat a year or two ago.

Anyway, the Ro Search soles look about identical to the original Bata soles, not the original Ro Search soles.

The shoe has the metal shank in itt...so it says. The eyelets look a little smaller. The shoe strings look identical in weave and feel. The drain holes look a lot like and are in the same locations as the original.

Tried them on. Felt like boots. ....... by the way, wore them around for an afternoon and got a blister on my heel. Kind of like the real thing for sure. LOL

pretty neat being able to duplicate the boots and the blister is pretty much the clincher I never had a pair of GI issue that didn't put a blister some where