Home Contact AFVN Past Contacts AFVN Roster POWS: The Honored Taps: Those Departed AFVN Organization AFVN Reunions
AFVN History AFVN Photos & Stories AFVN Group Conversations Audio Archives Video Archives AFVN Guest Book
Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
AFVN Group Conversations
From: Dick Ellis
Dated: April 16, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
Here is what the caption on the photo said....." I got this pair when I was selected to document the field testing of this unique design by the 9th Inf Div in the Delta. 1968. " I guess they came from NADC in Mass. which was the test lab for all new stuff . One guy wrote back and said most of this stuff was tested at the jungle training center in Panama....but I guess around 1968 Nam was the easiest place to give them a try. Only a few soldiers got these things to test and apparently it didn't work out too well. The only ones left are in museums!
Dick
From: Paul Kasper
Dated: April 16, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
I was with the 9th in 67-68 and 90% sure I never saw a pair like that. We had the canvas with the tiny vent holes in the lower side. they basically rotted off in so much water and mud.
Stan Pratt
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 15, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
Couldn’t see through mine, but they were solid nylon fabric on the top, which I think was regular issue.
Ken
From: Dick Ellis
Dated: April 15, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
How many of you guys got to wear a pair of these jungle boots in Vietnam? I got this pair when I was selected to document the field testing of this unique design by the 9th Inf Div in the Delta. I'm not sure they were ever approved for issuing to the troops in combat. My photo: Carl C. Hansen DASPO (Department of the Army Special Photographic Office) 1967 or 68.
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: April 17, 2019
Subject: Jungle Boots
These are the ones we were issued, including the steel sole inner liner and a weird insert made of coiled nylon, supposedly to keep our feet dry. That steel sole bit was not very much protection. I bent the arch of one scaling a ladder. I wore out my first pair on the river four months after I got to Vinh Long, but my second pair lasted me well beyond 1976 when I was wearing them while swamp stomping at Argentina.
Third Pattern Jungle Boot (Panama Sole)
From: Preston Cluff
Dated: April 16, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
I never saw these in five years, Dick! Where the hell did they come from...or go?
Preston
From: Dick Ellis
Dated: April 16, 2019
Subject: Jungle Boots
I posted a photo last week of some "Experimental" Jungle Boots that were issued to only a few soldiers to test in the Boonies...but were never produced. I have received several comments saying they were issued a green jungle boot but not the extreme netting of the ones I showed. I understand as the ones I showed were only experimental.
Below are photos of the boots that were issued to about 99% of those who were sent to Vietnam from about 1965 on. Some of us were never issued Jungle Fatigues or Jungle Boots for our trip to the Nam. I was told at Ft. Bragg that I would be issued them when I got to Vietnam along with a raincoat I was never issued. I spent 14 months in-country and never got boots or fatigues or raincoat. We wore Khaki short sleeves and low quarter shoes for the first 6-months I was there and fatigues and black boots after Tet. Each time I asked for Jungle boots and fatigues I was told they were only for those with combat MOS's..... A couple of guys leaving country gave me two pairs of fatigues and I had my name strip sewed on them.
This boot featured the same all cotton upper construction like the first and second pattern, and the second pattern's nylon backstay reinforcement and top binding. The most noticeable difference is the addition of a nylon ankle reinforcing band. These boots were first issued with the same Vibram Sole of the first and second model jungle boots. However, they were improved in 1966 with the introduction of the new Spike Protective Sole which consisted of a steel plate bonded into the footbed of the DMS Vibram pattern sole. The earliest pair of Third Pattern Jungle Boots with the Vibram sole that I have personally seen were dated November 1965. The latest pair that I have seen were March 1968 dated. Despite the switch to the Panama Sole production in the late 1960's, the vast stocks of jungle boots in Vietnam were Vibram sole and they are far more commonly found than the Panama Sole.
Third Pattern Jungle Boot (Vibram Sole)
The upper of this boot is identical to the Third Pattern Jungle Boot with the Vibram sole, except that it has the Spike Protective Panama Sole. The Panama Sole with spike protection was approved in 1966 along with the new spike plate being added to the Vibram sole, but does not seem to be used on production boots until mid 1967. The delay is likely a result of the extensive process required to make new molds and the fact that manufacturers still had existing contracts for the old sole. The pair shown below are the earliest that I have seen and are June 1967 dated. However, it is not uncommon to see boots from Late 1967 and early to mid 1968 with Vibram soles as well (see above). From 1969 on, production is exclusively Panama. Despite these production dates, the Panama sole never reached the issue numbers of the Vibram during the Vietnam War and are not as commonly seen.
Boots - A Bad Experiment...
Comments on Various Types of Boots Issued During the Vietnam War
April, 2019
From: Randy Kafka
Dated: April 15, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
had a pair that was similar, the webbing was not so open, but still, green nylon in the same spots. Only had one set of them, after that, got black ones.
r
From: Stan Pratt
Dated: April 16, 2019
Subject: A Bad Experiment...
Dickie,
I also had a similar green pair but with finer weave in the fabric areas 1965-66
Stan