Jungle boot
Jungle boots have vent holes in the arches and sometimes a canvas upper to aid in ventilation and drainage of moisture.
[1] Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Rubber Company, a pair of jungle boots weighed approximately three pounds.
[1] Instead, the jungle boot was designed to permit water and perspiration to drain, drying the feet while preventing the entry of insects, mud, or sand.
[1] In 1942, fused layers of original-specification Saran or PVDC were used to make woven mesh ventilating insoles for newly developed jungle boots made of rubber and canvas.
[1] The new M-1942 canvas-and-rubber jungle boots with Saran mesh insoles were tested by experimental Army units in jungle exercises in Panama, Venezuela, and other countries, where they were found to increase the flow of dry outside air to the insole and base of the foot, reducing blisters and tropical ulcers.
[1][2] Positive reports from users in the Panama Experimental Platoon on the new lightweight footwear led to M-1942 jungle boots used by U.S. military personnel in tropical/jungle environments, including U.S. Army personnel in New Guinea and the Philippines, and in Burma with Merrill's Marauders,[4] the 1st Air Commando Group, and the Mars Task Force (5332nd Brigade, Provisional).
In the early years of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, some U.S. Army soldiers were issued the 'M-1945 Tropical Combat Boot'.
[1] To use up old stock, the 1942 version of the removable ventilating insoles of fused layers of Saran plastic screen were issued with the improved jungle boot.[1][2]U.S.
To help prevent American foot injuries from punji stake traps, the 1966 jungle boots used a stainless steel plate inside the boot's sole to protect the wearer from enemy punji stake traps and nails.
The footwear received improvements, including Dobie's mud-clearing outsole and nylon webbing reinforcement on the uppers.
After the 1st Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR) co-joined the Americans in The Republic Of South Vietnam alongside the US Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade in 1965, many Australian troopers were willingly traded their worthless Army-issue "slouch hats" for a pair of jungle boots from the Americans since the boots Australian troopers were issued were World War II vintage tropical-studded ankle boots and their footwear were poorly suited to the conditions in the country.
During the 1980s, some improvements incorporated over the years in American footwear were modified or discarded for cost and convenience to the contractors.
By the late 1980s, thousands of incidents of field destruction were reported by troopers, including heel blowouts and loss of water drains (screened eyelets) from poor materials/poor quality control.
One example is in Afghanistan, with soldiers of the former Afghan National Army wearing black jungle boots with American-made combat uniforms.
