I'm sure the modern canvas or suede-style military boot is a lot more comfortable than its older leather counterpart - it certainly looks to be easier on the feet, anyway. Nevertheless, I'm sure many readers share my memories of the older variety . . . and how hard we had to work on them.
South African combat boots were covered in a knobbly finish - I don't know a better way to describe them. To get the toes and heels shining like that, we first had to iron our new boots through a damp cloth to get rid of the knobbles. It took a long time, and one had to be careful not to burn them, because that would never take a shine. Once they were smooth, the long, arduous process of spit-shining them began. It would take at least half-a-dozen sessions to get them shining as they were required to be, probably taking fifteen to twenty minutes each time. Some swore by setting fire to the polish in the tin, so they could smear it on while liquid; others applied a thick layer to the boot and set fire to it there; still others (including yours truly) preferred to do it all by hand and by spit, for fear of the flames ruining the finish.
Equipment varied. Apart from the iron to smooth out the leather, one needed a polishing cloth (a yellow duster worked fine). Many of us (including yours truly) took an old pair of socks, rolled them into a tight ball, and covered them with several layers of women's nylon stockings, to help with the polishing process. After the spit-shine was complete, the nylon ball would help keep the surface shining and clean. It was quite funny to see a group of new recruits visiting the local store and demanding one pair of nylons apiece - "Never mind the size, just nylons!". Some of the salesladies must have wondered . . .
Once the boots were at parade-ground standard, one had to be extraordinarily careful not to scratch or scuff them. Mean-minded NCO's who were annoyed at you, for whatever reason, might tread heavily on them and spin the soles of their boots around on them, not only ruining the finish but also scarring the leather - and that meant a new pair of boots, at your expense, because you could never polish out that sort of damage. If you went on operations, you didn't dare wear your highly polished boots, because they'd never recover from that wear and tear. Most of us glumly paid out of our own pockets to buy a pair of "parade boots", and kept them as pristine as possible. Unfortunately, if you were ordered to parade at short notice, you didn't always have time to swap boots, which led to unfortunate consequences.
In our early uniformed days in particular, our boots could get scuffed and marred simply by the training routine through which we suffered. Not marching in proper step? "You! Troop! See that bush up the hill there? Go and get me a leaf from it!"
Puff, puff, pant, pant . . . "Here's your leaf, Sergeant."
"Wrong leaf! Go back and get the right one!"
Ah, yes . . . seeing that meme brought back all sorts of unpleasant memories! If you never had to go through that ritual, there are videos on YouTube showing how it's done.
Peter
I remember those days. I preferred a well used t-shirt while my Dad used cotton balls.
ReplyDeleteah, the spit shine. used to be with the Berlin Bde.
ReplyDeleteshiny EVERYTHING. chrome lug nuts on the jeeps that where OD shiny until you went to the field.
and guess how many cans of Pledge it took to shine the turret of a M-60 tank ?
12-13. depending on how bad it was when you started. that is when you know you are on TOP's shit list.
Been there, Done that. I never tried it, but I've heard that using a bone to smooth the leather works. Some of the new suede boots look more like sloppy tennis shoes to me.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, when I joined in 1975, the real old timer's used to growl about the old "brown boot army". Now we are back full circle to brown boots.
Outside of Basic, we didn't do fancy formations and parades in anything but blues. For those I eventually invested in a par of patent leather ("Corfam") low quarters, which I almost never wore. At one point some actually sold Corfam combat boots. Screw that.
ReplyDeleteOdd story: I was going to the classified safe in Job Control one day, and I noticed the OIC polishing his low quarters; with shoe polish, mind, not just wiping them down. Which struck me as odd.
"Lieutenant, aren't those Corfam?"
"Yep."
"Umm... So why are you polishing them?"
"This makes 'em really shine!"
Why yes, he was a butterbar.
BTDT. Instant fight if someone scuffed your boots.
ReplyDeleteThat brings back memories, lazy people would use spray on furniture polish which if not properly dry would turn white if it got wet.
ReplyDeleteThat looks suspiciously like you used floor wax.
ReplyDeleteI was in the army from 1968-77. I thought spit-shined boots and 'highly starched' fatigues were 1) a waste of time 2) a waste of money. I bought perma-pressed fatigues and regulation prohibited 'them' from requiring spit-shined boots.
ReplyDeleteNeither the starch nor the shine lasted long for a real tank crewman, but we had some who tried. After all, an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance.
It required a whole lot less intellect to shine a boot than it did to be a competent tank commander.
I still polish my steel toe work boots. To keep the water tight. They might shine a bit when I'm done, but not like my 1978 parade boots. Getting those up to snuff was a chore, keeping them there no so much. Some of those Sunday afternoons with beer, boots, Kiwi and friends on the supply room loading dock weren't bad at all.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Local military over here was never quite *that* big on shiny shoes, or other pieces of kit... also we were issued a separate "parade" pair of boots.
ReplyDeleteSo, on the non-parade pair I applied some proper waterproofing layers of tar-wax and polish like I'd been taught at home and by grandpa's war-veteran hunting buddies... and got told off for "wearing my parade boots on combat exercise".
On the other hand, my feet were dry.
Took pride in shined shoes when I was enlisted. Academy showed it all as a farce. When enlisted, I was proud that my everyday wear uniform was typically inspection ready. Shoes shiny? Check. Good to go. But at the academy, inspections were relative. Shoes shiny? Not good enough if you are not the shiniest. And your every day wear is never going to beat the guys who have an inspection-only pair of shoes done with black enamel spray paint. They break it out only for the 10 minutes of standing in inspection line. The rest of the time, their black leather for every day wear is so worn down as to be shredded gray, and almost no one cares since it is not inspection time. So I ended up in hours of remedial shoe shine training from guys I taught how to shine shoes, and the final answer was the only way to not fail and be significantly less shiny than spray painted shoes was to also have inspection-only shoes.
ReplyDeleteWhen Seabees got new boots (for inspections), we'd help a little on a concrete pour to draw all the factory oil out and be able to start a good base coat.
ReplyDeleteWe used a dollop of AFFF foam to strip new boots to polish
DeleteSigh... Bags and bags of cotton balls, and Lincoln wax...
ReplyDeleteOne of the touted applicators ('80's ROTC) was a cloth diaper. Cotton balls were enough. Often heard exclamation during inspections when observing a less than stellar effort, "What did you use? A Hershey bar and a brick!?"
ReplyDeleteAn emergency repair mini spray bottle of hairspray in the pocket. Avoid dewy grass and puddles.....
ReplyDeleteAnd now, "Polished boots?! How badly do you want the night-sights targeting you?!"
ReplyDeleteWomen's nylons were worn by US Marines in training while out in wetlands to keep away chiggers and their bites.
ReplyDeleteLast time I spit shined a boot was in basic... when I got to my first duty station with 10th Mountain Light Infantry my Vietnam vet platoon sergeant sat us all down and told us to throw most of that level of appearance out the window that we wouldn't have time for it. Just make sure for inspection you brushed a little black boot polish on your boots so it was all one color and move on.
ReplyDeleteUnless we were deployed somewhere, we spent 265 days a year training in the woods somewhere, and when we deployed we were still training at that tempo. 95% of our time out of the woods was maintenance on all our equipment getting ready to go back out. Or being sent to one specialty school or another or one training exercise or another, all over the country and world.
Standard was rooms are clean and neat, public areas are clean and neat. Bathrooms are clean and neat. Uniforms are clean and repaired. Move on to more important things. We didn't really live in side much, summer or winter. I spent the majority of my military time sleeping on the ground on a foam camping pad with a pancho liner wrapped around me and the pancho laid over the top to keep rain or snow off of me. In winter below about 40 degrees we would use sleeping bags. We lived like that from 130 degree degree desert temps to 40 below zero at fort drum in the winter living in the snow. Looking back I can't even imagine surviving it now. But I was a different person then with a good body and hard core attitude. :) Hard core attitude got me the worn out body I have now :)