Army delivers new footwear to isle GIs for final testing

As the Army has moved from the jungles of Vietnam and woodlands of the Cold War to the deserts of the Middle East and now back to the jungles of Asia, it has marched in boots that match those needs.

On Thursday some 3,000 soldiers at Schofield Barracks started getting new test jungle boots that are in some ways a throwback to the M1966 black leather and green cotton upper boots of Vietnam and the 25th Infantry Division’s days there but have evolved with 21st-century technology and needs.

Still present is the wide-spaced tread that sheds mud, but the steel plate to deflect punji sticks — or submerged branches in a mangrove swamp — has been replaced with a ballistic fabriclike layer. Thirty side drain holes are now in place lower on the boot instead of a couple of pairs of brass-encircled vents. A rubber insole channels water away from the foot.

Just ask any soldier how important it is to have good boots that protect their feet.

“Your feet are what get you from point A to point B — especially in a jungle environment,” said Sgt. Evan Mead, an instructor at Schofield’s Jungle Operations Training Center. “So, if the boots don’t take care of your feet, your feet don’t take care of you, and you can’t complete the mission.”

The Army said it’s at about the “90 percent solution” for the new nylon and leather “Jungle Combat Boot,” or JCB, with final testing taking place in Hawaii. A little more than 36,700 boots were ordered from makers Belleville and Rocky for about $4.1 million, mainly to outfit the 2nd and 3rd infantry brigades at Schofield.

Tan desert boots, with soles that insulate the foot from heat, will still have their place for hot, dry environments, but they don’t breathe or dry out enough in muddy, wet jungles, officials say.

In 2019 the Army expects to train and deploy with either desert or jungle boots, depending on the need, the service said.

The new “coyote” brown jungle boots being tested match the “Operational Camouflage Pattern,” or OCP, uniforms that the Army has been issuing to soldiers. Schofield soldiers also received new, lighter body armor Thursday that keeps in less heat, and a host of other five-color OCP gear, leaving a warehouse with a mountain of camouflage slung over their shoulders.

“With our Army’s focus on being ready for different contingencies, I think naturally, the 25th ID is a great place to be testing out some of those types of both fighting techniques and procedures, but also technology and gear and equipment for the jungle environment,” said Col. Mario Diaz, the division’s deputy commander for support. “That’s part of what we have to do — it’s part of our history, frankly, when we started as a tropic division fighting in Guadalcanal.”

The 25th Division fought the Japanese on Guadalcanal in early 1943, where it received its “Tropic Lightning” nickname. The 25th was the largest division in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, operating in yet another jungle environment.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occupied the Army — and its equipment decisions — for the better part of a decade, but the United States has since refocused on Asia and the Pacific and emerging threats there.

Jungle training in Hawaii was conducted at the Special Asian Warfare Training and Orientation Center at Schofield’s East Range and Kawailoa Training Area.

Jungle-skill development provides a training opportunity to work with nations in the region that have similar environments, including Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Among the items Scho-field soldiers received Thursday were new canteens — which all soldiers still get everywhere, but which have advantages in a jungle environment over newer collapsible water pouches. Water purification is easier with a canteen, and so is cleaning. A canteen also can be used to collect rainwater dripping off plants.

In 2014, when Schofield was getting its Jungle Operations Training Center off the ground, instructors adopted the old-style Vietnam-type boots, which gripped better in the mud and drained and dried faster. They also wore old-style woodland camouflage uniforms. The Defense Logistics Agency gave the division about 17,000 woodland uniforms that otherwise would have been disposed of.

The Army said that in September, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley directed the service to come up with a plan to outfit the two combat brigades at Schofield with a jungle boot.

Capt. David Ferenczy, with the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier, which develops equipment for soldiers, said testing began in 2014 in Hawaii with commercially available jungle-type boots.

“We bought a whole bunch of variants, gave them to soldiers here, and they told us the good, the bad and the ugly,” Ferenczy said.

The boots that will eventually be issued “have already been mostly tested. This is about the 90 percent solution,” he said of the boots being given out Thursday.

Mead, the jungle training instructor, who has been wearing the boots, said they are rugged and durable.

“The breathability and ability to shed water is really what we appreciate,” he said. The final version of the boot could be “maybe just a little lighter,” he added.

Over the next 10 days, 3,000 soldiers with the 2nd and 3rd brigades will have new boots to evaluate.

“We’re all ears for what soldiers want to see (in the final boot design),” Ferenczy said.