Jungle boot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jungle boots are a type of combat boot designed for use in jungle warfare or in hot, wet and humid environments, where a standard leather combat boot would be uncomfortable or unsuitable to wear. Jungle boots have vent holes in the instep and sometimes a canvas or goretex upper to aid in ventilation and drainage of moisture.

The most well-known type of jungle boot are the ones that the US Armed Forces issued to their personnel during the Vietnam War in which the boot's upper was a mixture of leather for the toe, heel and eyelets and nylon for the neck of the boot.^[1]

The jungle boots that were made for the US armed forces during the Vietnam War sported a direct molded rubber Vibram or Panama sole.^[1] The Panama sole also had a stainless steel plate installed inside the boot's sole to protect the wearer from punji stake traps.^[1]

The US military jungle boot helped influence the design of the famed desert combat boot which many American soldiers wore during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Despite the introduction of the desert boot at the time of Operation Desert Storm, many American military personnel were still issued jungle boots because there were not enough desert boots to issue to all the personnel in the Middle East at the time.

Altama Footwear [1] and Wellco Footwear are two American combat boot companies who manufacture the US military jungle boot. Altama began manufacturing boots for the military towards the end of the Vietnam War, in 1969, and is still suppling the military with quality footwear to date. Wellco gained the first government contract for boots in 1965. These companies manufacture the boots in both its original Vietnam War configuration with the green cotton/nylon upper and conventional eyelets and in an updated version with a black cotton/nylon/Cordura upper and a hook and eyelet lacing system as well as the desert boot of Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom fame.

As of 2005, the United States Marine Corps has removed the old black jungle boots from front-line military service and replaced them with a new combat boot called the Jungle Desert Boot after the US Marines adopted the new MARPAT digital camouflage uniforms in 2002 as well as the US Marines being called in to fight in deserts in recent years.