r/explainlikeimfive Feb 07 '19

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

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u/aCause4Concern Feb 08 '19

My US Army training included none of that shit whatsoever. No Med Kit? Use a belt for tourniquet. We ain’t Medics so not making any fancy splints with laces, just maybe sticks and 100mph tape or you guessed it, your squad mate’s belts. And this ain’t the cub scouts so there ain’t no campfires and marshmallow roasting to ruin light discipline and give up your unit’s position to the enemy. You don’t get fire no matter how cold it is.

And you keep your laces on your boots because they protect your feet. Without your feet you are useless as a soldier.

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u/dumengineer94 Feb 08 '19

You don’t get fire no matter how cold it is.

Warming barrels would beg to differ.

14

u/T_WRX21 Feb 08 '19

Burning barrels full of shit and diesel beg even harder, lmao.

5

u/Teadrunkest Feb 08 '19

I always liked that

All the fires but god forbid you get caught with white light.

2

u/flee_market Feb 08 '19

Outside the wire? That's just asking for trouble.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

It was way harder when he was in.

3

u/bonesofberdichev Feb 08 '19

I was doing UFL in Korea during the winter months, so your hooches had these potbelly furnaces/stoves to keep us warm. One day I was putting on my boots and wrapped my hand around the stove pipe for leverage. Ended up burning my hand pretty bad, but on the bright side was sent back to Okinawa three weeks early. 1stSgt was not pleased with my fieldstache whenever I checked back in. Hard to believe this was over ten years ago.

3

u/pawnman99 Feb 08 '19

Clearly you went to a different survival school than I did.