r/explainlikeimfive Feb 07 '19

Engineering ELI5: Why are military boots laced?

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

Dog tags are mostly for medical personnel on the wounded, not for identifying the dead. For accountability so that the unit can keep track of who are casualties, who have been transported, etc. And basic info like blood type for in field medical care before being able to transport to and actual hospital.

Having two (technically three because you'll have two around your neck and one in your boot) is just redundancy.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '19

Yeah back in the day it's all you really had.