How and why do our troops get stuck with crap gear?
A clear example of how the U.S. military bureaucracy full of incompetents and yes-men congeal together to issue crap gear to our troops is the 1980s G.I. speed-lace boot with "trac-shun" (shunned) sole.
http://www.combatreform.com/boots.htm
Unwilling to employ common sense, Natick Army Labs likes to conjure up raw numbers instead of THINKING and making QUALITATIVE decisions based on COMMON SENSE or SOUND MILITARY LOGIC. Its always easier to hide behind numbers as Mark Twain even back in the 19th century realized and concluded, "There are lies...damned lies and then there's...statistics".
Natick foisted the crap trac-shun speed lace boot upon us because they weighted MUD RELEASE EQUAL TO TRACTION to appease the Army Aviators who are not even going to encounter much mud with their increasingly pampered, paved-over, static-air base ways. So when all the numbers came in on the "boot walk-off" done by test Soldiers, absurdly the trach-shun sole which looks like tiny finger tip indentions not even far into the bottom somehow "won" out over the Panama tread sole with treads going all the way across the bottom with mud-release channels which had been proven effective all over the world for decades on jungle boots by adding the numbers up. This is the same shyster crap of using dishonest weighting of absurd and wrong factors used to try to justify other crapola purchases like the LAV-III/Stryker truck using vibration, comfort and road speed as factors equal to cross-country mobility, armor protection and firepower which they are not--
http://www.geocities.com/wheelsvstracks
http://www.combatreform.com/strykerhorrors.htm
...they were convenient lie-ative factors lying staff officers pulled out of their asses to please tactically incompetent but uber racketeer-for-money-from-Congress, Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki and give him the wheeled death traps he wanted at the expense of hundreds of dead and maimed Soldiers from land mines on roads they cannot avoid in high ground pressure, air-filled, rubber tires....just turn on CNN to see the horror of this daily in Iraq and Afghanistan...
http://www.combatreform.com/blindobedience.htm
This is what happens when the "volunteer" victim military deteroriates into a yes-man bureaucracy of weak egos desperate to get promoted instead of a PROFESSION where CONSCIENCE AND TRUTH are stood up for by ADULT PROFESSIONALS who do not bow down to "naked emperors" and tell them have have "3-piece suits" on--regardless of their rank and social status in the service. Of course, the general officer milicrat in charge of this mad house (insert Charleton Heston's quote from the 1968 movie "Planet of the Apes" here) blessed off on the crap trac-shunned sole, speed-lace boots.
The result then was 2 decades of Soldiers and equally stupid marines being not-stuck (they have no traction) and sliding and slipping when trying to go cross-country dismounted in these crappy boots.
The horrors don't stop with the non-existent tread. Cut off the HEEL of a trac-shunned sole and find a BLOCK OF WOOD is inside; why who knows? This horror was discovered when Soldiers paid their own money to go off-post to resole their speed-lace boots to get some mobility to get the job done since the miliocracy wasn't going to provide it. To injure more Soldiers' lower legs and ankles when trying to run on pavement to make middle-aged men feel good about themselves during the daily waste-half-the-day, sports PT attire, garrison fuckfest in these turds-in-black?
http://www.combatreform.com/apft.htm
This video shows one FX technique you can do if you want some traction if you are going to wear these boots around the house or yard.
Loading...
3:41
Shoemakingby greenmangopickle9,920 views
The tracshun sole tread was for walking/marching on pavement and other hard surfaces. In that regard it is far superior to the Panama sole and causes less ankle and knee injuries in that regard. before GWOT most all troops spent more time in garrison than humping through the mountains or desert. Notice that they have a different tread design now?
4schitzangiggles 1 year ago