Vietnam era tropical combat boots w/ lace-in zippers

[Sabrejet]

In his excellent book U.S. Army uniforms of the Vietnam War, Shelby Stanton states that... " In 1969, as a part of the Delta Footwear program, the Army ordered 42,700 pairs of lace-in zippers for tropical combat boots as a quick-release mechanism."

 

Apparently, initially MACV restricted lace-in zippers for tropical combat boots to Special Forces, Ranger companies, advisory teams, combat tracker and scout dog platooons, and infantry or mechanized infantry battalions operating in water inundated regions. Later, they were restricted to personnel..."working in or around ports and water inundated areas."

 

The boots seen here are '70 dated. The zippers are marked SCOVILL on the pull-tab and USA on the reverse.

 

[Sabrejet]

 

 

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[Sgt. Boghots]

I remember those zippers well. - There was a mail order military supply company from San Diego, something Nolan company maybe ?? , that carried many things for all branches.

 

Several of my friends and I bought those inserts for our boots too. At the time, I was serving in the ASW patrol Navy, but I continued to wear them for years after, with jungle fatigues, blue dungarees, and sateen greens.

 

Best regards,

Paul

[Lee Ragan]

These zippers came as standard equipment with the USAF "quick doning", insulated flight boots. Lots of us troops also wore them in regular combat boots. They were quite handy to have. As a matter of fact, I'm wearing a set of those right now in a pair of regular old black combat boots which I use as my "snow foot wear". :thumbsup: