Posted on 03/16/2017 8:23:46 PM PDT by fidelis
Take back 700 acres in Kauai.
About the best training I had for the Nam was the old Jungle Warfare course at Ft. Sherman CZ. A crusty old Colonel named Winkeller was in charge and he setup an infamous forced march the first Friday night we were there.
When I took over my first platoon in the 4th Inf I was so used to living in the mud from Panama that I settled right in like a pig.
Panama was/is a ghastly place, to borrow a phrase.
I’ve worn both styles into the ground, into fragments, and the jungle boots at #2 will outlast the all-fabric one you posted 3 to 1.
When I was in, I consistently heard from everybody who attended, from any branch of the service, that the Jungle Warfare course in Panama was THE BEST training they EVER got in the military.
Nobody who attended it ever disagreed that I heard. And anytime two graduates got together, that’s all they talked about.
The cross-country land navigation/jungle survival phase being the main subject of praise.
Pls see my comment at 25. Thoughts?
See 25.
After the first day bet they ditch all the Velcro gear ,mud’s a bitch
Black Palm, vampire bats, Green Hell.
Ahhhhh, the Black Palm.
Strategically positioned at the crook of every bend in a muddy trail to put your hand out to steady yourself.
I learned in Panama that a bayonet was not for sticking in a gook’s gut but for digging Black Palm spikes out.
Those were the days.
That was, and remains my attitude, that Jungle Warfare was thee best training I received. There wasn’t a single part of it that wasn’t challenging and interesting.
The most challenging part as I recall was the river crossing problem using Aussie poncho rafts on the Chagres. Never swam so hard in my life.
Best of all, if you were Nam-bound, it preconditioned you mentally to be at ease in the jungle.
A few days after I took over my first platoon my RTO wanted to know if he could ask me something: Had I been in the Nam for a prior tour?
Nope. Why?
Well me and some of the guys have been talking and we’ve never seen anyone get used to the jungle so fast. Figured you must have been here before.
Hell, I was In Panama.
Panama? That must be some bad shit.
You don’t know, Specialist.
Thanks for the link! Looks like a pair of these are in my future.
Winter warfare training at Camp Drum NY was awesome and the desert warfare training at Bliss, Carson, in Kalifornia and Washington State were all decent. Being the 82d we always jumped in and then humped, but the worse of the lot was at Carson being destroyed by the Ruski Mech force and dust/heat.
Roger that. I wore both the olive and later the black nylon for duty, and still have one of the last pairs of Altima olives I’ve had resoled several times; they’re ideal for Louisiana. I just bought my first pair of Palladiums a couple months ago with no illusions of durability and rigidity. I bought them for office casual work and they fill the bill nicely for that. I’d never even remotely consider them anything like a serious hiking or combat boot, and I’d never recommend them as such when there are so many other better options.
I was stationed in Panama and wondered why those weren't available to us......
As a side note, it was so humid down there that you had to change boots daily and polish them. If you let them sit for a couple of days they would start mildewing......
What you said I had heard many times from SEALs who went to Nam. Except for the getting shot at part, Panama was a lot tougher and more challenging. Best training ever, that’s what they said. And the land nav-cross country-survival phase was supposed to be without equal. When we gave up the Canal, I heard the greatest laments about losing the jungle school and the cadres who were the best of the best of instructors.
Yeah, and if you left them in a sea-bag you were bound for a nasty surprise when you unpacked it.
When I go into nasty swamps where getting constantly wet and muddy is part of the drill, I still go to the old jungle boots. And I always get a good laugh when the youngsters get their lower-cut high-tech goretex boots sucked off their feet in muck.
Our years of service are almost perfectly coincidental.
Mine was 12Feb69 - 10Dec71. RIF got me a 60 day early out.
The following years saw me move several times,
various apartments and student housing.
Somewhere along the way my Jungle Boots got lost.
I can’t imagine why you didn’t get them in Panama.
I also can’t imagine how uncomfortable full leather
uppers would have been in VietNam.
What did the Ruski mech force use for their simulated vehicles?
I remember SERE school in Maine in March, “Mickey Mouse” boots and air force survival jackets. The “Russians” in the POW phase wore full out Russian uniforms, it was very cool.
One day in the POW camp a pair of A-10s buzzed our camp at tree top level and made a few passes. We thought it was part of the scenario, but it turned out they were NG pilots who “went rogue” to go visit SERE school and got an ass chewing for it.
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