Dad's basement

[Kai Stemm]

Hello,
Once again I'm not in the military but my dad was. So today i was going through my dads stuff and I find an ammunition box, when i open it up I find besides baby pictures of me (and my scar) are some of his stuff from the military. (I blocked out the Social security numbers on his cards) I believe there is some of that in storage in the house too so tell me if you want ,e to find it.

 

[Kai Stemm]

Also I didn't know my dad was such a handsome guy. I only know the bald bearded guy not the thirty year old man

 

[Thorlifter]

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing

 

[Capt. Vick]

Cool stuff!

 

[vikingBerserker]

That is very cool, thanks for sharing!

 

[yulzari]

Also I didn't know my dad was such a handsome guy. I only know the bald bearded guy not the thirty year old man

Curious as I don't know the balding bearded man I see in mirrors but I do know the thirty year old chap quite well....................

 

[Robert Porter]

The blousing elastics brought back memories! Thanks for sharing!

 

[mikewint]

Robert you beat me to it. Hated those things. One benefit of SF was that no one who really mattered (to us) cared about that stuff especially in a war zone. Every once in a while some REMF would see us and decide to "straighten" us out on proper military attire.
One Maj. from the Quartermaster corp really got into it. We picked him up and threw him into the Saigon river.

 

[Robert Porter]

As soon as you either stood up or squatted the dang things would shift, they were worse than useless except for Guard Mount when we all walked around with stiff legged strides until after inspection at which point off they came!

 

[MiTasol]

[MISS-QUOTE="yulzari, post: 1316206, member: 34491"]Curious as I don't know the ooooold man I see in mirrors but I do know the thirty year old chap quite well....................[/MISS-QUOTE]

Yep - been there, done that, got the Tee shirt

PS yulzari, google translate claims your tag line is "Mon aerator is plan eels" in English

 

[buffnut453]

The blousing elastics brought back memories! Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, but they were a godsend after puttees - hard to put on, constantly coming undone etc etc. They were rather effective at stopping muddy water cascading over the tops of one's boots...but, to use a modern vernacular, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

 

[mikewint]

I've heard of them but those were strictly WWI to my knowledge. Vietnam squished when you stepped on it and our original leather boots rotted in about a months time. Jungle rot was constant problem

 

[buffnut453]

Yeah, they were...but we had them when I was an air cadet in the 1980s. They sucked!

 

[mikewint]

Are we using different terminology? To me, PUTTEES are/were the wool/leather "bandage-type" wraps spiral wound around the lower leg to about the knee. In the US I've seen (parades mostly) what I would call GAITERS slipped around the lower leg to below the knee and then tightened with laces and finally older type combat boots with a leather 2-buckle lower leg wrap.
My buddy Rick wore the white gaiters in the USN when he was in boot camp but only in parades

 

[buffnut453]

We are talking a common language. The photo on the left is, indeed, a set of puttees.

 

[mikewint]

Left?? #1-2-3-4 top to bottom

 

[buffnut453]

The only photo that just shows the bottom of some bloke's legs,,,and he's wearing black shoes/boots.

 

[mikewint]

Wow, unbelievable those are the old WWI style. They were a bad idea even then as they restricted blood flow to the legs

 

[buffnut453]

Thankfully, we didn't have to wear them often...but there are far better ways to achieve the same, or better, results. Nothing worse than being on a cross-country navex, just getting in the zone at a nice pace when, suddenly, your puttee comes unraveled and tangles around your legs. Everyone stops, you faff around trying to re-tie the thing. GRRRR! Still grumpy about them to this day. That said, I was a dumb teen and didn't know any better, right?

 

[mikewint]

One story I heard many a year ago was that occasionally on a night march someone's puttee, unnoticed, would come loose and begin to drag on the ground further and further behind until the guy marching behind him would step on the dragging cloth tripping the poor guy in front and then one after another the troops behind would trip over him. The domino effect