No, they dried out a couple of years ago, luckily I lived in TX for a number of years, it got warm enough to get the moisture out of the felt insoles.:D

I do have a pair of HiTec Magnums for 'normal' temps, and a pair of Bass Hikers that are a good 4 season boot (6" tops, waterproof, lightly insulated) and my old issued brown Gore-Tex, jungles, and leg boots.

Oh no, not the old brown gortex with the square toe for the bindings. Now that would make a statement in today's world.

Herman Survivors?
 

So nobody has any kind words to say for their Herman Survivors?

American made in Maine?

I still have that first pair, from before all the high speed, low drag boot makers came out with the good stuff. In just down right nasty cold weather they worked great.

Still wear mine around Fayetteville when it snows.

Pete

Herman's were great. It weems they were the Cadilacs back in our era. Later I grew to like Danner's pretty good. I still use them when I go hunting for something worth hunting for.

DB - make fun of my square toed brown goretex kinda sorta jungle boots with soles so hard they slip on damp sand, and I might be forced to take retribution! :mad: They are so ugly they are cool.:cool:


Herman Survivors? I wore them in HS (well, and in the field in SF) and you are making fun of my LSHD goretex boots - the hideousness will haunt my dreams forever!!!

I won't make fun of them. I am sorta responsible for bringing them into the inventory for a short period of time. They gave me and one great big Ukranian speaking SGM a pair or two to wear around for a while to see if they were useable whilst folks were squirreling around looking for a new series of boots. We couldn't destroy them so they were brought in on a temporary basis. Still have two pair, still can't destroy them, and they work good up here in the winter and are fine most of the year except when it gets real hot-which happens about two or three hours in July:D

COL Jack!! I have to blame you for those Natick inspired nightmares? (Yup Devens was great, got to be guinea pigs for a lot of cool stuff) Actually, until they get a little oil on them they're pretty good dry boots - the soles are a bit hard (mine are the gen 1 s from early 84) especially after they've gotten cold then warm a few times - but you are right - you can't kill 'em, so you have to keep 'em around until they die. Sorbithane insoles are great in them, especially for long patrols. I have 2 pr of boots to post now. Oh a final thought - they did not fit into any binding on any of the skis we tried, the toes would slip ourt or the cables would 'jump the track' on the heels.

Actually you can blame Natick for screwing the pooch on those boots. What they got and what they actually released were two entirely different critters. Then Natick thinks that they have to support the entire force, we just wanted something for SF. It is also like the gortex project they took over-they deceided that we all did not need light weight thin skinned poly pro like the Norges we just needed the heavier weight stuff that was too hot for cross country movement. Also they decided that we did not need the light weight fold up and put away light rain suit-hell the heavier wt stuff was good for all occasions as far as they were concerned. I could go on, but then you all might get the feeling that I am upset with Natick which is just a sub-command of AMC which everyone thinks stands for Army Materiel Command but really means A Million Civilians who work there, protect their rice bowls, and will never, and I mean never, allow anyone outside of their fiefdom to have a better idea. I must stop, I am getting called for chow and am beginning to get fired up.

COL Jack,
Were you involved in the 1986 "New Long Range Field Ration Test"? We wandered around the Burlington area for a month in November, listened to the vulcans at GE, and were also field testing some pretty powerful laptops, hmmm, was it really a rations test? Hmmmmmm...

Ah yes, Tac vests, Lowe packs, eco-tats, goretex ponchos, polypro, goretex rain gear --- Natick had some cool stuff, and all the S-4 pogues had it before the teams that didn't get on the tests.

Nope, I was OCONUS 86-88

I used to "sport" my brown, squared toed, gortex slabs around Devens for a while. I did get some interesting looks when up around the "regular" guys. I did it for kicks until the SGM convinced me it was not a good idea for a Tm SGT to be doing that. I gues the company or battalion had been threatened about sporting them around on post. They were some ugly critters. Yes I still have them too.

I had to turn in my Chipps when I left Tölz. But I still have my brown boots. I always liked them and even in the summer, I didn't find them too hot. I just used lighter socks.

My brown goretex boots cracked really bad and I finally had to throw the things. Believe it or not we got issued them in SWC in 86. :D