Tanks, missiles and aircraft cannot hold ground nor take ground. They just make life miserable for whoever has it at the moment. They cannot storm dug-in positions, bayonet everyone inside and hoist the good guys’ flag. They cannot creep undetected hundreds of miles inside enemy territory to take photos, shoot individuals or blow things up. Taking ground, holding ground and tabbing* over the mountains is what we ‘grunts’ do. On foot.
And the further up the ladder you go towards being a heroic Special Forces operator the more walking you are going to do and the more important your feet will become. Even with all the clever motorized transport there is nowadays, much of the real work of a Special Forces soldier involves walking towards or away from the enemy carrying a load of kit that would stun a mule. And the more weight on your back, the more pressure on your feet.
In anti-insurgency warfare you will spend many happy hours walking up and down streets showing the flag, through villages and maybe along dirt roads so you can find the mines before the valuable armour gets there. Depending where in the world you are you may be walking through endless desert, bush or jungle. It may be very hot, very cold or wet all the time. You may be a long way from support. Sometimes you will be running. And trust me, being chased by a thousand screaming beards is not a good time to have sore feet.
All this covering ground on foot presupposes you can stand on your feet. If at some point your feet won’t carry you, you must hope they can get a chopper to you before the enemy catch up. How many yards can you move without putting one of your feet to the floor? On a covert patrol behind enemy lines a soldier who cannot walk tends to be a dead soldier. He is certainly a useless soldier and may well be a liability for needing others to carry him or heroic chopper crews to come in dodging the missiles and fetch him out.
How many miles can you carry a man who can’t walk? What would you do if two of you were 50 miles behind enemy lines, your mate had lost the flesh off the bottom of his feet and there was no one to come and collect you? This is real soldiering and not the movies where they ‘leave no man behind’. I wouldn’t risk the lives of a patrol by carrying a man and slowing them up to save an idiot who didn’t take care of his feet. And shooting a wounded comrade and friend so the enemies’ women cannot play with him is not something you want to carry in your head for the rest of your life.
What do your feet need to stay healthy?
I have had African friends who could run a hundred miles in their bare feet and think nothing of it. We Westerners have grown up wearing shoes to keep our feet warm, clean and looking smart. This has made them soft so in the forces we wear boots to protect our tender feet from sharp rocks, which would cut them. But it is also the case that wearing the right sort of boot protects the sole of the foot from wear so well that, properly set up, we can cover distances which would grind the skin from the toughest African’s foot. Of course, if your boots are not set up properly you will get blisters...
But it is not just protection from wear that your feet need. We are not always tabbing across the African savannah so sometimes it is cold and our feet need to be kept warm or we get frostbite and our toes go black and have to be cut off. Sometimes it is wet too, and when your feet get wet the skin, no matter how tough you are, falls off in just a few miles. Even if it doesn’t get to the skin falling off, damp skin breeds fungus and this makes it split and bleed. Not nice at all.
Royal Marines trudge through deep snow during exercise Himalayan Warrior 07. Learning to deal with adverse weather conditions is a critical component of Special Forces training. (Dave Husbands © UK Crown Copyright, 2007, MOD)
So, all in all, keeping our feet healthy and happy is vital to our staying alive and doing our job as a soldier. To keep them healthy we have to select the right footwear to keep our feet protected, dry and warm. Easy. Actually, depending on where in the world you are, sometimes it is not.
Feet in temperate conditions
From 20 or 30° below freezing to well over 100° in the shade your feet can get by quite well in leather boots so long as you keep them clean, dry and well powdered.
Good leather boots have tough yet supple uppers and stiff soles to allow comfortable marching and have some degree of waterproofing, and yet they can breath a little to let the sweat out. If you visit any hiking or outdoors shop you will find countless brands of boots which will do this, and more, in a very efficient manner – at a price. There are boots made of materials which will let the sweat out very well, fresh air in, keep the water out and keep your tootsies warm far better than leather but these things cost money and soldiers in the British Army have a lot of kit to buy owing to the issue gear being so generally rubbish.
Having got yourself the best boots you can, and broken them in with lots of marching when a blister doesn’t matter, on operations you should wash your feet every day if you have the water, dry them and apply foot powder. Put on a clean pair of socks and wash the spares – if necessary carry them tied to the outside of your pack or sleep with them inside your sleeping bag to dry them.
Feet in cold conditions
Where the climate is cold you should have boots plenty big enough and wear thermal socks if you can get them. Feet are not really designed for very cold climates, being at the extremity of the body and poorly supplied with blood, so they need extra attention to keep them warm when it is chilly outside. The reason for wearing boots large is that tight boots cut off the blood supply to your feet and encourage them to get cold and die. As you walk the action of your foot changing shape and pressure pumps the blood around your feet, if they are not strangled in your boots, and this blood flow acts like the hot water in a household radiator system. If the blood supply is cut off in a cold climate, or if your feet just get too cold, ice crystals will form inside the flesh. This is frostbite and kills the affected parts permanently. Check regularly for frostbite and you may keep all your toes. Leave it too long between checks and you will lose toes and bigger pieces.
Frostbite starts off with ‘frostnip’, which is a freezing of the outer skin. When frost-nipped the skin turns white as the circulation reduces then it begins to sting or tingle. As it turns to frostbite as the flesh freezes, the area becomes numb and the skin may turn red then purple-white. People have often said that the area begins to feel wooden. When the affected area has frozen properly the flesh is dead and cannot be revived. Amputation is the only answer and while you are waiting gangrene will set in – the flesh will turn black, stink to high heaven and begin to spread poison around your body. Keep your feet warm.
Frostbite, before the toes were cut off. (Corbis)
Feet in hot conditions
Where the climate is very warm then sweating encourages the fungus, which we all have permanently on our feet, to overcome the natural balance and become noticeable. At best this itches and at worst it eats your foot away or makes the skin crack and bleed. I have experimented successfully with wearing strong sandals in hot dry climates when sand is not a problem. These work so well because the gaps in the upper allow a free flow of air to keep your feet dry and fairly cool so the fungus doesn’t grow, while the strong sole still protects your hard, dry feet very well. Africans often wear ‘Thousand Milers’ which are a sandal made with a sole cut out of a car tyre. Sandals do work well when there is no sand and they keep your feet dry and healthy, but strong boots give a soldier a feeling of security.