From Boot by Daniel Da Cruz:

By the end of the third week, the invisible men Grant, Keane, and Townshend have broken in their heavy, and very visible, combat boots. In doing so, they have suffered but few blisters and no great discomfort, but in this they are definitely in the minority.

"Once wet, the boots take forever to dry," says a combat seasoned gunnery sergeant. "When finally dry, they crack. They can't be spit-shined. They have no arch support. The soles wear out in two months of hard marching. Stitching of the sole to the upper quickly gives way. They're too flexible for mountain climbing, as the rubber sole buckles, and too stiff for a good kneeling position on the range. Also, they're ugly as hell."

"I've had my boots for years, on parade and in combat," says a lieutenant-colonel in public affairs. "I've never had a blister or any other complaint. They're superb footwear."

Remarkably, the two Marines are talking about the same boot, which has been Marine Corps (and Army) issue since 1961. They're both expressing candid opinions-and they're both right. The boots are as miserable for some as they are serviceable for others, which demonstrates the impossibility of two Marines-let alone 200,000 agreeing on anything.

Were military budgets unlimited, perhaps everyone could be made happy with tailor-made equipment. But budget constraints lump Marine Corps procurement with that of the Army, and seldom does the Marine tail wag the Army dog, whose kennel is the Department of Defense's Research and Development Command in Natick, Massachusetts. There, inter-service equipment is designed, developed and tested, and commonality is king. Exceptions apply to equipment used exclusively by a single service, such as the LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tank), which the Marines designed, and specialized weapons of the SEALs, Rangers, Lurps, and Marine Force Recon, which each man selects for himself.

Despite inter-service rivalries and differing missions, Marines and soldiers are working constantly, if at a glacial pace, to improve the gear with which the men must live and fight. Modifications of the generally-and privately-despised Vietnam era "McNamara boot," for instance, have been in progress since its introduction a quarter-century ago when, as now, its principal virtue was a low ($29.09 today) price tag. The new $52.57 boot has been exhaustively tested in a competition with five other candidates, by 2,400 soldiers and Marines who marched 280,000 miles through mud, water, sand, clay, dense underbrush, rotting vegetation and rock-strewn ravines. It has a softer and more comfortable upper, silicone saturated leather for water resistance, a "mud-release" sole configured for a better grip with three times the abrasion resistance of the boot it replaces, improved arch support, a higher and padded counter, a firmer toe, speed lacing, and a replaceable heel. And it will last five times longer.