Posted by David Jacobs from Canada on May 23, 2021 at 00:38:05:
In Reply to: Uniforms posted by Newbie on May 22, 2021 at 15:47:41:
Now to blouse your pants properly, it's pretty simple. Put on your combat socks and pants. Next put on your boots and then tuck the sand traps into your boots (those are the "inner" sleeves of your trouser legs). Be careful to smooth the sand traps around your ankles so there are no thick wrinkles which will pinch you when you do up your boot. Next - lace up the boots and tie them. Tuck the loops and left over laces into the tops of your boots. Now take your boot band and place it right above the top of the boot and hook it around your shins - so you now have a loop of elastic around your leg right above your boots. Next pull the outer leg of the combat pants down tightly then and tuck it up under the boot band all the way around. Finally just kind of fluff it out a bit so it isn't completely tight. If you've done it right, it looks like your pants are tucked into your boots and just spill a little bit over the tops before going on up your leg! Voila you're done!
One thing to avoid - don't blouse both the inner and outer sleeve together (i.e. forget to tuck the sand traps into your boots). A lot of poorly trained (or poorly disciplined or inspected) or inexperienced soldiers do this. Your sand traps are there for a reason, and I speak from experience when I say that they can prevent stinging insects from getting at your legs! A tell tale sign of the soldier who is too lazy to do it properly is the "gray smiles" of his socks over the tops of his boots when his blousing rides up. Remember, a soldier's most important piece of kit after one's weapon is one's feet. If you do it properly, you should see nothing but olive drab when your blousing slides up a bit.
Boy! Never thought I could write that much about something so simple!
Good luck & I hope your instructors look after you like I just did!
Dave