During my time in the USMCR (57-59) enlisted wore brown,

Could you give me a little more info? "Brown" covers a lot of
territory. Was it a very dark brown, that could be mistaken for
black, or a lighter brown?

officers wore cordovan and all wore brown boots.

By "boots" I assume you mean something that sort of resembled the
paratrooper boots of WW II?

We had nothing like that when I was in. We had ankle-high "field
shoes," which we called "boondockers," that were made of inside-out
(suede) leather that was very light brown when new. I can't recall
ever hearing them called "boots."

They were nice in a cold drafty airplane in winter; we could tuck the
legs of the flight suit into them.

vince norris








Sharp dressed Marines enlisted personnel
would put a light coat of black polish on their dress shoes occasionally, to
make them look better with a kind of "highlighted effect", but if you
overdid it, the Gunny would see that you were occupied after hours with
saddle soap taking it down to bare leather and starting over again.

I am pretty sure that they changed to all black in late 63. During my time
in the Navy, I spent a year (actually 16 months) with the Marines in ANLICO
and all the Marines at Camp Lejeune NC wore black shoes and boots, and dirty
boots in Vietnam (1966) . From 73-94, I didn't really look that close, but
the Marines around the Navy Annex, and Pentagon wore black shoes.

Sometime in the 90's they started wearing brown boots again. I have seen
Marines almost every day since I retired from DOD in 94, and they all wear
black shoes. Today boots can be black with the old style Woodland camo
uniform or brown with the new type computer generated camo pattern uniform.
I haven't asked, so I don't know if black bots can be worn with the new
camo, or if brown boots can be worn with old camo. And I have no idea what
color boots are appropriate to wear with the new camo, and the Gor-Tex
Woodland Extreme Weather Parka.

Red Rider

Sh*t! the next thing you know a person in the US Armed Forces will have to
have a butler to get properly dressed.