Getting my shoes ready for inspection. This was in the days before patent leather dress shoes. What frustrated me about spit shined shoes was that if we marched through grass to the inspection site the grass blades would mar the finish and, voila, no more spit shine. My first dress shoes were ox-blood. Then Kennedy hired MacNamara as the head of the defense department . Well, typical of a bean counter MacMamara had no regard for the traditions of the different branches of the military, pretty much like today's Army brass. Remember the Chinese black berets that some Army bureaucrat stole from the Rangers, robbing them of their tradition. Why couldn't mister gold star have decided on a different color? We lost our ox-blood shoes in favor of the Army, AF and Navy black. We also lost the utility shirts with the inside grenade pockets. MacNamara was a real piece of work. He is one of those who insisted on the new M-16 for Vietnam. That pop gun got lot of good men killed in Vietnam and the Beirut Barracks. Bob MacNamara, what a piece of work; beans over bodies.

Getting my shoes ready for inspection. This was in the days before patent leather dress shoes. What frustrated me about spit shined shoes was that if we marched through grass to the inspection site the grass blades would mar the finish and, voila, no more spit shine. My first dress shoes were ox-blood. Then Kennedy hired MacNamara as the head of the defense department . Well, typical of a bean counter MacMamara had no regard for the traditions of the different branches of the military, pretty much like today's Army brass. Remember the Chinese black berets that some Army bureaucrat stole from the Rangers, robbing them of their tradition. Why couldn't mister gold star have decided on a different color? We lost our ox-blood shoes in favor of the Army, AF and Navy black. We also lost the utility shirts with the inside grenade pockets. MacNamara was a real piece of work. He is one of those who insisted on the new M-16 for Vietnam. That pop gun got lot of good men killed in Vietnam and the Beirut Barracks. Bob MacNamara, what a piece of work; beans over bodies.