In 1989 I was in Grafenwohr with the 68th Armor. It was a normal gunnery rotation, lasted about three and a half weeks. We lived in one of the camps with concrete barracks buildings; Normandy I think it was. The rotation started on the third of January and unbelievably, the weather was balmy. For the first ten days or so the temps were in the high fifties and low sixties and not a drop of rain. For those who are not familiar with the largest training area in Germany, the one thing it is universally known for is its lousy weather, especially the cold and snowy winters. I was just getting used to it when the other shoe dropped. It started with an overnight rain-turned-to-snow storm. The ammo details had to start loading and shipping ammo to the ranges at 0400 and they were met with slushy, slippery half-frozen roads and trails and all the misery that ammo-humping brings with it.
I had a pair of Hermann boots, called Survivors. Not the cheapo crud they sell at Wal-mart nowadays; these were insulated and padded and water-proof and the most comfy boots I had ever had until then. I had bought them at the Fort Leonard Wood PX a couple years before. The first time I tried them on they felt like I had been wearing them for years...no break-in time required. The amazing thing to me was that I bought them in the summer and wore them to work and found that the insulation was so good that they kept my feet cooler while walking around on the baking asphalt of the motor pool. I went home that night noticably less foot-weary than normal. They were great boots. On that first wind-driven-rainy day at Graf, the seam split between the toe and sole of one boot and the water-proof went away right then. My foot became soaked. Our mission required me to be out around the ranges and the ammo pads all day and by the time I got back to the barracks, I was frozen and miserable. I put the boots on the space heater in the barracks in hopes they would dry out overnight and I could Super-glue them or something the next day.
The next morning my boots were steaming, warm as can be, and still soaking wet. I decided to take a walk down the road to the clothing sales store to find a new pair of Hermanns. I figured that the wet boot would never dry if I had to wear it every day, especially since the weather was continuing to make up for the first few days of warm and dry. The clothing sales store at Graf is a German-American shop. German Army units use the training area as well as other allied nations. There was an older German fellow who ran the place and we searched for a while but couldn't find another pair of Hermanns in my size. He suggested that I try on a pair of the German Infantry's winter boots. They cost about thirty dollars more than the Hermanns but he insisted that they were worth it. So we found a pair my size and I tried them on. They are made of thick leather on Vibram soles and are lined with a heavy wool insulation. I put my sodden foot into that boot and inside of two minutes, my tootsie was warm and smilin'. The store-keeper smiled, too, recognizing the look on my face. He took the Hermanns and boxed them up and I walked out with my new Graf Boots (and a nice warm, dry, new pair of wool socks).
The rest of that winter was a cold one. When we were finished with Graf, the 68th Armor had many more support missions and exercises. I was outside a lot. I stood in standing puddles up to my ankles, slogged through wet snow, spent upwards of 18 hours a day several days in a row in my boots. My feet were never wet, never cold, never uncomfortable. It has now been more than twenty years since I bought the boots. I have worn them extensively every winter since. They are showing a little wear now, a few seams need a reinforcing stitch, but the original Vibram soles are still on those boots and while there may be a quarter-inch of wear at the heels, they will still stomp a very well-defined waffle for ya. Best hundred bucks ever spent on a shoe, by far.