Shame that it occurs your way too, service personnel should not have to pay out for their boot's or armour at all, its part of their protection system, where as trainers to mess about in are not, i seam to remember that during training they were encourager in a word to wear there boots for all activity's, it was to 'toughen up'.
as a soldier that can't march somewhere because his feet hurt is a waste of a perfectly servicable uniform.
And the reason they can't march is they have had no foot conditioning by wearing boots!
I went from my teens always in trainers, when i started working it was compulsory to wear steel capped boots, it took me the best part of 6 months before i was used to them, sore feet etc but after conditioning to them it became the norm, i used to walk 15-20 miles daily working in the way i was with these boots on and did that for 10 years!, although trainers are becoming a normal habit since i'm not working & at risk of dropping 1 ton press moulds on my toes, but it won't stop me putting a pair of boots on when i think i need to.
It just rattles my cage to read, hear or see the people who protect our lives with there own are not getting the right equipment that can save there lives, i'm sure government's think that once they sign that bit of paper that they serve there country the value of there lives if only work the price of a pair of trainers and a uniform, where as ... you loose your life in a work incident or get hit by a car and are badly injured people and company's end up paying anywhere between a few grand to a few million, most service men who are wounded usually get 'honourably discharged' and a disability benefit and there pension left intact, I've yet to see a payout to those injured or to family's whose child has lost there lives serving.
And reading comments such as the one that rattled me on this subject really really annoys me to say the least, its a very real threat in our family that we could loose one or both my brothers, ( although more so for one being Army, who is front line duty, other being Navy and his ships in port, as i can see it out of my window) so yes i know exactly how it works and why i think its wrong!
Spending the Budget on 'trainers' as opposed to body armour... think the spending is all ass about face and needs to get sorted, i have no doubt that for every 50 pairs of trainers, 1 body armour unit can be purchased if at least 2 and that would be at least one more life saved for the cos of a pair of trainers!
Dunno about you but im sure service men and women would put up with 'sore feet' knowing that if they had soft feet it would mean coming home in a body bag.