Altama Exospeed II Boots

Here in Iraq, we do a bit of walking. Nothing major like a patrol or anything, but enough that you need decent, broken in boots. I had a new pair of hot weather boots and a broken in pair of cold weather boots. The cold weather boots were just too hot and the new boots were killing my feet. I decided to order some different boots, so after some research, I decided to get some Altama Exospeeds II. I ordered right from the Altama website since they were the only place that could guarantee they were in stock. I emailed the customer service about sizes and availability and was pleasantly surprised at their quick response. Since these were not typical military issue boots, they recommended going off of a athletic shoe size as opposed to my issued Altama boot size.


I got the boots pretty quickly, along with my free t shirt, and was happy to find they fit well. The first day I wore them I was still happy as they felt broken in immediately. As I wore them more, they just got more comfortable.

They are fairly sturdy and breath well. The tread and sole seems to wearing well, although it's mostly sand and rocks around here. I've only been wearing them for a couple months, but I'm confident they'll last well through the rest of my deployment.

I would definitely get another pair of these boots and recommend them to anyone looking for a pair of boots that has that instantly broken in feel. I think I paid around $120 for them, which seemed like a little more than what I could find on other websites, but I got them quickly and they're worth the money. The price seemed within the ballpark of other boots of the same type. My other pair of issued Altama's are broken in now too, and I alternate boots. This works out well and my feet aren't killing me by the end of the day.

Good buy, worth the money, and good customer service.

12/16
I've had these boots for several months now, and am as happy with them now as I was when I purchased them.  They've held up well and are actually a little more comfortable as they continue to get broken in.  I had to replace the laces, but that's it.

Surefire G2

I picked up my Surefire G2 before this deployment and have gotten a lot of use out of it. I've also taken it camping and it's proven to be a great light, especially for the money.


I got it at a military post exchange for around $25, but you can probably get close to that on the internet. In stores it's closer to $32.

The flashlight is a compact flashlight (5.1" long) that will easily fit in your pocket. I bought an aftermarket holster for it that will fit on my body armor or belt from TAD Gear. The body is polymer and looks like it can withstand quite a beating. The power switch is a tailcap that can be activated by either turning the tailcap all the way, or by pressing and holding the tailcap button. I've found that by turning the cap towards the off position enough, you can effectively lock it out to prevent accidental discharge.

Both the tailcap and top, feature O rings that make it "weather proof". I don't know that I would submerge it for extended periods of time, but I feel confident that if I dropped in a pond or puddle, it would work fine.

The base flashlight comes with an incandesent lamp that puts out 65 lumens and has a run time of 60 minutes on one set of batteries. It was good, but I wanted increased runtime from my batteries so I dropped in a replacement LED bulb from Lighthound. I believe it was a Cree or Uniq. I do know that it was around $20 and well worth it. I think it puts out more light and definitely doesn't eat as many batteries. It uses two 123A lithium batteries, but can be modified to take a rechargeable battery. Surefire's website has this and other accessories for this light, such as filters and holsters.

I wrapped some 550 cord around the handle and made a little lanyard for it and I think it helps the grip a little more. I would recommend this flashlight to anyone needing a good basic durable light. It's available in 4 colors - Black, OD Green, Yellow and Tan.