For some reason, the one thing that has always stood out to me about military uniforms is how their pant legs are tucked into their boots. For this motive, I went out and researched why this is the case.

The military tucks their pants into their boots to prevent foreign objects from entering their pant legs or boots, and to prevent their pant legs from riding up. It is official regulation for pants to either be tucked into boots or to be bloused at all times.

Military personnel tucking their pants into their boots has a long history with a long list of reasons why they do this. Along with this, there are several ways in which different military people tuck their pants in.

Why Do The Military Tuck In Their Pants?

While in the military there are many rules and regulations put into place to help keep you and your fellow soldiers safe. From what I found, tucking in your pants is just another one of those steps.

According to the current book of rules and regulations for Army uniform and appearance,

“Soldiers will wear the trousers bloused, using the draw cords or blousing rubbers, if the trousers are not tucked into the boots.”

Source

We will go over blousing later, but put simply, it is a way to cover the openings at the bottom of your legs without tucking your pants into your boots.

There is a reason that this tucking in or blousing is required for military personnel. I feel like the answer is pretty obvious as to why.

While I believe it is a simple answer, the simplest answer I could find as to why pants need to be bloused or tucked into the boots is, “They fold the pants legs tight and pull the boots up over the pants. This is to keep foreign materials out like dirt, etc.” Source

This makes complete sense to me. As a kid, I had an experience where I had to tuck in my pants like this while I was at my local church.

I was in my nice shirt, tie, and slacks and I personally thought I looked pretty dapper. Not to delve too much into insignificant detail, but my friends and I decided to go run through the muddy grass back behind the church at some point on a Sunday.

I thought beforehand that this was going to get my outfit all ruined along with the inside of my leg. So before running into the mud I tucked my pants into my socks.

While I was told I looked like a dork, I was the only one of my friends who did not have mud all up and down their legs at the end of that little adventure.

If it could protect me from a little mud, I can only imagine how important it must be for active-duty military personnel to do the same.

Tucking Vs. Blousing

Now that we have talked about the why, let’s talk about the how. There are two distinct methods people use to cover the bottom part of their legs. These two methods would be to tuck the pants into the boot and to blouse the pants.

While tucking is pretty explanatory, blousing is a little bit more of a specific term.

Blousing is when the pants are folded in on themselves. It is quite hard to explain so below is a good youtube video that explains how to blouse your pants.

This is further explained by the quote, “Soldiers will wear the trousers bloused, using the draw cords or blousing rubbers.” Source

This method has been explained to be more comfortable and faster to do when compared to tucking pants into the boots.

While both methods fulfill the requirement and keep people safe, blousing is the preferable option for many within the military.

With that being said there is a vast amount of people within the military who still tuck their pants into their boots. This may be because of accessibility or just preference.

Correct Way To Blouse And/Or Tuck

While there are different methods and different ways in which you can keep pants secure while they remain protecting your legs, there is a specific way they must look.

In the military, people are seeking perfection and exactness. This is very reasonable given that people’s lives are on the line. Along with this perfection and exactness comes a need for these goals to be applied to appearance.

There are many regulations on appearance especially when it comes to the pants on a uniform. Some of these specific rules are that “…slacks… must be creased… should not fit tightly… and should be pressed when necessary.” Source

Along with this, the very specific rules roll out which state, “Trousers will be fitted and worn with the lower edge of the waistband at the top of the hipbone, plus or minus 1⁄2 inch. The front crease of the trousers will reach the top of the instep, touching the top of the shoe at the shoelaces. Trousers will be cut on a diagonal line to reach a point approximately midway between the top of the heel and the top of the standard shoe in the back. The trousers may have a slight break in the front.” Source

These are all mentioned and cited in great detail to show the extent to which pants and trousers need to be kept up. Despite the need to tuck them into the boots, they need to keep up their appearance and to be done right.

Above there is a video on how to properly blouse your pants without the use of the boot. Below will be a video on how to tuck your pant leg properly into the boot.

These two examples on how to actually tuck or blouse your pants will hopefully be very helpful.

In the end, military personnel tucks their pant legs into their boots to protect their legs from anything harmful they may encounter on the battlefield or while just walking around.

It just goes to show the attention to detail that the military has. Everything that can be thought of to protect soldiers, has been thought of.

Because of this preparation beforehand, the military and those within it can be safer and more protected.