These things Nasty- they start off ice cold, get really hot while you are moving, and becuase they are basically heavy duty balloons wrapped around your feet, not only do your feet not get dry, but when you stop moving, they get as cold as the inside of a tire.

Oh, and gator, aircrew might use them, but you'd never jump with them. Not ankle support, iffy traction and the landing would probably cause them to blow out. Not to mention there are better choices which are more versatile and allow stealier movement- if you ahve to take a walk a 20 thousand plus, you are generally wanting to be sneaky. Sneaky boots are approximately equal to a couple hundred rounds of ammunition. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> The valve has to do with when you are airborne (in a plane and going from point a to point b) and don't want them to pop, and have nothing to do with being in the Airborne (planning on leaving the plane before it lands so you can kill as few people as possible without dying yourself at a point between a and b). Or, if you are in unpressurized aircraft, so you can take them off again, just like the valves on Pelican cases.