Hey Jim! Thanks for the reply and thanks for your service as well.

I'm pretty familiar with Wayne Fisk's story and you're definitely right that the rest of the rescue professions (pilots, co, gunner/FE) joined the tradition very quickly as well. Currently the whole rescue mission -from PJs to maintainers- and the PJs in Air Force Special Tactics use the green feet which I think is a great callback to a proud heritage. Both commonly use the 5 and 4 toe versions.

So to your knowledge the 4 toe variant started as a thing for FEs and maintainers? If there's any more to the story I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.