Quote Originally Posted by cloves View Post
ever see baseball or hockey socks? They don't have feet in them either. You do typically wear them over a pair of undersocks.

I suspect that in this military case, that because the feet of socks wear out more quickly, it's more cost effective to keep hose tops in decent shape. Let's face it, hose tops are usually worn by bands that do alot of marching and probably take quite a beating.
Quite correct, cloves, and also the fact that, as many have noted, full diced hose are expensive, and the army cannot afford to supply every Jock squaddie with his own pair which will "take a beating".

Cheers,

Todd