Gentlemen,
I submit that perhaps the CAOs (or rather, the ANOs) were drafted in a different era when rubber soles were less common and 'ob nail boots were wot farver wore.
I clearly remember reading Hardy Boys adventures as a lad where Jupiter Jones was the only one of the gang with rubber-soled shoes, and therefore did all the sneaking around.
This was confusing to me as a young lad in the early 1980s, as every shoe I had ever seen in my young life had a rubber sole.
