Uniform Trouser Cuffs

At Bobby Shaftoe’s burial (pages 1067,1068 of Cryptonomicon), Goto Dengo picks up some loose dirt, which “trickles out from between his fingers and trails down the legs of his crisp new United States Army uniform, getting caught in the trouser cuffs.” During my service with the U.S. Army in the 1950s (Korean War), most of our uniforms were identical to those used at the end of World War II. None of those uniform trousers had cuffs. This last farewell from Dengo to his old friend Bobby was moving, but what were the non-existent cuffs supposed to contribute to the scene?