"Boots on the ground..." is an expression used by most everyone nowadays. It's a facile "avoidance phrase" used to hide the reality of placing the actual people who wear those boots in a combat zone. If you hear someone use the expression, you are not listening to a thoughtful person; obtain your information elsewhere. I served in the Army from 1965 to 1978, including duty in Vietnam, a hostile fire zone. My boots were on the ground and I was certainly occupying them. However, nobody I knew, military or civilian, ever spoke of "boots on the ground" in those days. It was not part of military parlance. Unfortunately, around 1980, the phrase began to seep, like verbal sludge, into the lexicon. The Grammarist traces its history; the article claims it is military jargon that has moved into the public sphere. More precisely, I think the term had its origins with the politicians during the lead-up to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in an attempt to make going to war seem less frightening to the public.  

Similarly, the namby-pamby locution "in harms way" skirts its darker issue with a blandness that speaks not one whit to the reality of the situation. We are talking about war and "harmful" is monumentally inadequate to describe the mortal danger. You are "harmed" by falling off the jungle gym, cutting your finger instead of the carrot, or dropping a jar of pickles on your foot. I can't imagine a military commander addressing his troops by asserting that they are about to go into "harms way." That "harm" involves soldiers who are being piereced or taken apart by bullets and flying shards of hot metal, or having their brains and vital organs jellified by the concussive effects of munitions being detonated. "Harm" falls miserably short of describing such effects, even if delivered by a growling soldier or commander using a vocal fry in an attempt to sound gruff. People using the phrase are not serious and their discourse is to be avoided.

I invite readers to add their own such euphemisms in the comments below.