Cotton historically has been the fiber of choice for many textile applications, especially those for apparel and household fabrics. However, cotton is a relatively weak fiber when compared to today's most commonly used synthetic fibers, such as polyester and nylon. Consequently, beneficial blending of cotton with these strong synthetic fibres for apparel and household fabrics has been in vogue for decades now. However, blending of cotton with these common synthetic fibers still has not been quite satisfactory for certain industrial, military and special applications, such as heavy-duty transportation fabrics for “mobile” industry, military tents, and the like. As a result, cotton's share in the industrial and military end-use applications has been steeply declining in the past several decades. Research at the Southern Regional Research Center has shown that blending of cotton with only a fraction, say 20%, high-molecular polyethylene staple fiber could double the strength of the blend yarns and fabrics, while still maintaining the underlying benefits of cotton. For example, a military tent fabric used to be an all-cotton fabric. No more! The reasons are simple. A pure cotton tent fabric does not meet the current military requirements of tensile and tear strengths. In order for the fabric to be flame retardant (FR), a heavy coat of FR chemical treatment is essential, which, in addition to exceeding the weight specification, further reduces the tear strength and hence durability of the fabric. Therefore, it really makes sense to further explore the great potential of this unique polyethylene fiber in combination with cotton in predominance. This manuscript reviews some interesting mechanical properties of the yarns and fabrics made with this unique blend, in order to emphasize the need for further research on this cotton-rich blend for different applications.