"What now, LT?"
Beat Vern has heard that line. In Officerbasic the instructors will put young shave tail into some despirite situation or another and ask that dread question. At some point the instructors would pile it on so deep that sunlight had to be piped in just to see what the new butter bar would do.
I always made them happy when I looked down the line and yelled out "Prepare to fix bayonets!.......FIX! .....BAYONETS!"
I learned the "old style" bayonet drill in high school. One of our JROTC instructors believed that the bayonet was important.....based on his having used one on multiple occassions as a weapon. I "learned" the modern style in basic training. We had little actual training in the service, but Pugil stick training was a highlight in basic. WHat bayonet training there was was mainly to intill the spirit of the bayonet. In those days everyone went through eight weeks of Basic Combat Training before being sent to Advanced Individual Training. Cooks, clerks, mechanics, photographers, and the few Combat Arms folks went through eight weeks together before being sent to other places. Later I would be a trainer in a One Unit Station Training where all the trainees in our company were to be 11B and 11C (Light weapons and indirect fire crewman) Infantry.
Whether Infantrymen, Tread heads, Redlegs, Chaindogs, finance clerks, night bakers, or chaplins assistints, the blood pumped faster and harder when the steel came out. Bayonet traininng instilled the spirit of the bayonet when taught enmass. For that reason alone the bayonet is or can be important.
I will say that with the M-16 A1 and M7 Bayonet-knife we were taught to never use the veritcal butt stroke as this put pressure on the recoil spring tube that might break it at the point it enters the lower reciever. We were taight to use the horizontal butt stroke wher ethe rifle is raised with the muzzle over the shoulder pointed away and the butt plate slammed in a straght line horizontally into the target. I also found that using the M-16A1 in parries could result in the foregrips breaking and that the front sights and gas tube seemed more fragile ( actually broken or damaged)than the M-ls and M-14s I learned and spared with as a highschooler. Twists on the rifle while the bayonet was in or against something could also result in the bayonet coming off the M-16A1, not something I saw happen with wood stocked rifles but I imagine might be a problem with the carbine with its simular bayonet attachment.
Still I would be happier when I had an M7 to go with an M-16A1 than when not...even when carrying a full load, body armor, and spare water. I also carried sheath knife, pocket knife, a file a double sided stone and a cresent wrench as all were useful and my M2 cap crimpers.
In one unit I belonged to the bayonets were kept sharp, even the so called "false edge". I thought this a very good thing for while a slash was not the preferred attack, anything that could hurt the other guy was a good thing. I was taught to slash as a follow through to parries or when at very close quarters to slash while getting into the position to thrust. Other units insisted the blades were not to be sharpened.
BTW in that sharp unit we also sharpend three of the four edges of our old style wood handled e-tools and, in my platoon, a couple of times turned out with e-tools for some "batting practice" What was to be done with an e-tool was neither a stab or slash but a chop like with a meat cleaver. When we saw our first tri fold e-tool we immediately had a digging contest which the wood handle easily won, the outcome of a e-tool fight between the trifold and a 1944 Ames wood handled folder seemed a for gone conclusion though.
With the bayonet, slashes, parries, and butt strokes were taught as means to get into position for the thrust which was the kill.
WHen I was working as a gunrag writer and editor I got one of the early Primus M-9s to test and write up. Don't know if they still have them but the original design had a bottle opener built in. It was just a cuttout on the blade side of the cross guard, but it worked as I opened my Dr.Pepper with it all week and a photo of a Dr. Pepper botle being open appeared in the article. This was considered an important feature as GIs would use the feed lips of their rifle magazines to open bottles with. I saw more than one bottle opened with a magazine and believe that pressure on the feed lips sometimes bent the feed lips causing failures to feed in the M-16A1. Not sure there are many non twist off bottle caps around these days though. I cut some double stranded barbed wire, some hurricane (chain link) fencing and a live electrical cord with a lamp plugged into it with the knife linked to the sheath. There was an attched sharpening stone on the sheath. I still felt that the M7 was a better weapon though the M9s' other uses were convinent.
I, long ago before M9s and before AKM bayonets were generally available in the USA, had a "Stoner bayonet" for the AR rifles. It had wire cutting ability, a usable saw ( I used it to make flat ends on feild expeident tent pegs), and a flat head screw driver. But the blade was a thin flat piece with a beval on just one side and a faux bowie false edge. Mine did not have the front sight adjustment tool which was the main feature I thought would be useful.
The bayonet is of course a weapon but it is also a statement. It says to an enemy "I am ready to stick you and mess you up all permentant like" It says to the man weilding it "You are ready to stick him and mess him all up all permentant like and YOU CAN!" Frequently attitute is the most improtant thing going on, it can prevent bad things from happening. The spirit of the Bayonet is an attitude, an attitude of winning.
-kBob