Vets, tell us about your fighting knives.

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My brother and I both ordered custom Randall Model 1s many years ago. Don't know if he ever used his while he was in the Army but I do know he still has it. Only difference between our knives is mine has a stainless steel blade while his has a carbon tool steel blade.

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12 in that pic. The Byrd is a Spyderco product, as is that Street Bowie. I have more, though. ;)



Yes, Dave was someone that I loved immediately on meeting him. He had a "welcome back" dinner for me soon after I returned, and we were supposed to begin getting together regularly. 3 weeks later he was gone.
Never met him, I have his writings and ramblings to look at here and on the firing line. I hope he's running his 870 in the sky. I'm sure you treasure that CS very much
 
Two tours in Vietnam as an enlisted man and NCO (Army). Personal weapons, including knives, were generally prohibited unless specifically authorized by the commanding officer. Our bags were closely searched before going to Vietnam and again before leaving Vietnam. Any unauthorized items were confiscated. I carried a folding pocket knife, which was allowed.

In Vietnam there was an active trade in knives and handguns among the troops. I had a "off the books" M1911A1 during my first tour, and a captured Belgian FN Hi Power during my second tour. Gave the .45 to a buddy when I went home the first time. I was allowed to register the Hi Power as a war trophy and take it home.

There were a few exceptions, such as Special Forces troops and some officers. In those cases the individual's travel orders had to contain authorization for personal weapons (pistols, knives).

Interestingly, when I left Vietnam the second time I was on emergency leave due to my mother's death. I went straight from the field in jungle fatigues, muddy boots, carrying my rucksack. Somewhere along the way I remembered that I had a Claymore mine, detonator, and 3 frag grenades in my ruck. Got to McChord AFB, reported to the Security Police and was allowed to turn in the ordnance without any problems. Had it been discovered otherwise I would probably have been court martialed.
 
Two tours in Vietnam as an enlisted man and NCO (Army). Personal weapons, including knives, were generally prohibited unless specifically authorized by the commanding officer. Our bags were closely searched before going to Vietnam and again before leaving Vietnam. Any unauthorized items were confiscated. I carried a folding pocket knife, which was allowed.

In Vietnam there was an active trade in knives and handguns among the troops. I had a "off the books" M1911A1 during my first tour, and a captured Belgian FN Hi Power during my second tour. Gave the .45 to a buddy when I went home the first time. I was allowed to register the Hi Power as a war trophy and take it home.

There were a few exceptions, such as Special Forces troops and some officers. In those cases the individual's travel orders had to contain authorization for personal weapons (pistols, knives).

Interestingly, when I left Vietnam the second time I was on emergency leave due to my mother's death. I went straight from the field in jungle fatigues, muddy boots, carrying my rucksack. Somewhere along the way I remembered that I had a Claymore mine, detonator, and 3 frag grenades in my ruck. Got to McChord AFB, reported to the Security Police and was allowed to turn in the ordnance without any problems. Had it been discovered otherwise I would probably have been court martialed.
That's pretty cool, my father wasn't anything special just a tank guy but he carried a model 27 3.5 inch Smith with him. Was the weapons issue only with your unit. For what it's worth he was with the 1st Cav 19th Artillery.
 
I suspect that either your father had commander's authorization for the privately owned firearm, or he found that there are countless places in a tank where things can be easily hidden away. I doubt that a metal detector would be of much use searching inside a 50-ton hunk of steel armor!

I'm sure that there were lots of differences between unit regulations and enforcement during those years. I openly carried a Thompson SMG for months and no one gave me any trouble over it, but that was in an infantry combat unit in the field most of the time. Showing up at the big PX in Da Nang while toting a Thompson would likely have resulted in detention by the MP's and a disciplinary report to my commander.

Quite a few officers carried personal side arms. I saw everything from S&W revolvers and Baby Browning .25's to Colt Gold Cups and family heirlooms. I knew a warrant officer helicopter pilot who carried a Ruger Single-Six .22 revolver with his survival gear (his issued side arm was a .38 revolver). But officers generally travelled with orders in hand and reported directly to assigned units, while the rest of us arrived as replacements coming through replacement depots before we had any idea what our unit assignment would be until we got there.

Some units gave award gifts, including high-end Randall knives, in recognition of outstanding service. Only thing I ever received was an engraved Zippo lighter! I got the Hi Power because I was the one who ended the career of the NVA officer carrying it (if I had captured him alive I could have gotten a week's R&R in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Australia, or other nice places with good beer and air conditioning).
 
Back in the day, I (like a lot of guys) kept a Gerber II on my web gear, off side, upside down.


So on one mission I had a pallet of water leaning way over the side of my trailer, and my driver couldn't see the gun truck behind us in the mirror. I had to climb out of the truck, onto the trailer, and cut it loose, as we ran down MSR Tampa. When I was coming around the catwalk behind the cab to get back on the truck, the knife sheath (on my body armor) just let go, and fell off. (with the knife I had just used in it) Of course we couldn't stop, so Haji gets the blade... I emailed Blackhawk, and Michael Janich emails me back. They don't put locktite in the screws of the sheath so the end user can change over to left hand if they want. From now on they will. He sent me a new knife.[/ upload_2019-10-3_21-23-17.jpeg
Back in the day, I (like a lot of guys) kept a Gerber II on my web gear, off side, upside down.

I tried to go all out once ordering an expensive hand made knife from Mike Irie online while in Iraq. It came in the mail, and God was it beautiful. Fit my hand well, good long recurve fighting blade. I loved it. Took it on a couple missions, but after getting a nick in the handle, I got scared, and left it in the tent... It did come in a crappy sheath. Ended up sending it home... Sad thing was I got blowed up later in the deployment, couldn't work when I got back, and sold it on Ebay. Now I'd pay through the nose to have it back...

View attachment 859125

Then I ordered another... This time the MOD Mark V ATAK, from the Bkaclhawk website... (hey, Blackhawk was big back then) D2 tool steel, so it was gonna be tough. First off. The handle was, and is the most comfortable knife handle I've ever had in my hand. I just want to walk around with the damn thing in my hand all day. The little prongs on the hilt for prying, and "combat" are gimmicky, but they never really got in the way. The blade was tough as hell, and I used it a lot, though more as a utility knife than anything else. I just didn't see a lot of "hand to hand" combat, though I did shoot people. I will say that the company did stand behind their product. I was in my 40s on my last deployment. Done with tanks, and Infantry... I was a section sgt of a transportation unit. (88M... yes, a truck driver)

So on one mission I had a pallet of water leaning way over the side of my trailer, and my driver couldn't see the gun truck behind us in the mirror. I had to climb out of the truck, onto the trailer, and cut it loose, as we ran down MSR Tampa. When I was coming around the catwalk behind the cab to get back on the truck, the knife sheath (on my body armor) just let go, and fell off. (with the knife I had just used in it) Of course we couldn't stop, so Haji gets the blade... I emailed Blackhawk, and Michael Janich emails me back. They don't put locktite in the screws of the sheath so the end user can change over to left hand if they want. From now on they will. He sent me a new knife.

View attachment 859126

This one I carried around a lot. I picked it up at the PX after I lost the Mark V. I never got a Kabar before because they were a Marine thing, and I was Army, but I needed a fixed blade... Guess what? This one said U.S. Army on the sheath. I took the little retaining strap off the sheath, then stuck the blade into my right pants pocket, and with the belt loop through the sheath my DCU blouse would cover the handle. Nobody could see I was walking around with a 7" long fixed blade. When I sit down, the sheath could bend since the handle wasn't strapped to it. The TCNs wouldn't be afraid of your weapon because they knew you wouldn't shoot them, but you whip out that blade...they'd quit stealing ****. I can still carry like that today with jeans, and a big T-shirt if I want.

View attachment 859127

These days, for my fighting knife, I have went back to my roots and gone to a smaller dedicated dagger style fighting knife. I keep a Boker Applegate Fairbairn on my 1st line belt in a custom Kydex sheath I had a guy make for me. Being older, and half crippled... I doubt I'll ever need it, but hey...

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I still do love the feel of that handle on the Mark V though. Nothing like it. Very tempted to cut off the little wings, and get a custom sheath made for it...
 
My last tour in VN, I had a Randall #14. An impressive knife with a lot of bragging rights and sex appeal but probably not necessary. An Army/Air force survival knife would have worked just as well.

When my son deployed to Iraq for the first time in 2002, he wanted to take my Randall 14. I gave him two Army Air Force survival knives, two SAK spartans and two chinese multitools. A year later, I asked him to account for the knives. One survival knife had been broken using it as a pry bar, the other was given to an interpeter. He lost one of of the Spartans and had the other one confiscated by a minority female customs inspector when he got off his return flight at Pope. He gave the multitools away to enlisted men who needed them.

I sure am glad that I didn't give my Randall.
 
My son was a helicopter pilot for two tours in the sand box. 03 and again in 05.
In 03 he went of with a couple of really good knives, all but one made it home.
In 05 he was flying around a bunch of recon types even though he was only 25 he was a father figure to a couple of 19 year old E-3's who came from less than ideal homes and neighborhoods. He asked me to send some knives he could give out to these kids.

At he time Schrade had just gone out of business and their were bargains all over the net! I bought a bunch and sent him 4 of these. IMG_20191006_100759.jpg
 
Carried Camillus K-bars till I retired. Use an ESEE 5 for camping and screwing around with the grandkids now.
 
Two tours in Vietnam as an enlisted man and NCO (Army). Personal weapons, including knives, were generally prohibited unless specifically authorized by the commanding officer. Our bags were closely searched before going to Vietnam and again before leaving Vietnam. Any unauthorized items were confiscated. I carried a folding pocket knife, which was allowed.

In Vietnam there was an active trade in knives and handguns among the troops. I had a "off the books" M1911A1 during my first tour, and a captured Belgian FN Hi Power during my second tour. Gave the .45 to a buddy when I went home the first time. I was allowed to register the Hi Power as a war trophy and take it home.

There were a few exceptions, such as Special Forces troops and some officers. In those cases the individual's travel orders had to contain authorization for personal weapons (pistols, knives).

Interestingly, when I left Vietnam the second time I was on emergency leave due to my mother's death. I went straight from the field in jungle fatigues, muddy boots, carrying my rucksack. Somewhere along the way I remembered that I had a Claymore mine, detonator, and 3 frag grenades in my ruck. Got to McChord AFB, reported to the Security Police and was allowed to turn in the ordnance without any problems. Had it been discovered otherwise I would probably have been court martialed.
I know this is a knife thread, but any chance we could get a pic of the HiPower?
 
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