10th Special Forces etching on Endura blade

Jim malone said:
The problem is what do you do with it? Imho you can't carry it because you never served in it. Nice to have in your collection but i really dislike people wearing patches or unit related stuff when you didn't served in one of them. Remember that picture of Jeffrey Epstein wearing a Navy Seal dress uniform?
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I don’t agree with this at all. Carrying a knife with a unit insignia on it isn’t “stolen valor”, or frowned upon. It isn’t like it’s a t-shirt that says “I’m a special forces Soldier.” The knife is pretty banged up, and if there isn’t any sentimental value attached, just carry it and use it. Very very few people are going to recognize the unit insignia anyway. I wish MORE people carried around our unit insignia on items.. 82nd airborne.. 101st.. the SF groups… 1ID, 2ID, etc. Show the world your pride in the history of these great units.

To the OP, go on and use it. You don’t need anyone’s permission. It’s a pocketknife, not a uniform.
 
It's just the way i look at it. Doesn't mean i'm right. I wasn't saying it was stolen valor. I just don't want to give the impression i belong to a certain active team. I don't mind if veterans carry stuff with insignia on when they earned it or when a brother from another unit gave you a memento. But it's just something i'm personally sensitive about. I'm from Europe and when i see a young European guy wearing a cap or patches with 101 or 82 Airborne on it on the beaches of Normandy i'm like you didn't earn this cap or patch, you just bought one in the souvenir shop. But that's just me. Maybe it was because i met a guy who was telling me all these stories about beeing a former Soldier with the Special Forces and a cop and he mentioned a team i used to be part of. He even showed me pictures of him beeing in a U.S. parade uniform of the 82the Airborn carrying the stars and stripes. Turns out he volunteers in a volunteer Belgium "honour guard" who attend these ceremonies in full parade gear. When he told me he was in desert Storm as a foreign volunteer with the U.S. forces i told him he was full of ****. A few months ago i see this guys picture in the newspaper honouring volunteers after a local flooding that occured. Apparantly he's been a volunteer member of all these black bag teams and talks a lot about it. He would be the guy who would buy such a Spyderco and in plain view eat an apple while casually mentioning he earned it when he caught Sadam Hussain in his Spiderhole.
 
Jim malone said:
It's just the way i look at it. Doesn't mean i'm right. I wasn't saying it was stolen valor. I just don't want to give the impression i belong to a certain active team. I don't mind if veterans carry stuff with insignia on when they earned it or when a brother from another unit gave you a memento. But it's just something i'm personally sensitive about. I'm from Europe and when i see a young European guy wearing a cap or patches with 101 or 82 Airborne on it on the beaches of Normandy i'm like you didn't earn this cap or patch, you just bought one in the souvenir shop. But that's just me. Maybe it was because i met a guy who was telling me all these stories about beeing a former Soldier with the Special Forces and a cop and he mentioned a team i used to be part of. He even showed me pictures of him beeing in a U.S. parade uniform of the 82the Airborn carrying the stars and stripes. Turns out he volunteers in a volunteer Belgium "honour guard" who attend these ceremonies in full parade gear. When he told me he was in desert Storm as a foreign volunteer with the U.S. forces i told him he was full of ****. A few months ago i see this guys picture in the newspaper honouring volunteers after a local flooding that occured. Apparantly he's been a volunteer member of all these black bag teams and talks a lot about it. He would be the guy who would buy such a Spyderco and in plain view eat an apple while casually mentioning he earned it when he caught Sadam Hussain in his Spiderhole.
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I understand what you’re saying, but there is a difference between showing your pride in a military unit vs. claiming to have been a part of something you weren’t.

The conversation would go like this:
“Hi, I see you have a knife with (insert unit insignia) etched on it. Were you in said unit?”

“No, I bought this knife used and I just like to show my pride in our US military.”

“Oh that’s fantastic!”

“Absolutely! Did you know that (insert interesting fact about Special Forces history)?”

That is how I envision that conversation.

This is a little off topic, but I do think we oftentimes overreact when we see people trying to show their pride in the military. There are veterans that will whip out their phones and record themselves berating homeless drug addicts wearing ACUs on the street corner. I have to ask “what exactly do these people think they’re accomplishing?”

There is stolen valor.. there are just goobers wearing thrift shop clothes.. and then there are people genuinely interested in military history. I think the OP falls under the third, and is worthy of our appreciation for his interest.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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