Carried nothing but a whittler and SAK to Ranger school

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STEVENKIM

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I just got back from Ranger school! Knife wise it was interesting because almost everyone had some sort of tactical folder from spyderco, gerber, benchmade, and other companies. I had a spyderco manix, which I managed to lose after a week.

But I also had a Case CV whittler and a SAK executive. It was literally all I needed and I used this combination everyday. I used put some CLP on the blades everyday and from the mountains to the florida swamps, I was definitely never underknifed!
 
Congrats!
Wear that Ranger Tab with pride, you earned it. Off to Airborne School?

Where did you use your knives the most, Mountain Phase or Florida Phase?

Dave
 
Congrats! Carrying the Executive puts you in company with Gen. Chuck Yeager. I read over on the Wilderness Survival folder a while back that Gen. Yeager claims he and a friend would go off into the Sierras and he only carried his SAK Executive.

Thanks for sharing some honest hard duty experience with a couple of simple, classic knives. And a loud, HOOAH!
 
I used it the most in Florida. I was too hungry to get out my knife from my pocket to cut my MRE packages in the mountains, I simply used my teeth to get at my food. Also they didnt allow knives in alot of the rappelling and climbing training.
 
Steven, congratulations, Ranger! BIG ATTABOY! :thumbup:

Thanks for a good real world assessment of how well your simple basic knives performed under the varied conditions you encountered in your training. You helped confirm the opinions many of us share.

Tell me something. You said you lost your Spyderco the first week. How did that happen? Was it because you had it clipped to your pocket or elsewhere? I am not convinced that clipping a folder onto you is the best way to carry one usually. I rotate two for my EDC backup needs, but I keep each of them between my folded bandana and my butt, safe and out of sight.
 
Amos Iron Wolf said:
Congrats! Carrying the Executive puts you in company with Gen. Chuck Yeager. I read over on the Wilderness Survival folder a while back that Gen. Yeager claims he and a friend would go off into the Sierras and he only carried his SAK Executive.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm not certain this is 100% true. After reading that same claim here on bladeforums, I bought both books by Yeager ("Press On" and "Yeager: An Autobiography"). Nowhere in those books is any reference to a specific pocketknife. At the same time, I discovered that Blade magazine once featured Gen. Yeager in it's "The Knife I Carry" section and he was touting his, you guessed it, Victorinox Executive. However, I'm not at all convinced that that knife is/was necessarily his knife-of-choice for his storied treks up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, his hunting or fishing expeditions, etc. It may well have been, but it seems far from definite based on what I've been able to discover.
 
Congrats STEVENKIM!

Thanks for the testimonial on the utility of slipjoints.

Now we know that:
1) A Case whittler and a SAK Executive are sufficient to get someone (you, not me! I'd never make it) through Ranger school; and
2) You can skin a 'gator with a peanut.

Cool.
 
Several years ago they had one of the sporting channels doing a thing on the California Golden trout, and in the segment was one then about 70 year old Chuck Yeager. They were filming someplace up in the Sierra Nevada's, and Yeager was standing on the shore of this small mountain lake with his rod under his arm tying a fly on line. While he was talking, he pulled out a small red handle pocket knife to trim the knot end with sissors.

The host/commentater made a comment about his "pen knife", and General Yeager held it out on the palm of his hand and it was a small sak of some sort. Smaller than a tinker or regular sak. He then said in a West virginia drawl "It does what I need to do, and does'nt weight much".

Maybe it was the afor mentioned executive. In either case, Yeager does not seem to need alot of knife to get by. I remember in his book "Yeager: An Autobiograghy" he mentions in a modest passing way when he was hauling the other injured flier up over the mountains persued by Germans after being shot down, that he paused to amputate the others guys badly mangled leg with a "pen knife" the other guy had in his pocket.

With his kind of cajones, he probably goes bear hunting with a switch.:D
 
Jackknife, my grandma would have hunted whatever needed hunting with a switch probably, too. My highest honor as a young 'un was to be issued her paring knife from the kitchen drawer so I could go out in the yard and cut her a switch to "wear out" one of my younger cousins that really needed it. :D
 
jackknife said:
The host/commentater made a comment about his "pen knife", and General Yeager held it out on the palm of his hand and it was a small sak of some sort. Smaller than a tinker or regular sak. He then said in a West virginia drawl "It does what I need to do, and does'nt weight much".

Maybe it was the afor mentioned executive.
Click to expand...

Thanks, jackkknife. I stand happily corrected. You're right about Yeager not needing much knife to get by, that much IS clear from those two fine books I mentioned.

BTW, if any one of you guys are in the Huntington, West Virginia area and care to drop by the Special Collections Department at Marshall University's Morrow Library with a digital camera, you could get us a pic of the "small pocket knife that he carried on flights during World War II."
 
Congrats, Ranger!

I wish I could ask you if my RI friend is still there but you cannot accept PMs and you don't accept emails through your profile.
 
northsidefx@hotmail.com


I know B Co RIs, but not so much the A and C Co RIs.

Every single piece of equipment was secured with a bowline knot and a lanyard, including knives. I left my knife out on a poncho when we were cleaning weapons, and someone swiped it. To be honest, the manix was just too much weight in the pocket anyway.
 
STEVEKIM,
My brother was getting ready to come home(I forget if it was PI or LEJEUNE).First time coming home was really looking forward to it! Gets everything together & he discovers some MARINE had stolen his come home $$ from his locker! Called my Aunt & she sent him the $$ so he could come home(from then on he made sure he took care of her & he paid every cent back) He told me
Jim I couldn't believe it...a MARINE stealing from a fellow MARINE!! Doesn't really matter $$ .a knife or whatever....stealing from a brother is as low as you can get!
Jim
 
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