Sorry guys! I didn't mean to keep you hanging on that one. I actually wasn't trying to "fish" for interest on that post . . . but I see how tantalizing it is without a proper explanation.
What I DIDN'T do was do any sort of "official" outfitting of a crack USMC unit (though I wish that was the story). What happend was this:
My reserve unit, which NEVER does the standard 2 week annual training (because we're always 3 sheets to the wind in South America, Bosnia, Kosovo, Greece, the Carribbean, Thailand, Japan etc), was sort of ordered by HQMC to do a 2 week AT to show our stuff to the Warfighting Laboratory, who took an interest in our Civil Affairs actions over the past few years.
Along comes Captain Gottlieb strolling down the hall a couple of months ago. He gets nabbed by the XO. "Captain Gottlieb," he says . . . "Can you please design the T-shirts for Warrior Diplomat 2000?" Well, since I'm not a graphic designer, and frankly don't have time to design T-shirts, I said "Yes sir" and then procrastinated.
Then, while in Nepal, Lalit tells me about TBs policy of never turning a bishwakarma away who produceds a knife that passes his inspection. So, he's built up quite a little stash of Service Number ones as a result of this policy (see the picture of all the buttcaps in another thread). Lalit asked me if I could find a home for the Service Number Ones. I told him that I'd do some calling around and see if I could find any units who wanted to order them in quantity to alleviate his inventory surplus.
Cut back to the US two weeks later - I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how I'm going to design these T-shirts, when it hits me - why not offer the XO Service Number Ones engraved with "Warrior Diplomat OO" on the blade AT COST. I met with him for dinner, showed him a SN1, and he was hooked. So, everybody is basically cutting out there profit to reduce the inventory (except our unit, which will be selling them at a profit to help pay for the big party at the end of the two weeks). I know it's an artificial fix, as TB will continue to buy every good khukuri that he sees, but at least we've helped out a bit.
Long run, though, we've picked up several new dealers who are already draining my inventory, so hopefully, that will go a long way toward solving the long-term problem.
One interesting point: A british unit is coming to participate in our training, so I think they'll be surprised when they get here and they get Service Number Ones! I'm sure that at least one or two of them have probably served with the Gurkhas before, so it'll be fun watching their faces.
That's the story.
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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
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