Ok, I have (God help me) read EVERY post in this long drawn out thread.
1) I don't know Mick Strider. (I may have met him once very breifly.) I have handled his knives, but have never owned one.
2) I have been a member of this forum for years, but just recently got involved again. I have on a couple of occasions met Kevin in passing many years ago. I even talked to him a couple of times (again years ago) on the phone (business related). I very much doubt he even really remembers me.
3) Before this post I knew nothing of the prison time, lawsuit, or anything even remotely shady about Mr Strider....even though I owned a sucessful knife store at one point.
4) I have never served in the military, but my father, uncles, and brothers all did. (WW2 & Korea) I have friends who were in Vietman, and friends who are currently in the Marines and have been or are due to be stationed in Iraq.
5) I have seen a few knife companies, and makers inflate their background and importance to make a sale. I have seen knife companies, and makers steal designs, lie to wholesalers and consumers. It always concerns me, but it is more something to cause me to make a personal decision to stay away from, rather than getting involved in a free-for-all.
Given all of that and doing a bit of research on why I or anyone other than a Ranger, should be concerned about these specific allegations, facts, and questions that Spark posted here, this is what I found: On Dec. 20th 2006 the President signed into law Stolen Valor Act of 2005 (now PL-109-437).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2005 Basically this broadens a previous law dealing with Medal of Honor phonies to include other metals like the Purple Heart, and to include making verifiable false statements. This brings these allegations an importance that nothing in these threads have.
It means that some of the, even years old, statements Mick Strider made on various forums, if proven false, now consititue a felony.
How do I feel about this post now? I mostly feel sad. I feel sad that this has touched the knife world. I feel sad if these allegations turn out to be true. I feel sad for all the people involved, both for Mr. Strider and his family, and for all those real heros that have their valor truely stolen by phonies and wannabes.
Kevin, nothing agaist you, and not casting any doubt of your trustfulness, but I will be looking (maybe holding out idealistic hope that this is just a big mistake) for confirmation from a separate (non-knife realted site) like the POW Network.
Ok I've said my piece. (If you've made it this far, I'm impressed.) I'm going back to lurking and trying to sort fact from fiction, and honest concern about this thread verses the personal attacks and popcorn munchers.
Pam
