ok, now the important part. can you get it back thru customs...
when we were goin thru, the customs guys (navy) had ZERO clue what they were doing, and were disallowing any double edged knives, or automatics. Heres the deal. I can almost guarantee you that youre not going to engage anyone with your knife. but, goin to the suck without a good fixed blade knife is not good either. for a fixed blade, keep it small, cuz space is at a premium. if you unit regulates you on how you actually wear your gear, like most standard line units, then you may have even less space to work with. keep it small. it all depends on what youre going to be doing there, and METT-T. we had to clear brush, cuz we would lay up in a patrol base for days sometimes. (we were purely on foot, never any vehicles) so i had to hack sometimes. i carried a hawk for that though. most likely, youre mech, so youll have some tools in the humvee, truck or track. so you could possibly afford to carry a smaller knife. first off, never leave home without a multitool. thats a constant. that never changes. secondly, a nice folder is cool. no, dont get any wiz-bang knives, cuz not only are you risk not being able to get it back home, but the sand messes up alot of automatics. keep it simple and tough. but able to be opened with gloved hands. for me the choice was clear. i carred the frn smooth bladed endura (wayy too hard to sharpen, so i shelved it) in favor of the spyderco military. good size, will ALWAYS open, and i can use it with gloves. my fixed bladed was either an old M3 trench or a glock field knife. the glock got way more use, as its scabbard was perfect. it was on my lbe, right side, tucked tightly between my 2nd mag pouch and my canteen. the good thing was, since space was at a premium, i could just reach down, and grab my knife when i needed BUT, it was the resheathing that got me. all i had to do was reach down, index it and shove it in. no stupid little velcro or button/snap straps to fumble with. retainer straps would have been REALLY sucky, as there was no room down there to get my hands to rebutton em. but all i had to do with the glock was throw it in, and it snapped into its own rigid sheath too. not only is its design superior for when you cant see your hand in front of your face, but its good for quickness too. if we got compromised, and my knife was out, i could throw my knife into its sheath, it snaps in, and i can run. it takes 2 seconds.
also, do you guys have to make sure your sheaths are jumpable? take that into consideration as well. my knife was all black/green. non reflective cuz we worked in the night. noiseless. water proof. fumbleproof (as fumbleproof as one could get) the knife AND sheath was easily washable, (i slept in a lot of mud while i was there, and was REALLY thankful of this fact) and did every job i needed it to. so you could consider a glock. theyre cheap too. hell my folder and my gerber multitool were more expensive. (dont take an expensive knife there. not only is there no need for it, but if you lose it, youre going to be pissed)
One last thing.. a lot of units are lame, in that they may limit the blade length. so ask your first line supervisor first.
