Take A Knife To War!!

[Emanuel]

expect a knife fight.. bring a gun..
it's not the knife that kills, but the operator that uses his skills
he'll kill you with a pencil

cheers

Ofcourse that's true, and I'm a huge proponent of alternative weaponry when no other options are available, however, the operator that will kill you with a pencil will have a much easier time and will have a better chance at winning the altercation if he has a more effective/efficient tool for the job. In other words, a knife.....or hawk.....etc....when/if he runs out of ammo.

Nothing is guarenteed in a deadly altercation, and a more efficient tool can mean the difference in life and death by improving the odds.

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Scrapper 6...seems like a great knife. The facts stack up well. Excellent heat treat, excellent and ultra TOUGH steel, thick but sharp, good handle, and one of the best no-nonsense blade designs I've seen.

I don't have it, but the facts stack up.

Or the Ranger RD series, choose the size that you feel best suits your needs. Excellent knives for all the same reasons as the Scrapper6.

 

[Nord]

yep. airborne has it right on. all ya need is your leatherman, a small folder, and a small fixed blade. something simple, and not too expensive. most of the guys carried cold steel srk's, or some sort of smaller spec plus's. thats all thats really needed. especially if you have other stuff in the track/humvee.

And Nord. theres alll sorts of reasons to carry a good knife there. 80% of all my missions were in a densly wooded terrain. i had to cut a nice little miniature patrol base many many times. theres a decent amount of vegetation along the tigris, and im presuming the euphrates as well.
no, he wont be skinnng game (well, ya never really know what some of these units do when theyre out on a very secluded outpost, ive even heard stories of barbeques goin on) but the guys that are kickin doors in the urban areas use a lot of different tools. but never rely on your unit to provide those. lol. a lot of supply sergeants are pogues, and dont wanna order shit for the men. ive seen it a trillion times. just make sure of this. make sure its cheap, in case you lose it. make sure you can bring it back thru customs, as you may grow very very fond of this knife, and want to keep it in a trunk as a momento, and if you cant get it back across, youre going to be mad as all get out. and make sure its practical, but not too crazy and spacey, like a mod or strider or tops. if your squadleader has a bad day, and feels like being a dick, because he got a bad letter from his wife, and sees you unsheath this silly ass lookin 'starship troopers' knife from your interceptor vest, he may just tell you to go ahead and leave that thing in your room next time. now you got a 300 dollar 'operator' knife holdin your door open back at the barracks cuz the generator went out..and so did the air conditioner....

I know there is some vegetation there and even woodland, I just didn't figure you were spending that much time there. I guess you get the wrong idea from news and other reporting where it seems like an urban conflict only.

 

[Nord]

Nord makes a ton of good points. I'd avoid the bowies and tacti-cools, and bring a Leatherman/Gerber and a 3"-4" utility knife. Moras are very cool (and cheap), but not good for stabbing due to lack of crossguard.

-MV

The models I was thinking of have a guard on one side. I also suggest bringing it as a backup, not as the main knife. It is so light and cheap it doesn't hurt to bring one along in your pack, they can be stashed away in many places and pockets. They are great for most everyday chores, but i would not recommend them as fighting knives.

I think this would be a great cheap back up utility knife for any soldier in addition to his main knife. It costs $14 and is far more useful than many $140 knives.

KJ Eriksson model 746 in military green.

http://www.ragweedforge.com/746g.jpg

 

[Buddiiee]

yea absolutely. everyone including myself thought of the low deserts of saudi arabia when the word 'iraq' comes into mind. but thats not the case at all. now in between major cities, theres alot of nothing, sometimes. but in baghdad for example, its just like detroit, atlanta, miami... no different whatsoever. well, except for the flat rooftops. cuz of the little rain they get there. but, the backside of baghdad butts up against the tigris. and all along the tigris, is chock full of dense date palms. (palm trees) Looks something VERY similar to a vietnam movie. straight up. rattlers, huge spiders everything. the only thing we were missing, was monkeys and tigers lol. and actually, one of our other teams had a black panther shadowing them for a good 3 klicks lol. very intimidating i would imagine. (it was released from the zoo pending our initial invasion)
But yea, theres major cities, and decent sized wooded/jungle terrain as well. they have it all there. then theres tal afar and mosul up north. then it can get sorta mountainy too. the news only shows like one 16th of what really goes on there.

 

[Nord]

yea absolutely. everyone including myself thought of the low deserts of saudi arabia when the word 'iraq' comes into mind. but thats not the case at all. now in between major cities, theres alot of nothing, sometimes. but in baghdad for example, its just like detroit, atlanta, miami... no different whatsoever. well, except for the flat rooftops. cuz of the little rain they get there. but, the backside of baghdad butts up against the tigris. and all along the tigris, is chock full of dense date palms. (palm trees) Looks something VERY similar to a vietnam movie. straight up. rattlers, huge spiders everything. the only thing we were missing, was monkeys and tigers lol. and actually, one of our other teams had a black panther shadowing them for a good 3 klicks lol. very intimidating i would imagine. (it was released from the zoo pending our initial invasion)
But yea, theres major cities, and decent sized wooded/jungle terrain as well. they have it all there. then theres tal afar and mosul up north. then it can get sorta mountainy too. the news only shows like one 16th of what really goes on there.

I remember reading the book "Bravo Two Zero" when it came out, a book about an 8 man SAS patrol on a misison during Desert Storm that turned out the wrong way from the start. They ended up running for their lives after an initial fire fight in which one of them was killed. Two of them died because of the weather as I recall it, one after swimming or wading an ice cold river and the other in a snowstorm, in the desert. They only had light (and light sand coloured) clothing and did not expect a lot of snow and cold, nor escaping through darker wooded terrain where their desert uniforms stood out like a sore thumb.

 

[Buddiiee]

yep. absolutely. that was their coldest winter in 30 years. (it was mandatory reading in my platoon at the time) though where they initially started, their desert uniforms were correct for the area. theres alot of false stuff in that book, to help make it worthwhile reading. but nonetheless. When i touched down on iraqi soil, i had every bit of cold weather kit i owned on. it was freezing. lol.

though many times, in MOST units in the army, they never pick the correct uniform for their enviroment. its more about 'looking the part' than anything. one thing i never got about those units... its more of a fashion show than anything.