What do Real Military Men/Women Carry

B

brownshoe

I support this site with my MIND
Joined
Sep 6, 2002
Messages
9,971
There's been a lot of hype from the Strider and Cold Steel crowd recently concerning the use of their knives by military men. One of the knife mags had a fairly poor article on the subject. Cold Steel claims to be common in Iraq, but in my limited knowledge they have no govt. contracts and have never been issued to armed forces personnel. Strider claims their mission is the military man, but their prices belie that mission. Their prices also rule them out of as an item available as govt. equipment, and their recently published govt. contract is supposedly a special limited deal. Benchmade has some knives that are claimed to be govt. issued or available (autos mostly) as does Emerson (p-sark?). There is the cammilus/k-bar KBar and the cammilus pocket knifes, supposed available as govt furnished equipment. The armed forces personnel I talk to usually don't have much cash and carry things like gerbers, bucks and swiss army knives.

However, guys and gals in the armed forces, educate us. Outside of multi-tools with knives, (a) at your level what can you get through the US govt and (b) what do you carry that you bought yourself? Please tell us your general occupation and rank, so the Captains with sebenzas don't outweigh the privates with Schrades. Lets see if the hype is true, and what knives stand up to hard use by hard users.
 
It's whatever is on sale at the PX or the local surplus store. I've only run across a few knifeknuts in the Army. Gerber multi tools are probably the most common thing you'll see, followed up by Leatherman.
I see a lot of Benchmade (from the PX) folders followed up by Gerber, SOG and SAK (also available at the PX).

I'm a SFC, I carry an SOG Pent Elite folder, a Buck Nighthawk (it replaced the SOG Bowie stolen from my LBE, the Buck will be soon replaced by one of my own camp/field/fighters), SOG Paratool that I've toted since Desert Shield '90 and one of my own wharney EDCs. I bought the SOG's when I was a E4 and broke, but they were the best tools I could get at the time.

(edited to add)

Oh yeah MOS, I've spent 11 years in the infantry (3 of those years were spent trying to get SF qualified, SFAS got me :() and the last 6 years as a Public Affairs weasel, the MOS's I hold though not practice is 11B, 31C, 55B and 91A. I wound up with the 31C and 91A when I was trying to get SF qulified, they said, "hey do this, no, never mind we need this now." :confused: The 55B came from a deployment... dunno how I wound up with it. :confused:

Most units can purchase items like multi tools at the company level doing a local purchase on the IMPAQ card. It's hard for a CO to justify fighting/field knives when they have a bayonet issued and that their soldiers aren't trained as knife fighters.
 
Originally posted by brownshoe
There's been a lot of hype from the Strider and Cold Steel crowd recently concerning the use of their knives by military men. One of the knife mags had a fairly poor article on the subject. Strider claims their mission is the military man, but their prices belie that mission. Their prices also rule them out of as an item available as govt. equipment, and their recently published govt. contract is supposedly a special limited deal.
Click to expand...

Here we go again. Right away, this potentially interesting thread picks a fight. I just don't get it. If you want to know what most of the military men and women carry, then just ask the question. Why get right in with a silly Strider bashing comment?
 
I don’t think he is trying to “bash” strider anymore than the other knives he listed. It appears he is just giving a background for his question and perhaps preempting lame responses by strider groupies like, “well, the new MARSOC has a gov. contract so that means that every grunt has a strider.”
 
i carry a microtech da socom that i bought out of pocket

i have been issued the leatherman st a few times and the gerber multi a few more times

i also have been issued a bm 750 and my new OIC just ordered the new BM 5000 auto for us

i own a couple sebbies but i dont carry them to work. they get used in civilian clothes

i am a parachute rigger e-6 for 8 years and didnt get anything issued til i made e-5. needed it most as e-4 and below, lol but back then i had a gf buy me a bm 970 which was the best of all my friends.

most every1 at work doesnt have a knife over $50 and most are bought at PX

most OIC's are worried bout justifying the $$$'s
 
Voodoo,
Thanks for the job y'all do, I made more than a few jumps and until the s##t with the Marine Riggers never gave riggers much thought :( sorry :( . I did have a pre-jump custom where I'd look at the last name on the riggers card so I'd know who to curse if I screamed in.

If noone's ever told y'all before, THANKS.
 
I came across this a while back. It fits in here now, thanks to you guys!

Charles Plumb, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a Communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did, If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said "Good morning. How are you?" or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute.
 
There are a lot of Force Recon Marines carrying Striders as Pat Rogers and Vinne P. can attest to.

I only get to hear about guys carrying Striders so I am a bit biased.
 
Talked to Duane and Pat at Expo, Strider just got a SOCOM contract for a folder.
 
Aside from bayonets, there aren't any service-wide issued knives. Some commanders buy knives for their units, some service people buy knives for themselves. It's all over the map. As an example, during the Iraq war, one of aircraft carriers ordered Cold Steel Recon Tantos for one of the air squadrons as pilot survival knives. Within a couple of weeks we had shipped a few hundred of them to several squadrons on 3 different carriers. It seemed like we were getting a call every day or so from a carrier in the Red Sea or the Mediterratnean. So word of mouth certainly played a part and the first squadron was apparently happy with the product so they recommended it to others. I ship knives regularly to the Navy SEAL teams in California and have for years. Mostly Leatherman Waves but we've shipped all kinds of other knives including the SOG SEAL 2000 and others. I can't help but think that the SEALS buy what they like personally or what their CO's might like. There don't seem to be any standards. We get orders every week from military units and the products ordered are as different as the units themselves are. As an example, we tend to sell a lot of sailing knives to Coast Guard commanders but rarely to Navy commanders. I couldn't tell you why.

When it comes to individual service people, it also all over the board but generally a little higher in price. We've sold lots of Mission knives to soldiers in Iraq, as an example, but we've never sold one to a military unit in any quantity. So the bottom line is that there isn't an answer to your question. Almost every knife imaginable ends up in the hands of service people in one way or another.
 
brownshoe,

Clearly you have not done your homework.
Have you ever been an active duty US service person and asked about a Strider price?
Didn't think so...
And of course you’re not a government purchasing agent, so you don't know anything about that either....

So then, rather than make statements based on a random guess, why not keep it to yourself? We all understand that you think our knives cost too much. That’s a bummer for you…but not really something to be angry at us for.

Yes its true that the MCSOCOM knife is limited. THAT is why it is called the MCSOCOM knife….kinda works out well don’t you think….

If you hear hype about a Strider knife, it didn’t come from us. We don’t need it. Our claim is simple.

We make “HIGH SPEED TOOLS FOR HARDCORE INDIVIDUALS”.

Rather or not you rate a Strider Knife is up to you…not me.

I’m getting kinda tired of you calling me a liar though.

m
 
excuse me mick.

i love your knives. they look wonderfull. my only problem is the handles, the paracord looks crumby.

i was wondering if i could get one with a nice wooden handle ? nothing fancy its just that i couldnt do the work on it myself or over here in northern ireland.

otherwise im stuck with a combat mistress, which is a fine knife, but im think yours are cooler.

cheers

josephus
 
Originally posted by Mick Strider
brownshoe,

Clearly you have not done your homework.
Have you ever been an active duty US service person and asked about a Strider price?
Didn't think so...
And of course you’re not a government purchasing agent, so you don't know anything about that either....

So then, rather than make statements based on a random guess, why not keep it to yourself? We all understand that you think our knives cost too much. That’s a bummer for you…but not really something to be angry at us for.

Yes its true that the MCSOCOM knife is limited. THAT is why it is called the MCSOCOM knife….kinda works out well don’t you think….

If you hear hype about a Strider knife, it didn’t come from us. We don’t need it. Our claim is simple.

We make “HIGH SPEED TOOLS FOR HARDCORE INDIVIDUALS”.

Rather or not you rate a Strider Knife is up to you…not me.

I’m getting kinda tired of you calling me a liar though.

m
Click to expand...

brownshoe: YOU GOT OOOOOOOOOWNED!
 
Originally posted by anewguy
I don’t think he is trying to “bash” strider anymore than the other knives he listed. It appears he is just giving a background for his question and perhaps preempting lame responses by strider groupies like, “well, the new MARSOC has a gov. contract so that means that every grunt has a strider.”
Click to expand...

I disagree. Brownshoe is not giving a background for his question. He is stating his biased opinions by questioning Strider's postioning from the onset of the thread. Also I am not sure why you refer to supporters of a popular brand of knife as "groupies" with "lame" responses. It sounds to me that this tread is going nowhere. Brownshoe is asking military folks to answer, directly as to what they carry. This is a very good question. Why not leave the question simple and see what the answers are without "preempting" anything that military folks might say?
 
Gee, sorry you all think this is a bash Strider Post. My comment just came from a long post on Strider on this forum, with a notable lack of candor from the company, seeing their knives/prices at about 10 knife shows over the years and a review of their website. My two sentences is a comparison of this info to my personal observation that the price of their knives is out of line with the average military pay. Knowing that Striders are not standard issue, how would I know that they give price breaks? I also included Cold Steel in the hype statement, why am I not flamed for that? Still no active milatary personnel have stated they use the Strider blades. But a distrubutor has stated that Cold Steel is used.

I was last on an AFB two weeks ago. The knives on sale in the Military Clothing etc. shop were Gerber, Spyderco and Victronix. My escort carried a Gerber and lusted after the Delica, but on a Lt. salary he couldn't afford to drop $45 for a Delica, when his $25 doller Gerber would do the job.

I don't buy Strider's, because to quote AT Barr, "I don't buy no ugly knife" especially not at their prices. My hard use folders are Cold Steel, Spyderco and Benchmade. My hard use fixed blades are customs, or old Soligen Steel bowies.
 
Originally posted by brownshoe
Gee, sorry you all think this is a bash Strider Post.

I don't buy Strider's, because to quote AT Barr, "I don't buy no ugly knife" especially not at their prices.
Click to expand...

See. Go figure that these two sentences were in the same post. This guy cannot post a sentence about Strider without slaming them. He simply cannot do it. I personally think he is jealous of Strider's success and following. Either that or Brownshoe simply has enough free time to continuously try to drag a company down for no apparent reason. Or maybe he really wants one but is angry because he can't afford it. There certainly seems to a lot of misguided anger for no reason.

Just to clarify: I am not a Stider fanatic. I own only one. A MFS that I bought new for $150.00 and it is one of the best fixed blades I own. Worth every penny.
 
Strider knives (or Chris Reeve, Busse, Simonich, etc) are really not out of even the average single PFC's price range. They make about $1300 base pay per month. They don't have to pay for rent or food, but most go out to eat a couple times per week. Most have a car and insurance, cell phone, and cable and that's about it as far as bills go. We'll say that is $500 for bills, but I think that is more than most pay. The thing is that many of the guys like to go to the club every Fri. and Sat. night and can easily blow $100 a night. Other guys place more of a priority on "toys" and buy nice guns, knives, flashlights, and other gear. Enlisted can buy Striders for less than $300 for a fixed blade, slightly more for the folders, so if they cut 1 night out a month they can have a Strider in 3 months. It's all about priorities.

As far as your LT friend, even if he was the most cherry butter bar on post, he makes about $2200 base pay per month. Not being able to afford a $45 Delica either means that he just doesn't want the Delica or he is an very poor money manager.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top