What do Real Military Men/Women Carry

Just to be correct:

PX = Post Exchange = Army. Army Installations are usually called "Posts" or Forts. No such thing as an "Army Base".

BX = Base Exchange = Navy, Marines, Air Force. These guys live and train on "bases".

AAFES = Army and Air Force Exchange Service. Navy/Marine Corps have their own and I don't know the designation.
 
bruce said:
Just to be correct:

PX = Post Exchange = Army. Army Installations are usually called "Posts" or Forts. No such thing as an "Army Base".
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In the Canadian military, they are called a "Base", be it Army , Navy or Air Force. They go by "CFB"(Canadian Forces Base) followed by the Base name. Just another bit of useless knowledge:) .
 
Yea, I said "base" and it is technically incorrect. Post Exchange at Fort Campbell.

Cripes I was in for 3 years before I knew what DONSA meant. Just knew it was a day off and was not going to stick around and ask why.
 
bruce said:
Just to be correct:

PX = Post Exchange = Army. Army Installations are usually called "Posts" or Forts. No such thing as an "Army Base".

BX = Base Exchange = Navy, Marines, Air Force. These guys live and train on "bases".

AAFES = Army and Air Force Exchange Service. Navy/Marine Corps have their own and I don't know the designation.
Click to expand...
AAFES serves all branches of the US Armed Forces now. And, having served aboard every major USMC installation except Quantico, I can tell you that Marines call the store on base a "PX".
 
Hey Guys...

I just did a job for a Navy Aviatar. His order consisted of a Becker 7 and a Ontario Tak I...

ttyle

Eric...
 
10 years active Army, E-5, Blackhawk helicopters, Korea, Conus, Europe, ETS back in 1999.

Extensive knife training! One day of rifle mounted bayonet technique practice, one morning of running the bayonet trail stabbing stuff in the woods.

Your not trained to be a knife assassin. You are trained to shoot the M-16, of which several people could barely do!

I have friends in spec ops. They don't train for knife fighting, according to them. They do spend a lot of rounds (thousands) being able to fire a weapon very well!

What did I carry, Gerber multi-tool. It was given to me free. It came in handy for the screwdriver mostly. If it came to the point where I was in a knife fight situation. My best defense would have been to run away before it got to that point, and or to have hit them with 7.62 rounds so it did not come to that point at all.

One pilot in Korea carried a huge Rambo hunk of metal. The only thing I ever saw him do with it was cut himself.
 
Navy Exchange = Navex. The home away from home on GTMO, and two weeks until the next barge load.

When I mobilized, I took a Gerber A/F Covert single edge, SAK, and some cheap multipliers. Soldiers don't train for knifefighting at all, it's a civilian myth of hollywood and imaginative wannabes.

In the wire, you have to learn control and security with just you and your teammates - no weapons at all. My primary tool was a Surefire G2.
 
15 years ago as a young Private I bought myself a Kabar that I was very pleased with. I replaced it with another one when the original was really worn out. It had a lot of rust and the blade edge was weirdly recurve-shaped from years of sharpening. The Kabar did work extremely well in all situations I threw at it.

My small utility blade in the 90s was a SAK(can't remember the model) but I've since used/broken several Leatherman and Gerber multitools. Now I'm using Gerber but might be switching to a swisstool. I really don't see the need for a separate folder. Just extra weight.

I did rethink my blade needs a while back and a compact Strider EB-T replaced the Kabar. I've actually been very pleased with it. It is a tank of a knife in a really small package and delivers surprisingly good performance that I would not expect from such a small blade. It has been a prybar and a ladder, a wedge, an armor piercing pick and a utility whittler and it has shown good performance in all. It is somewhat difficult to get sharp when dulled but cuts great when it's sharp.

I also have a 10 inch camp knife that was made for my previous unit in the 90s. It doesn't have the manufacturer's name on it :cool: .
 
I worked a WWII vet. named Frank Litherland, who has since passed. Anyway Frank brought in his knife that he carried in the war, it was a huge custom made bowie, that he said was carried on his leg around the calf.
The blade was all of 10" and was a beast. I believe it sits in a museum now.

Helle
 
I am an E-6 now and I carry a benchmade nimvravus in d-2 and a rat-3 on me when deployed. I also carry a folder it was a spyderco military for along time then a microtech manual socom. Now it a benchmade 710. I like d-2 steel as I have no trouble resharpening it. I also have a spyderco assist in my first aid kit. I have seen guys carry everything from OTF autos to 12inch bowies. The military provides very little if any knife training. In OSUT we went over it for about 45 minutes one afternoon. I have an m4/grenade launcher and an M9 (which I have zero faith in) when loaded out so knife combat is unlikely. That being said I have sought outside knife training so if the situation really goes all to hell I will at least have an idea of what to do.
 
DaTrueDave & tirod3:

AAFES = Army and Air Force Exchange System
NEXCOM = Navy Exchange Command

Both operate as self sufficient entities for funding (non-appropriated) unlike the Commissary system.

These are separate at present, although AAFES handles administration for the One Star Card - military credit card, for both systems.

Just glad to see continued support to the troops and their families through the PX/BX system (whatever name it goes by currently).
 
yea. REAL service members, dont carry rediculous 'spec ops' knives like
topsknife.jpg
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They carry whatevers at the px at the time. gerber gators, EZ outs, ar3.0's, and magnum l.s.t juniors. cold steel recon tantos and srk's, and sometimes kabar marine combats. and if its a bigger px, possibly some minor benchmades and spyderco folders. Usually, its the cheaper knives they carry, cuz most likely, theyre just using it for opening mre's, or cutting 550 cord and thats that. The only people that are actually anal about their main carry fixed blades, are people in jobs that actually depend on a good fixed blade. LIGHT infantrymen in the 82nd, 101st, 25th, and 10th infantry divisions, or guys in specialized jobs, like engineers/construction, rangers/lrrps or special forces. Ive been to a lot of different places, and trained with many different types of units, both u.s. and foreign, and Ive only ever seen the small folders listed up above, carried by normal support units. most of the time, its the combat arms jobs, that have men on the ground, sleeping outside, that require some sort of decent knife. Though, the brand new private, fresh out of boot camp, is pretty likely, to buy, and strap on his lbe, the biggest, most expensive knife he finds at the px of his basic training regiment lol. when he gets to his unit, he finds that he usually doesnt need this knife anymore, and it ends up in his wall locker after that. Thats about the extent of it.
 
I'm a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps and I own a Strider folder. I like the thickness and the durability and use it right now as a general purpose knife. I'm generally pretty rough on my knives and wanted something that would stand up to the work I would put into it. I'll tell you, it is not in collector's condition, but that was the way it was meant to be used. What else attracted me to the knife was the "knife fighting" aspect. I'm also a Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor and there is quite a bit of knife techniques that we train with. An MAIT who worked at the Martial Arts Center of Excellence (MACE) was describing to me what made up a good fighting knife (folder). The Strider fit the most for what he was describing. So I feel confident if I ever did get in a knife fight, although very unlikely, I would have a good work knife as well as a good fighting knife.

By the way I also own a Ka-Bar, but what Marine doesn't. For general info the Marine Corps is moving away from the Ka-Bar and has adopted a new mulit-purpose bayonet/fighting knife made by Ontario.
 
Yea, those striders are pretty thick. though, wasnt one of them developed just for you guys? or was that for your recon guys.. im not sure, i thought i read that somewhere. as far as that new huge ass bayonet, i think its a dam fine tool myself. same thing with our M9's. not only can you use it as a real tool, but if it all goes to hell, i wouldnt mind the fact that i can stick it on the end of my rifle, and have me a nice pig sticker when the chips are down. i dont know WHY the light infantry has gotten away from bayonets... sure, the tactical situation right now dictates but... you know as well as i, that the government is ALWAYS a day late and a dollar short when it comes to doctrinal changeovers. they should never get away from the basics though, even though our current situation is one that will most likely never use a bayonetted rifle. if shit kicks off with china or korea, i think i would change my glock knife over to an old school M7 bayonet, or maybe your guys' knife. who knows...
 
i read Generation Kill, a great book about first recons blitz through northern iraq. it stated repeatedly that recon Marines sparred constantly with knives, and martial arts in general. there were both formal training sesions held by members who knew martial arts (i dont remember if they were part of the marine martial arts program..), as well as constant sparring durring down time. at one point an inept officer used a bayonet on a surrendering iraqi combatant, who survived because a ammo bandolier stopped the blade. no specific knife models were mentioned, just ka-bar fix blades.
 
Gnaeus said:
By the way I also own a Ka-Bar, but what Marine doesn't. For general info the Marine Corps is moving away from the Ka-Bar and has adopted a new mulit-purpose bayonet/fighting knife made by Ontario.
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Sir, It still looks like a KaBar so the Corps still holdong on to some of it.

S/F,
CEYA!
 
In Sweden it's mandatory to do a year of military service, I did my service as a Ranger. Graduated as seargant.

Everyone in Sweden is issued a Mora fixed blade.

I also had a Victorinox with everything on it and a Cold steel Master Hunter (Carbon V) which I did not like at all. After that a CS SRK which was even worse imo. I finally got a Fallkniven S1 and never looked back. It's an awesome knife.
//Jay
 
When I was in the Marines, I bought myself a SE Spyderco Police after SOI (School Of Infantry). A few months later, I had a Microtech LUDT, and then a Halo II. Ended up selling the LUDT, and using the Police, and Halo II the most.
 
Although 'tis many years ago when I was in the Army I remember the first knife I carried; it was a Whitby Silver Serpent (an all metal lock knife with a single 3" blade). It was a present from my father and now sits on my desk at home (seeing we're not allowed to carry lock knives over here anymore).

I managed to pick up a bog-standard MOD clasp knife at some point, but we were never issued a knife.

I'm now an Adult Instructor with the Army Cadet Force and I carry a 1942 dated Army clasp knife.
 
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