Me, My Knives and I: Fischbach, Germany
During the rest of my time at Ft Bliss, my collection of knives increased. However, my main two carry knives were the Buck 110 and Gerber Folding Sportsman II. (FSII) After Bliss, I was sent to Germany. After being bounced around several processing stations, I was assigned to Fischbach. Fischbach is where bad MPs go when they die and where the living ones go if they’re extremely unlucky.
On my very first day at Fischbach, we had a health and welfare inspection. For the non-military, a “health and welfare” inspection is a search for drugs and other contraband. We were gathered together and searched by Military Police Investigators (MPI). As usual, I had my FSII in my in my pocket. (I had stopped my folders in a sheath) I assumed a knife that size was legal and was a bit surprised when the MPI oinker told me it was contraband. A bigger surprise was when he told me the knife on my keychain, an Urban Pal, made by Cold Steel was also illegal. The Urban Pal has a blade only an 1 ½” long! I pointed out the small size of the blade to him and he said, “It can be concealed”. Duh! The blades an 1 ½” long, of course it can be concealed! Regardless, the Urban Pal was confiscated along with the FSII and I was facing an Article 15.
The health and welfare also included a room search, which was done by regular MPs and MP dogs. Being as it was my first day, I hadn’t unpacked my duffel bag yet. My duffel bag contained my Buck 110 and a pellet gun. (Webly/Beeman .22 Tempest) When the MPs came to my room, they told me I didn’t need to empty my duffel bag.
It may have been several weeks or maybe even several months before I got the nerve to carry the 110 again. But I eventually did. I even managed to get my FSII back. Several months later, I was friends with one of the armorers, who returned the knife to me. I asked him if I should give him a knife to replace it for inventory purposes. He told me no and returned the knife. It was several weeks or months later, that either he or one of the other armorers told me the company commander wanted to know where the knife was. They added that she didn’t care what kind of knife, she just wanted a replacement knife in the arms room. (Giving this some thought in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the commander at all, just the armorers wanting a replacement knife to keep their inventory logs straight.)
I replaced the FSII with my 110. The FSII was smaller and easier to conceal than the 110 anyway. Also, I later bought another 110. (In fact, during my time in the Army I’ve had probably 3 or four 110s, to include a plastic-handled model or two.
While I relied on a Flicket attached to my folders to open them one-handed, I met a person who didn’t need one to open his 110. Tom amazed me. He could draw his knife from his pocket and open it in about half the time it took me. He told me in high school he raced people who carried switchblades and always beat them in drawing and opening his knife. He said it took some practice and a sliced thumb before he was able to attain that talent.
While at Fischbach, I obtained several more knives, one of the most interesting (To me anyway) was a NATO switchblade.
It was mentioned in a CIA weapons issue of the late Pistolero magazine. (An excellent magazine by the way) the NATO switchblade had an olive green handle and the blade came out from the top of the handle, rather than from the side like most switchblades. Like nearly all switchblades twenty years ago, it was weak where it attached to the handle. (Switchblades made today are much stronger. I’ll go into detail about them in later posts.)
During another health and welfare inspection, I stuffed it into a box of soap powder to hide it. Much to me disappointment and pleasure, the searchers didn’t look in the place where I originally had it hidden. Nevertheless, I asked a friend who lived off-base to keep it, along with my pellet gun.. I never saw it again. My “friend” claimed the blade broke and shot across the room when he tried to open it. The clown also left my Tempest cocked, which broke it too.
After leaving Fischbach, I went to Ft Ord, and after that Frankfurt, acquiring various knives along the way. In later posts, I will get into more detail about particular knives, rather than boring you all with my autobiography.
***Next, Spyderco Takes Folders to a New Level***
On my very first day at Fischbach, we had a health and welfare inspection. For the non-military, a “health and welfare” inspection is a search for drugs and other contraband. We were gathered together and searched by Military Police Investigators (MPI). As usual, I had my FSII in my in my pocket. (I had stopped my folders in a sheath) I assumed a knife that size was legal and was a bit surprised when the MPI oinker told me it was contraband. A bigger surprise was when he told me the knife on my keychain, an Urban Pal, made by Cold Steel was also illegal. The Urban Pal has a blade only an 1 ½” long! I pointed out the small size of the blade to him and he said, “It can be concealed”. Duh! The blades an 1 ½” long, of course it can be concealed! Regardless, the Urban Pal was confiscated along with the FSII and I was facing an Article 15.
The health and welfare also included a room search, which was done by regular MPs and MP dogs. Being as it was my first day, I hadn’t unpacked my duffel bag yet. My duffel bag contained my Buck 110 and a pellet gun. (Webly/Beeman .22 Tempest) When the MPs came to my room, they told me I didn’t need to empty my duffel bag.
It may have been several weeks or maybe even several months before I got the nerve to carry the 110 again. But I eventually did. I even managed to get my FSII back. Several months later, I was friends with one of the armorers, who returned the knife to me. I asked him if I should give him a knife to replace it for inventory purposes. He told me no and returned the knife. It was several weeks or months later, that either he or one of the other armorers told me the company commander wanted to know where the knife was. They added that she didn’t care what kind of knife, she just wanted a replacement knife in the arms room. (Giving this some thought in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the commander at all, just the armorers wanting a replacement knife to keep their inventory logs straight.)
I replaced the FSII with my 110. The FSII was smaller and easier to conceal than the 110 anyway. Also, I later bought another 110. (In fact, during my time in the Army I’ve had probably 3 or four 110s, to include a plastic-handled model or two.
While I relied on a Flicket attached to my folders to open them one-handed, I met a person who didn’t need one to open his 110. Tom amazed me. He could draw his knife from his pocket and open it in about half the time it took me. He told me in high school he raced people who carried switchblades and always beat them in drawing and opening his knife. He said it took some practice and a sliced thumb before he was able to attain that talent.
While at Fischbach, I obtained several more knives, one of the most interesting (To me anyway) was a NATO switchblade.
It was mentioned in a CIA weapons issue of the late Pistolero magazine. (An excellent magazine by the way) the NATO switchblade had an olive green handle and the blade came out from the top of the handle, rather than from the side like most switchblades. Like nearly all switchblades twenty years ago, it was weak where it attached to the handle. (Switchblades made today are much stronger. I’ll go into detail about them in later posts.)
During another health and welfare inspection, I stuffed it into a box of soap powder to hide it. Much to me disappointment and pleasure, the searchers didn’t look in the place where I originally had it hidden. Nevertheless, I asked a friend who lived off-base to keep it, along with my pellet gun.. I never saw it again. My “friend” claimed the blade broke and shot across the room when he tried to open it. The clown also left my Tempest cocked, which broke it too.
After leaving Fischbach, I went to Ft Ord, and after that Frankfurt, acquiring various knives along the way. In later posts, I will get into more detail about particular knives, rather than boring you all with my autobiography.
***Next, Spyderco Takes Folders to a New Level***
posted by ROBOT at 16:54
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