My dad remembers his uncle, my great uncle Jeroid Merle Tate USMC, coming home for Christmas from WWII and while home, went to his dad's job, his dad worked in a machinist shop, and he had his dad make a knife that was ragged on the top and nasty and it would have been very painful to the victim, Uncle Jeroid had exact specifications for this custom knife, he took it back to war with him when he left. Uncle Jeroid was battle hardened by the time he came home for that Christmas, he'd already been in several South Pacific campaigns, fighting in the jungle, I guess he ordered that knife for a reason. He later landed on Guam, fought, wounded and died of his wounds aboard his ship and buried at sea. He must of seen some pretty bad things to want to inflict that much pain on his enemy with a custom knife like he had made.

This story in the video reminded me of the story my dad told me, only because it seems the men brought quite a few things from home to help them stay alive in battle back in the day.

That Christmas, they opened their presents December 20th, my dad remembers all the kids gathering at his uncle Jeroid's home for an early Christmas, because he was shipping out the next day, never to be seen again.

 

You can read about my great uncle HERE if you'd like.

 

 

 

My step dad was a Sea Bee and served from 1941 through 1945. His tour took him from Pearl Harbor, island hopping and, ultimately to Okinawa. Somewhere along the line he scrounged the materials to make himself a Bowie knife. The handle was made from the plexiglass(?) from a downed Zero cockpit. He never explained where the steel for the hilt and blade came from. But, it held an edge, nicely. To my knowledge, he seldom used it. He never made a scabbard for it.  He used to hunt rabbits and squirrels and gutted and skinned them with his Buck pocket knife. The Bowie pretty much stayed in his tool box.