Machete

[39mto39g]

When I was in Dominican Republic, I carried a Machete. A friend (A Marine) introduced me to a 15inch Boie Knife. When I went to VN the first thing I did in Pleiku was buy one of those big Knifes. Much better I thought than a Machete.
Machete stories anyone?

Ron

[frisco-kid]

Swung the damned thing in bamboo and elephant grass, with sweat blinding me, until I could hardly raise my arm anymore....and then I swung it somemore.

[PHO127]

We carried a survival Axe, kind of like a 12 inch cleaver with a gut hook on the top and brass knucks around the hand guard, also had a single spiked ball on the end of the handle.

[revwardoc]

"Survival axe"?! Sounds more like a prop out ofa Conan movie or Braveheart. What'd ya do with it, hunt wild boar?!

[the humper]

Dont' know if they called them that but I saw something one time only. We had secured a hill and along comes word that the Turks are going to assault the hill due east of us and for us to assist with covering fire with MGs. They made a frontal assault firing their rifles and when they got about twenty yards from the top, dropped their weapons and pulled out these monstrous knives, machetes', whatever, and completed the taking of the hill in that manner. They are either the bravest or craziest bunch, or both, that I ever ran into.
SF
NC

[Keith_Hixson]

We had a plow that would go through the sugar beets and loosen them up, then us kids and the hired hands would walk down the row with a machete that had a hook in the end and cut off the greens. We would pick up the beet with the hook, cut off the greens put the beet in a row, the tractor with an elevator on it would collect the beets and put them in a truck to haul them off to the processing plant. Using a machete all day long can tire a kid out. Never did get cut though. Did see some nasty cuts by some careless folks. Lunch time you filed them sharp again. That nasty hook on the end would have made a nice weapon if you were angry with someone.

They are nice to have when camping, work almost as good as a hatchet.

Keith

[White Oak]

Each squad carried a machete and 100 foot of rope.machetes were used for cutting firing lanes for the M-60 at night,everyone used it in the evening to cut bamboo to set up your hootch.Pointman got a lot of use out of it cutting trails.The photo is our squad sitting up one afternoon.Standing in rear with machete is Steve Johnson(MI),standard Army issue.sitting in front William Sadler(VA)Selah Montgomery(AR)Michael Walsh(NY) ME and bending is Steve Eidson(TN)

[Jerry D]

humper : those were scimitars the Turks used I seen several of them while stationed in Turkey in 1985 the bigger ones could decapitate a man ......

[the humper]

That's exactly what they were doing in the process of slashing them ever which way but loose. As said either the bravest or craziest, or both!!!!!!
SF
NC

[revwardoc]

I used to work with a guy who was a Korean War vet (infantry). His favorite war story was about the time his company held a position at the top of a hill. A company of Turks were at the bottom. They were attacked by one of those Chinese full-frontal idiocy human wave things. When the Reds reached the Turks, they, instead of fighting, hid in their trenches and foxholes. The GIs at the top were real pissed at the Turks and prepared for the inevitable bloody assault. But, as the Chinese passed over the Turkish positions, the Turks dropped their guns, pulled out their scimitars and started hacking away. He said they were the most fearless SOBs he had ever seen. The Chinese dropped their weapons and ran up the hill to surrender to the Americans, then it was all the GIs could do to keep the Turks from making it a wholesale slaughter. Crazy Mo Fo's.