Re: bayonettes are too a useful device

John Atkinson wrote:

> I'll second that about half-way.  I personally carry a leatherman and
a
> second knife with a 6 1/4 inch blade.  I have yet to use the latter
for
> anything of substance.  90% of all knife work in the military consists
> of cutting 550 cord.	:)  I don't know what I'd do with a bayonet if I
> had one, and I wouldn't like to trust the M-9 in a fight anyway.

Before you go writing off the M9 bayonet. I actually started to like it
because it has a built in wire cutter and  damn good one too (as does
the
AK bayonet). You pull the M9 out of it's sheath and there's a hole that
attaches to a lug on the scabbard (the scabbard detaches from your web
kit). The top side of the blade does teh cutting.  It's quick and eassy
for
cutting barb or concertine wire without having to carry special tools.
(has
a couple of other doohickies built into it too).  I've personnaly cut
1/4
inch steel canle with that sucker, though we had to gnaw on it for a
while.

I also have an old M7 (?) bayonet with brass knuckles built into it
(like
teh old WW1 trench knives), that was quite nice and I've carried it on
missions though not for like ten years.

BTW, if I was ordering a deliberate assault on a position I would have
the
boys fix bayonets since it adds morale courage to the attackers and
scares
the hell out of the enemy. I found myself in such a position several
weeks
ago but the locals we were working with only had like one bayonet per
every
fifteen or twenty guys (poor but highly experienced Army). They had them
attached without me having to tell them and all these guys had at least
ten
years combat experience apiece.

Los