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Old 03-07-2016, 01:00 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 651
My twin brother and I were both in Special Forces during Vietnam era. He served two tours, carrying a Randall 14 both times. As I previously related, he lost his 1966 sawteeth model 14 Orlando-carbon blade when his belt broke while riding a Maguire rig during extraction. Here is an on-line account of his experience in MACVsog 1968, including the loss of his Randall and receiving the replacement Solingen...for those that may be interested.

http://www.macvsog.cc/spike_team_delaware.htm

He then received a new Solingen blade direct from the shop while in Vietnam, in May, 1968. He later went on to serve his country in a variety of tasks world-wide for 40 years. Below is a picture of his Solingen blade that has seen active service for almost 50 years now, and is still being used overseas in harms way on occasion. Below, there are pictures of him in Vietnam with his original teethed Randall-14, a picture of me in Vietnam 1968 carrying my Randall on shoulder harness (fuzzy , hard to make out clearly) and a picture of him in Afghanistan a couple of years ago with his Solingen.

Re: Twin brother's knife. In the period catalogs, Randall recommended using shoe polish to treat the leather of the sheath. In Vietnam we found that mold would attack the sheath rapidly. Most of us also wanted to lessen leather glow so we would use liquid shoe polish to dye the sheath black and then use black shoe polish occasionally to treat the leather. Twin brother omitted the dye part and regularly used black shoe polish on the sheath... which at the time rendered in dull black. You can see the end result of doing this for 48 years in this picture.



Twin brother in field with teethed 14 in Vietnam


Twin brother in field wearing teethed 14 in sheath


Twin brother with Solingen Randall-14 in Afghanistan, 2013


Me in field in Vietnam - Randall-14 slung on left shoulder, web gear.


Twin brother went into Army and Special Forces six months before I did and was introduced to Randall knives in Special Forces Training Group at Ft. Bragg in early 1965. A Randall knife was an unofficial symbol of SF troopers ... who generally liked to show off that they used only the best things. A "Rolex watch," "Randall knife," "star sapphire ring" were the trademark of a well-traveled SF veteran... some would add "divorce papers" to complete the set.

He ordered his blade in Dec-1965 with sawteeth, received it in June-66 and took it to Vietnam in July 1966-67 for his first tour. I ordered mine in early 1967, but after agonizing about saving money by getting a "kit" blade, I got a Solingen. Keep in mind the knife cost about $30 and I was making about $120 a month at that time.

I wrote Randall a letter asking the price because the catalog I had borrowed was old (charged $1.00 for a catalog which I was too cheap to pay). It turned out I couldn't get an Orlando blade because my deployment was only a few months away. Randall suggested getting a Solingen in his reply letter, so I sent letter in with cash in envelop... no bank account, checks etc. Note: Randall shop actively recommended the Solingen in a reply letter to my initial inquiry. It wasn't a case of me looking at catalog and making my own decision to order a Solingen ... and I think partially explains so many Solingen's sold beginning in '66-67.

I carried my Solingen on field maneuvers and then to Vietnam, and on many missions in Vietnam. A hand carry bag was lost or stolen on the way home with my Randall Solingen in it which probably caused me to buy a replacement over 40 years later, and that got me interested in collecting.

Below is a picture of the two of us in Vietnam in 1968...on cover of another Sentinel, SF Newsletter, edition.


Last edited by Jacknola; 07-28-2017 at 11:57 AM.
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