Choosing a Tactical Knife – Part V

Tactical Folders: Death Among The Reeds

Can you get by with only a folder? Maybe. Many do. In many cases tactical folders can, and do, stand in for the small fixed blade utility knife. They can even serve as lifesaving weapons. Here is one Marine’s story that serves as an example of this fact.

On January 29, 2005, the day that the first democratic elections were held in Iraq, a professionally trained insurgent mortar squad dispatched from Baghdad took up position to rain fire, death and destruction on Camp Fallujah, a military base about ten kilometers southeast of the city of Fallujah.

This mortar squad had hit the base previously. In response, a team from Marine Sergeant Heath Lanctot’s platoon had set up an Observation Post about two kilometers from the Marine base, near a point where they suspected the mortars would be placed to fire on the base again. “We wanted to catch the insurgents in the act and ambush them,” Sgt. Lanctot said. Lanctot’s team was designated as the Quick Reaction Force and held in reserve at the Marine base. The QRF’s responsibility is to respond to calls for immediate assistance.

About noon Sgt. Lanctot’s team received a call from the OP saying that the enemy had set up mortars right in front of the OP and that the OP team had opened fire on the enemy mortar crew before they could fire on the base. Lanctot’s QRF sped from their base in open backed Hum Vees. Seven minutes later they leaped from their vehicles at the OP and joined the fight.

The OP team had killed one of the enemy with their Squad Automatic Weapon, but three other insurgents fled using the nearby canals and surrounding berms, part of the Euphrates River system, to cover their retreat. The insurgents then took up position in one of the canals concealed by thick reeds.

Sgt. Lanctot and two of his team members charged the canal, firing their M4 carbines as they ran. “We hoped to draw their fire from a distance, but it didn’t work out that way. By the time they fired we were on top of their position. The enemy opened up from a concealed position three meters from us. One of my teammates was hit and went down. I dumped three magazines into the reeds. Then, while my other teammate laid down covering fire, I ran down the berm and pulled my friend out of the kill zone. But it was too late. He had been killed instantly.”

There were at least two of the enemy still at large, but the firing had stopped and the enemy was not to be seen. Maybe they had fled the area. Sgt. Lanctot went into the canal to retrieve the enemy body and search for any evidence. The water was chest deep, and icy cold. Lanctot retrieved the enemy body and returned to the canal when he noticed a trail through the reeds.

In the matter-of-fact manner of a professional Marine, Sgt Lanctot told me, “I followed the trail, and, having left my weapon, ammo, and web gear on the berm, I pulled out my Columbia River Knife and Tool folder. I made my way along the canal and into the reeds. Suddenly one of the enemy popped up and grabbed my right arm.”

There, cut off from any possibility of help, Sgt. Heath Lanctot fought his enemy as men have done since the beginning of the human race, with hand weapons, to the death. The water was deep, the reeds were thick, the bottom of the canal slippery. Footing was unsure. During the course of the desperate, furious fight Sgt. Lanctot dispatched his enemy with two knife thrusts to the neck.

Lanctot was climbing out of the canal when he heard a cough from the reeds. Without thought for his own safety, he immediately went back into the canal with his knife, ready to face another enemy. As he again moved into the reeds, the thick reed wall parted. He could see the enemy’s eyes. But this time some of his buddies were on the berm above and behind him. The platoon corps.man fired right over Lanctot’s shoulder, killing the insurgent, and eliminating the need for Lanctot to engage in another hand-to-hand fight in the canal.

That was the last enemy Heath’s unit engaged that day. This insurgent mortar squad would kill no more Marines. They would never again attack Camp Fallujah, or any other American or Iraqi base.

A knife used as a weapon is different from a firearm in that it puts your life and the life of another person in your hands – literally in your hands. You feel the heat of your opponent’s body as he struggles to take your life. His breath mingles with yours. You smell his sweat and fear, and your own. When a knife has been used in terminal personal combat, that knife takes on a talismanic quality. In your mind it becomes the magic weapon that saved your life. I asked Heath if that was true for him, or if he regarded his CRKT folder as just another knife.

“No,” he said. “It’s not just another knife. I still use it for everyday things but I plan to put it aside, maybe in a shadow box, when I get home. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the knife. I bought the knife in the PX (Post Exchange) when I first came to Camp Fallujah. Operation Iraq Freedom Certified is engraved on it. But the guys in my unit will tell you that mine is the only one that is actually certified. Many of the guys in my unit have now bought one just like it.”

“Did you have a KA-BAR?” I asked Heath. “Most Marines I know do. And if you had one, why didn’t you use it instead of your folder?”

“Yeah, I have a KA-BAR. But my folder was right there and quicker to get to,” Heath said.

Heath’s response is all the reason anyone who has gone in harms way needs to understand. Experience shows that a last ditch weapon close to hand can save your life.

Time compresses in combat and speed can determine who lives and who dies.

Men have fought with swords, knives and other hand weapons in the Euphrates Valley for all of recorded history and it continues today. The outcome of Heath’s primeval fight might have been different there in that ancient land, that day in cold water among the reeds, if Heath had not had his folder clipped to his pocket when he went into the canal. It was a fateful decision to buy a personal knife at the PX. But what most occupies Heath’s mind is grief for his fallen friend and the sorrow that the family and friends of his buddy feel at their loss.

“I like to believe it helps, knowing those responsible will never harm another American service man or woman. The mortar team we took out turned out to be the major players in our Area of Operation. Locals identified the team as being the most feared in the area. It was an honor and privilege to get them off the streets.”

Although Heath bought his knife at the PX, Doug Flagg, president of CRKT, donated a number of knives in a Soldiers Knives program that we initiated. Those knives are now in the hands of servicepeople in Iraq. Hopefully, none of them will need to be used in mortal combat. But it’s good to know that they can be relied upon when fate rolls the dice and your number comes up.

Many armchair “experts” tell us that there is little need for knives in today’s military because supply lines are more efficient and troops less likely to run out of ammunition. Therefore, these experts say, the notion of a knife as a weapon is as outdated as swords on today’s high tech battlefields. But few of those “experts” have ever heard a shot fired in anger or felt the fear that rises in your chest when you are alone, unarmed and facing an armed enemy.

The troops in the field disagree with the experts; they buy personal knives. One of them, Marine Sergeant Heath Lanctot, of First Platoon Bravo Company, Second Recon Battalion, Second Marine Division, is alive today because he disregarded the expert’s point of view. More importantly, because he embodies the finest traditions of the American fighting man and the Marine Corp. Semper Fi!