Yeah, the hook blade for cutting chute shroud lines stayed open and ready for quick access and use while hanging/descending in a tangled chute. The long string attached to the ring on the end of the knife handle and the top of the pocket helped keep up with the knife. One of mine, the one with quarter inch or so broken off tip of the switchblade, is here in my desk drawer. 'Don't remember how the tip was broken off.
BTW, on Dec 31, 1972, the last time I left U-Tapao, Thailand, immediately after flying several B-52 missions to Hanoi, I was standing in line at the passenger terminal awaiting baggage inspection before boarding (as a passenger) an Air Force KC-135 (Boeing 707) for an overnight flight to Guam, where we were to pick up a B-52 on the second of January and fly it to Wichita, KS. One of the other Air Force captains with me was picking at a fingernail problem with a LITTLE BITTY Swiss Army knife. The staff sergeant (E-5) inspector said to the captain, "Excuse me, Sir, you'll have to put that knife (the little fingernail knife) in your baggage somewhere so you can't get to it, or I'll have to confiscate it." I laughed incredulously as I stepped out from behind the other captain and said, "What about these switchblade knives right here on our left, inner thighs?" His response: "Oh, that's OK, you may keep those. That's part of your survival equipment." We 3 captains had a hearty laugh at the absurdity of it all. 'Coupla days later, on Guam, we were on the way out to the BUFF we were gonna fly to Wichita, and had to stop by "customs," etc., again, for baggage inspection. Another staff sergeant met us at the bus with his drug sniffer dog. The sergeant stepped up in the bus and said, "You'll need to bring all of your bags inside and open them so I can go through every item, item-by-item. I replied, "You gonna work us over again like the guy did yesterday in Thailand?" His response: "Oh, did you justy come out of Thailand?" I replied, "Yes, they really went through our stuff in detail, too." (Actually, only 3 of us had just come out of Thailand; the other 2 with us on the crew were already waiting for us on Guam.) The inspector then said, "Well, just let me run through a coupla questions for ya, then. Do you have any knives or guns, or anything like that?" I replied, "Yes, we're each wearing a .38 caliber revolver right here under our left arms, we each have a 5-inch switchblade knife right here on our left, inner thighs, there's a .22 rifle in every seat pack and survival kit on the airplane, and there are three hatchets in holsters mounted on the crew compartment walls. We're flying the airplane; what're we gonna do? Hijack ourselves?" The inspector said, while backing out of the bus, "Oh, ya'll have a nice flight." Wilton ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wonko the Sane" <don.b...@gmail.com> To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 2:06 PM Subject: Re: [MBZ] Wiper replacement catastrophe > You mean the tool for cutting away parachute lines? I was issued one in > Pensacola Unfortunately, someone got the contract specs wrong in > manufacturing, so the "switchblade" was on the knife half rather than the > hook half of the tool. It came with a note saying that we were being issued > something that was in direct violation of numerous Federal laws. Not even > sure where mine is these days. Probably in some box that hasn't been > unpacked since 1982. > > On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Wilton Strickland <wilt...@nc.rr.com> wrote: > > > Wonko, did you Coasties wear those (the knives) in > > the little pocket on inside of the left thigh? > > > > Wilton > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: <http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20090401/ab 1050c4/attachment.html> > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
