We recently did an article on a SEAL Team member taking down a pirate with his knife several years back. This is the backstory to that article from a former Navy SEAL who served with the SEAL credited with the kill.
The Background (courtesy of kyledefoor.tumblr.com)
Rat,
I wanted to let you know that we now all carry a blade named for you, The Rat. T and the boys designed it, and it’s by far the best one yet.
I still have the special whiskey you gave me before you left. It’s unopened and will go in my new office. I also still owe you one Black bear killed with 5.56, when I get it, the skin will go in my office too.
Long Live The Brotherhood, we will see you in The Hall one day,
KD/The Boys
By JASON STRAZIUSO and MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED
Associated Press
February 22, 2011
NAIROBI, Kenya – Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Tuesday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years.
U.S. naval forces who were trailing the Americans’ captured yacht with four warships quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire. They tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida said in a statement.
A member of a U.S. special operations force killed one of the pirates with a knife as he went inside of the yacht, said Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. naval forces for Central Command.
Fox said in a televised briefing that the violence on Tuesday started when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the yacht at the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer 600 yards (meters) away. The RPG missed and almost immediately afterward small arms fire was heard coming from the yacht, Fox said.
President Barack Obama, who was notified about the deaths at 4:42 a.m. Washington time, had authorized the military on Saturday to use force in case of an imminent threat to the hostages, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
http://nation.time.com/2012/08/06/the-navy-seals-dying-words/
The RAT is available from Warriors Way as a training package (knife and trainer). This is one of the more expensive knives, but it’s more than just a knife. This knife has a history behind it and was designed as a fighting blade in memory of Thomas Ratzlaff.
(images courtesy of kyledefoor.tumblr.com)
