Actual Combat carried M7 bayonets

[porterkids]

Bill has been having difficulty posting photos to the forum so I told him I'd put these up for him (Photos may not be in the same order as commentary but I'm sure you'll figure it out). His commentary:

1st pic is a BOC M7 with a water buffalo handle, 2nd pic is a multi colored wood handle Imperial M7....both have USM8 scabbards with unusual leather frogs. Both of these bayonets were carried by Montagnard fighters with the American military in Vietnam. 3rd pic is a wooden handled BOC carried by a US Marine in 1971. 4th, 5th and 6th pics are BOC M7s with field altered blades known as "Delta Pig Stickers" carried by Troopers from the 1st Cav Division 2/9th during 1968-69.

 

 

 

[porterkids]

[porterkids]

[porterkids]

Operation Desert Storm

 

1st pic is an IMPERIAL M7 carried by an Army soldier with a paracord improvised handle and 2nd and 3rd pic is a FZR M7 carried by a US Marine Gunnery Sergeant who scratched his rank, dates of service and notes to his wife/girlfriend on the blade, crossguard and scabbard.

 

 

[M7bayonet]

Bill Porter posted these photos for me because I wanted to share some of my more unique items in my collection with other members here. In the first set of photos are two BOC M7 bayonets carried by 1st Cav Division Troopers with the 2/9th Air Cav. The top one in the photo I was introduced to by the soldier that carried it in 1968-69 in Vietnam. He was a doorgunner on an OH1 chopper. I was his Lieutenant in the Philadelphia Police Department and one night we were out after work talking about our tours in Vietnam and he found out that night that I collected M7 bayonets. He told me about this bayonet that he had used in Vietnam that he brought home with him but said he wasn't sure what kind it was and that one day he would bring it in to show me. I forgot about the bayonet until one day about two months later he brought it to work. When he showed it to me I thought he had butchered it up and made it worthless. He then tells me how members of his Company in Vietnam altered the blades on their bayonets and called them "Delta Pig Stickers" and that the alterations were done by a guy in the machine shop. He said they did these alterations as a sense of Company pride and wanted to be different from other Troopers. He said he wasn't sure if everyone in his Company had one altered, but he said his Platoon all carried them. He was willing to give it to me for my collection so I traded him a Vietnam War Bayonet of Honor that I had engraved with his name and dates of service. A couple years later I saw the bottom one in the photo on ebay. I contacted the seller and he advised me it was from his father's estate and that he had served in Vietnam with the 2/9th. Once receiving this example I compared the two and they are very similar with some differences which would be understandable with being altered in a machine shop in the field. A sad note to this story is that my good friend SSGT "Billy" Dominic pasted away last year after many years of illness from his Company testing the dropping of Agent Orange from there choppers and being coated with the poison dust when it was sucked back into their choppers from the rotors.

[SKIPH]

Interesting pictures, and the stories that go with them. Thanks!! SKIP

[M7bayonet]

The next pic is a BOC M7 bayonet carried by a US Marine in Vietnam during 1971. All I know about him is that he was from down South and liked wood handles on his knives and altered this M7 with a wooden handle that he made himself. The next two M7 Bayonets are verified as being carried by Montagnard fighters that fought along side our troops throughout the Vietnam War. The problem with the multi colored wood handle bayonet is the previous collector that had it sanded and polished the wood handle taking away the original appearance which I would have been much happier with. The blade is well used. The next M7 bayonet has a handle that the fighter fashioned out of water buffalo horn and attached with metal hand made nails. Both bayonets came with USM8 scabbards with what appears to be handmade leather frogs. Whether any of these bayonets were actually used against the enemy is up to conjecture, but all of these were carried by troops that were definitely in hot combat zones.