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Ka-Bar style fighting knife with lighthouse grip


Bob Hudson
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One of my local thrift stores near Camp Pendleton had this odd banner of a military-style fighting knife with a lighthouse for a grip. It's a low budget piece, somewhat crudely silk-screened. Whomever had it made marked it TM for "trademark" presumably so that someone else doesn't try to make and sell these?????

 

My guess would be that it is for some sort of informal organization and I've been trying to think of groups whose emblem could include a lighthouse and Ka-Bar.

 

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In the WAG catagory, depending on the age of the thing.

 

In the early to late 1960s the Coast Guard Reserve had a specific enlisted rating called Coastal Forceman. They were a resurrection of the Dog and Horse 'Sandpounders" of World war 2. At the Cape May training center they were kept separate from the general CG recruit population. After recruit training they went to Parris Island or Camp Pendleton for advanced infantry training. They were not envisioned as an 'offensive' unit but rather a 'defensive' observe and report unit. We used to joke that they got advanced weapons training so as not to inflict too much self injury. Their rating badge specialty mark could have inspired some sort of company guidon ??

 

 

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In the WAG catagory, depending on the age of the thing.

 

In the early to late 1960s the Coast Guard Reserve had a specific enlisted rating called Coastal Forceman. They were a resurrection of the Dog and Horse 'Sandpounders" of World war 2. At the Cape May training center they were kept separate from the general CG recruit population. After recruit training they went to Parris Island or Camp Pendleton for advanced infantry training. They were not envisioned as an 'offensive' unit but rather a 'defensive' observe and report unit. We used to joke that they got advanced weapons training so as not to inflict too much self injury. Their rating badge specialty mark could have inspired some sort of company guidon ??

 

 

 

The lighthouse made me think first of the Coast Guard: do their Maritime Security Response and Advanced Interdiction Teams have any sort of small patches, official or unofficial?

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They have official and unofficial patches. I have picked up a few over the years and if I can unearth them I will post them.

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The lighthouse is very much associated with the CG's Aids To Navigation (ATON) units and in doing some reading on CG combat zone operations in the Middle East, it appears that even Buoy Tenders needed a well-armed defensive team.

 

So far that's the best my mind could conjure to explain a Ka-Bar with a lighthouse. Maybe it's a cult :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

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