This by far is my crown gem in my collection. This is a 'boot' knife that my father ordered when he was Lt. in flight school in the AF. Below is the correspondence between pop and W.D. Randall, Jr. Back in '57, $24.50 was a lot of money for a Lt. and he was proud to carry this knife his entire career as a pilot.
What he shared with me was that back in those days to pass flight school, one of the elements of it was they sent you on a survival mission, if you will. You had to jump out of a plane, parachute down into the ocean nearby an island of some sort. Swim ashore with your parachute in full flight gear with only a knife.
You had to survive for (I want to say it was 3 or 4 days) with only what you had. He was an Eagle Scout, so many aspects of this type of training came natural to him. Paracord and parachute to make a tent, snares for game, what insects to eat for specific nutrition, etc. This was that knife that he ordered to start this journey on what would be a long productive career. I have no idea if the AF still does this type of training? Sadly, I acquired this knife after he lost a 14 year battle to Alzheimer's.
Randall Knives are still made today and sell for $600 to $1,000 dollars. Last I checked, there was a waiting list with the caveat that members of the military go to the front of the line.
As always, thanks for reading.
Eric
