Knifeless Ex-Seal?

[Phenix]

I just read a good story about US Representative Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy Seal, witnessing a nasty auto accident on the highway somewhere in Iowa.
He stopped immediately to assist with any injured occupants of the destroyed van.
Turns out one of the occupants was a severely injured 10-year old boy bleeding profusely from an arm and leg. The arm had arterial bleeding, which would have been fatal within a very few minutes. A large part of the muscle on the back of the leg was almost completely separated from the bone.
Thinking fast, Van Orden retrieved a couple of socks from a a bad in his car, and used them for tourniquets on the damaged limbs. As he continued to deal with the kid's injuries he realized the needed to improvise additional bandage material, and asked the gathering crowd if "anyone had a knife"? Someone from the crowd offered him his knife.
The boy lived to make it to the hospital and will recover.
I have to ask- "What Navy Seal , active duty or retired, does not have some kind of knife on his person at all times?".
In the area where I live, in the SW MO Ozarks, almost all adult males over the age of 30 or so carry a pocket knife of some sort, ex-military/law-enforcement or not. I carry two, a Swiss Army knife and a Benchmade lock blade 365 days a year. A gun too, but that is another story.
The Good Samaritan is free to make his own choices on this sort of thing, of course.
It just struck me as a little odd.

 

[mckenney99]

I would imagine that going in & out of government buildings and dealing with screenings constantly on a daily basis would prompt him to forgo carrying. Probably not his preferred choice but a matter of convenience due to circumstances.

 

[Phenix]

I would imagine that going in & out of government buildings and dealing with screenings constantly on a daily basis would prompt him to forgo carrying. Probably not his preferred choice but a matter of convenience due to circumstances.

That occurred to me, but I don't know if he had been or was going to be screened anywhere that day.

 

[ralph7]

I am surprised he wasn't wearing a belt he could have used.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Ummmmmm.......hmmmmm.....not carrying a knife when entering government buildings could be a problem for anyone, but not carrying a knife of some kind in his car seems a little unusual and unprepared for a SEAL.

BUT!!!!

Benefit of the doubt for a shipmate - he was trying to save this kid's life, he couldn't go back to his car to retrieve his knife. That's the story I'm going with!

 

[326MOD10]

Well, I have never been a SEAL, nor do I know any personally, so I may not be qualified to comment.

But, I would say the kind of SEAL that doesn't carry a knife would be the kind that would stop and save a kids life after an accident.

It would also be the kind of SEAL who is a SEAL Apparently.

But like I said I am not sure I am qualified to pass judgement.

 

[DixieRanger]

As a former Seal and now serving his country in another capacity, may seem a little odd but he saved a life with immediate action.

 

[65-2x2]

My hat is off to the man who saved the kid!

If I have pants on, I have a knife in my pocket. If I don't have my pants on, it is too uncomfortable to carry a knife. I don't know how anyone lives without a pocket knife.

 

[fatcat3]

I would imagine that going in & out of government buildings and dealing with screenings constantly on a daily basis would prompt him to forgo carrying. Probably not his preferred choice but a matter of convenience due to circumstances.

The youngest just found a vacation place back here and we have been fixing it up of the last two summers. He is always borrowing my knife. One day I said I'm surprised you don't carry one. He explained that the firm he works for dose a lot of Gov. contracts in D.C. He's in and out of fed. buildings all day, a knife is more hassle than it's worth.

I am surprised he wasn't wearing a belt he could have used.

Despite what we see on the big and little screen belts generally make a crappy torniquet, limited constriction and my cause more harm than good.

 

[Imissedagain]

It is possible that he lost his knife, in a prior incident, and it dropped to the bottom of the Bay.
Most likely, an encounter with a Polar Bear or Great White, as he is a ........
SEAL.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

I have read several accounts by-and talked to a few recent veterans-who have told me they could not bring home small knives, multitools, etc. they carried on deployments and were forbidden to carry them on base stateside.
The military has embraced the notion of "toxic" masculinity and those of us who have served know the military's definition of manliness doesn't match what the rest of us mean by it.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Here's my issued knife that I carried in SEA.
Bottom knife. Top Knife is the original Navy Marble Knife.
Right now I'm carrying a Bark River PSK.

 

[Smoke]

I have to ask- "What Navy Seal , active duty or retired, does not have some kind of knife on his person at all times?".

Apparently Derrick Van Orden.