| Feb. 2007 E NEWS | ||||
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| by: Daniel M. Certo |
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| By: Major Ian Humphrey | ||||
After
Action Report of the Tragic Ending to the Kim Family Rescue
 By: Major Ian Humphrey When Dan mentioned writing something about this tragic event, I at first did not want to write the article for fear of being disrespectful to the family during their time of tragedy. After some time has passed, and countless articles and comments about that fateful car journey, I felt it was time to do a proper After Action Review (AAR) to go over what should have happened, what did happen, and what we can all learn from the experience. What Was Supposed To Happen The Kim family was returning home to San Francisco from spending Thanksgiving in Seattle. They were hoping to spend the night in a lodge in Oregon. What Did Happen The Kim’s missed their turn towards the lodge and decided to try an alternate route. The route they chose was closed for the winter and not patrolled or maintained. The Kim’s eventually got stuck in deep snow along the road and awaited help. After waiting seven long days for help, Mr James Kim decided to seek help for his family. Two days after he left, helicopters spotted the Kim’s car and his wife waving an umbrella. Tragically, James wondered 10 long miles in the wilderness before finally  succumbing to exposure and hypothermia. What We Can Learn First off, the Kim’s did do a lot of things right after their initial mistakes of missing their turn and proceeding down a logging road instead. They had enough sense to stay put and wait for someone to rescue them. To help being spotted, they made a large SOS in the snow and set fire to their tires in hopes that the smoke would draw attention. Meanwhile, the Kim’s kept their family alive by nursing their two young children and rationing their food supplies. When James could stand by no longer, he decided to go and search for help. What I do not understand is why he did not simply return along the road they drove down. I have heard he mistakenly thought he was a lot closer to a town then they actually where. It is also possible that he tried to reach high ground in order to get his cell phone to work. For whatever reason, James ended up making a 10 mile trek through harsh wilderness with inadequate clothing and footwear. When his body was finally found he was being tracked by a bear and surprisingly close to his family’s car. I strongly feel the biggest lesson to learn from all of this is to never try a new route in blizzard conditions. The best way to avoid a survival situation is to never get in one in the first place. Once they realized they missed their turn they should have found a safe place to turn around and backtrack to the correct road. There should never be an occasion  when you would travel down a seasonal road to reach your destination. On that point, once the Kim’s realized the road was bad, they should have retreated to a main road. The other big point from all of this was their lack of a good emergency survival kit in their car. While they did have some basic food with them and something to light some fires, they did not appear to have a decent roadside emergency kit in their vehicle. When I lived in Alaska, it was mandatory for every vehicle to carry extra food, blankets, shovel, flares, and other survival gear in case you became stranded in the wilderness. This same practice is also handy in the lower 48. If the Kim’s had a good shovel in their car it is possible that they could have dug their car out of the snow and returned along the road. Also, if they had more supplies in the car, they may have been able to stay longer in their location and prevented James from feeling he had to leave to get help. I would also recommend a good survival kit as part of your roadside emergency kit. This way, if you do need to leave your location for some reason, you have the basics to secure shelter and warmth while you travel for help. And of course, a good fixed blade knife should be part of this kit. Besides the usual functions of a good knife, the fact that a black bear was following James is a good indicator of the last ditch protection a knife can give you as a make shift  spear or as a tool to sharpen a pole for the same purpose. Conclusions No one will question the fact that James Kim is a hero to his family. He knew their situation was dire and he went for help to aid his family. The Kim’s made up for some initial bad judgment calls by staying with the vehicle and trying to signal for help. Once Mr Kim decided to go for help, he was not prepared for the wilderness that lay ahead. The two biggest things I have learned from all of this is to avoid getting lost in the first place by staying on established roads, and the importance of a good roadside emergency kit that contains basic repair and survival supplies. While our hearts go out to the Kim family, we can only hope that a tragedy like this does not happen again.
 Military Knife, and Gear
Testing
required. Watch for the serration test results soon. A plan to offer serrations tailored to your job is in the works.
   
M1 Midget: The Biggest Three-Inch Knife you Will Ever See!
By: Major Ian HumphreyWhen trying to think of a title for this test report, the above phrase was the first thing that came to mind. The Relentless M1 Midget is the sturdiest and strongest knife I have ever tested with a three-inch blade. So why would you want something so small? Simply put, there is almost no anti-knife laws that I know of (of course check your local area first!) that would prevent you from carrying a knife with a three inch blade. For some reason, the three-inch mark seems to be the "standard" set for the maximum allowed blade length for every day carry knives. The Midget gives you a full size handle and a 1/4-inch thick knife in an easy to carry package. First Impressions The first thing you notice with this knife is the weight. This is not a tiny little knife by any stretch of the imagination. The Midget  is meant to be used and abused like the rest of the Relentless line, just in a more compact package. The handles are nicely contoured with four cutouts for a secure grip. The blade shape is like the popular Commander model with thumb grooves and three serrations. The coil of the blade also includes a handy cord cutter notch. The included sheath is a kydex and leather combination with a spring steel belt clip. The entire package is easy to carry and conceal under most clothing, and is also easy to carry on gear, packs, etc. Cutting Tests This particular M1 Midget was made with D2 steel, so it allowed me to finally test this steel as well. While Dan prefers S30V and 5160 steel, he is able to work with any steel the customer prefers. I was able to test this knife along with a Raptor model and two M1 Integral models (An Interceptor and ACE). In order to expand my testing, Dan sent  along a box of various materials to abuse the knives with. I started with my normal tests and worked towards the new materials. The Midget was the best cutter in the initial paper test. The steel and blade geometry led to easy, razor like cuts in the free hanging paper with little to no effort. The Midget also had no trouble cutting single strands of 550 cord with the blade. The short length of the blade prevented more than one cord being cut at a time. As for the three serrations and cord cutter...once Dan explained how they are supposed to work (see my brief instructions on the web site. The key is "scraping" and not "sawing" the cord!) they performed quite well. Single strands of 550 cord were cut with no effort. On dry and green wood the Midget performed well. The finger and thumb grooves kept the knife secure in the hand. The Midget was able to use a wooden baton to help split wood, but this did prove difficult due to the length of the blade. The serrations did a fantastic job making fuzz sticks. The three serrations along with the deep finger grooves quickly tore up the sticks. The serrations also did a fair job in making notches in the wood.  One of the items in the box of materials that Dan sent was an old engine hose. Since the Midget is intended for every day carry, I thought this would be a great example of a task the knife could easily find itself. Of the three knives I tested on the hose, the Midget had the best initial cut. With just a little effort the hose was cleanly cut. I also had some telephone wire in the box and again the Midget cut the  wire with ease. The serrations were also effective in stripping the wire to expose the copper wire under the insulation. Throughout all of my testing, which also included several hiking trips and constant wearing for several weeks, the D2 steel had no damage to the edge and no staining to the finish. Now that Dan bead blasts the knives for glare reduction, we have noticed an increase in staining on the 5160 steel knives. I have found keeping a can of PB Blaster around the house and doing a quick wipe down of the knives after a day of abuse keeps the steel looking good. While the D2 steel is not Dan's first choice in steel, it performed quite well and maintained a good edge throughout the testing period. Sheath The included sheath for the Midget is a kydex sheath with a leather backing to secure the spring steel clip to the kydex. Dan used to secure the clip directly to the kydex but did not like how the clip would scratch the blade. Unfortunately I found that the leather did not stay  attached to the top of the sheath after hard use. Since the sheath is secured with several military grade eyelets, I was not afraid of having the sheath fall apart, but Dan is going to fix this design. Overall the kydex sheath with the steel clip allows for a very comfortable carry system that allows the sheath to be easily added and removed from belts (to include the new ACU belt), web belts, pack straps, and even MOLLE vests. The eyelets allow the user to "permanently" attach the sheath to gear by using 550 cord or zip ties.  ConclusionsRelentless M1 Midget is a New catalog item for 2007 . I would highly recommend this knife to anyone who needs the strength of a full size knife in a pocketknife size. The three-inch blade proved to be very effective in cutting numerous materials and the overall size of the knife allowed me to carry it with little effort. For those who cannot realistically carry a five-inch tactical knife on your belt everyday, the Midget will be the biggest "little knife" you will ever carry! |
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Enews Archives : missed last months
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here. Check Out WAR CHIC........She's Hot,....and, an Expert Military Historian, writer, and Talk show Host. When We Were Cowboys… |
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Lots of people have given up on serrations because they don't
work as well as a separate tool. This is true to some extent, but we are
working to change it.
