The Tactical Knife that Saved a Medal of Honor Recipient’s Life During Intense Hand-to-Hand Combat in Iraq

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It was Nov. 10, 2004, and Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia was in trouble.

A squad leader assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division and serving in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq -- the outset of what would become known as the Second Battle of Fallujah -- Bellavia was tasked with clearing a dozen houses on a block where insurgents had been firing on American forces. After breaching the 10th house, Bellavia and members of his platoon found themselves pinned down by withering enemy fire coming from inside a fortified position beneath a staircase leading to the second floor, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

Without regard for his own safety, Bellavia entered the doorway of the house and engaged the enemy insurgents one by one, first with his M4 carbine and then with an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, despite the fact that the room was pitch black and lined with explosives and propane tanks. After a prolonged engagement, Bellavia ended up clearing the house virtually on his own before he was injured, killing four insurgents and wounding a fifth in the process and saving his squadmates from what could have become a deadly ambush.

In recognition of his heroism and “acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty,” Bellavia received the Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump on June 25, 2019, in a ceremony at the White House.

Bellavia “leapt into the torrent of bullets and fired back at the enemy without even thinking. The insurgents -- he just took over. David took over,” Trump said at the time. “Alone, in the dark, David killed four insurgents and seriously wounded the fifth, saving his soldiers, and facing down the enemies of civilization.”

Bellavia’s exploits during his Medal of Honor action are the stuff that combat legends are made of. But based on Bellavia’s own recollections, he wouldn’t have made it out of that house alive had it not been for his Gerber Rex Applegate combat knife, the (since-discontinued) tactical folding knife named for the legendary American colonel who trained members of the Office of Strategic Services in close-quarters combat during World War II.

In a 2006 oral history of the Second Battle of Fallujah, Bellavia described how, after shooting and killing the first three insurgents firing upon his squad, he pursued a fourth insurgent up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the house and engaged him in intense hand-to-hand combat, a terrifying ordeal that only stopped once Bellavia got his hands on his trusty blade.

“He’s screaming, there are people screaming downstairs and I have no composure at all. This is not a John Rambo moment. I’m really scared,” Bellavia recalled. “I stand up, and he digs into my leg with his fingers. I’m looking for my Rex Applegate Gerber knife: not a multi-tool, just a serious blade.”

Related: The Best Pocket Knives

Members of Bellavia’s platoon came to his aid shortly after his vicious struggle with the insurgent ended -- a struggle that the future Medal of Honor recipient would later say pushed him to his “breaking point.”

"Honestly, if I had an MRE spoon, I would have used it -- it was just there," Bellavia told reporters ahead of his award ceremony in June 2019. "My breaking point was the last guy. … If my guys didn't come in at that moment, I did not have enough reserve. ... I was just done."

Luckily, Bellavia didn’t have to rely on an MRE spoon. And while Gerber’s Rex Applegate tactical folding knife has been discontinued for years, you can still pick up variants at online knife retailers such as BladeHQ -- while inventories last, that is.

Buy Now: Gerber Rex Applegate Folding Knife

Product Specs:

• Blade length: 3.75 inches
• Blade material: 7Cr17MoV
• Blade finish: Black
• Handle material: G10
• Blade shape: Spear point
• Lock type: Other
• Weight: 4.9 ounces

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