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thedrifter
08-22-03, 06:02 AM
Lethal Weapon
Historic Tomahawk Returns to the Battlefield with Some U.S. Troops

By David Tillett



April 15— U.S. forces are using two types of tomahawks in Iraq: one, a high-tech cruise missile — the other, a bit more like the hatchet Mel Gibson used in the movie The Patriot.

Members of Air Force security groups, Army Rangers and special forces are some of the U.S. troops who have chosen to add tomahawks to their basic gear.

So why would a member of today's armed services want a relic of the American frontier? According to one modern tomahawk manufacturer, the reasons soldiers carried them in the Revolutionary War are still valid today — and it all comes down to science.

"The physics behind it make it an appropriate choice for any kind of battlefield conditions," said Ryan Johnson, owner of RMJ Forge.

"You take a knife, a knife has a certain amount of leverage that's given to you. The tomahawk can be used like a knife, but you also have that 18 inches of handle that gives you a huge amount of difference in power as far as the power of the cutting stroke. It's much more practical as a field tool because you can again use it like a knife or you can use it like an ax."

Tomahawks Also Used in Not-So-Distant History

The tomahawk was commonly carried by soldiers even prior to the Revolutionary War, but its use in modern times is not unprecedented.

According to Johnson, soldiers have used tomahawks in most of the major wars the United States has fought.

"In World War II, there were not only Native Americans using them, but also just your regular GI. A lot of these people were just carrying stuff from home, stuff that they used on the farm," Johnson said.

He added that an uncle who had served in the Korean War told him soldiers would take the standard hatchet that they were issued and grind the back down into a spike to make a "fighting hatchet."

World War II Marine veteran Peter LaGana was a pioneer in the modern military use of tomahawks. He created an updated tomahawk design and, from 1966 to 1970, sold about 4,000 of them to members of the armed forces serving in Vietnam before closing down his company.

While tomahawks have historically been made in a variety of patterns, LaGana chose a "spike hawk" design — which has the cutting blade common to hatchets, but a sturdy penetrating spike on the opposite side.

In November 2000, professional knife and tomahawk thrower Andy Prisco approached LaGana and got his approval to license his design and restart the defunct firm, the American Tomahawk Co. — which Prisco did in January 2001.

Prisco's revitalized firm sells several different tomahawk designs, mainly to sportsmen and collectors. But he said that among members of the military, the top-selling product is the Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk, which uses LaGana's original head design and an updated synthetic handle. LaGana died in 2002 after a battle with cancer.

Johnson, who had a childhood interest in historical weapons, says he began hand-forging tomahawks at age 12. It became a way of life for him, as he put himself through college selling hand-forged tomahawks and knives, and made it his full-time occupation once he graduated.

Originally, most of his customers were period re-enactors or people interested in early American history. He first made tomahawks specifically for members of the military in the spring of 2001.

The effort was sparked by a request from a friend in an Air Force security group who sent him an e-mail with a picture of an 18th-century spike tomahawk and asked if he could make an updated tactical version. Johnson's modern tomahawk is made from a single piece of steel, with synthetic scales on the grip.

It wasn't until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the United States began fighting in Afghanistan that he started making them in quantity. In fact, it dramatically changed the way he does business — Johnson says his time is now almost exclusively devoted to producing the modern tomahawks for military customers, and he makes only a few historical tomahawks a month.

While these modern tomahawks do everything their frontier counterparts did, their makers say theirs are uniquely suited to challenges U.S. forces may face in urban combat.

The Web sites for both RJM Forge and ATC mention a variety of capabilities of their products, including breaching doors, smashing locks or tearing out windows to enter buildings, chopping holes in cinder block walls — and even punching through a standard Kevlar helmet.


A Slow Road to Acceptance

Prisco's tomahawk has been advanced for consideration under the Soldier Enhancement Program, a congressionally mandated program that allows the evaluation and adoption by the military of commercial, off-the-shelf items.

Soldiers from a platoon of the 101st Air Assault Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., were used to evaluate ways to enhance soldiers' sawing, cutting and chopping capabilities. The military's current standard-issue item is the improved entrenching tool, a compact folding shovel that is often used for chopping, hammering, etc.

The soldiers tested the entrenching tool against other tools, including the tomahawk, in a series of tasks, including digging fighting positions (known in previous wars as foxholes).

"When the program requested documentation, I received numerous e-mails from soldiers in the field talking about they liked this item [the tomahawk]," said Rochelle Bautista, combat developer with the United States Army Infantry School. While the test was completed in November 2001, no final decision has yet been made.

One e-mail sent to Bautista's office came from a 22-year veteran with service in the Rangers and special forces. Because he is currently serving in-theater, military officials requested he not be named.

He said that in his experience, the best use for the government-issue entrenching tool is to "keep it in its carrier and buried in your rucksack. However, an issue tomahawk ... would be the single most innovative and smart thing the Army has done for the soldier in years in terms of such a piece of equipment.

"As a close-quarters combat weapon — especially given our current operations and the evolving and necessary tactics for Advanced Urban Warfare ... the tomahawk, THIS tomahawk, cannot be improved upon."


Not Everyone’s Convinced

Not everyone is sold on the tomahawk's potential for widespread acceptance in the military.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, an ABCNEWS military analyst, said the Army is not quick to add new items — and weight — to the list of gear that a soldier has to carry. Also, as a safety issue, commanders often have reservations about providing soldiers with untested items, or allowing them to carry one they purchased themselves.

"I've been in outfits where any private weapon — to include knives — were not permitted," Nash said. "But as the lethality of the weapon increases, the tolerance for its presence decreases. They become too unaccounted for."

Nash, who commanded the 1st Armored Division in Bosnia and was the commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division during Operation Desert Storm, offered a grim example. The first U.S. soldier to die in Bosnia was killed by a land mine. The soldier, who had no training in the handling of explosive ordnance, was experimenting with the mine using a Leatherman-style multitool.

"Now, if he hadn't had a Leatherman, he might have still screwed around with a mine. But it's that type of ad-hockery that commanders worry about," said Nash. "There's an ingrained discipline that comes with all of this that commanders don't want to lose."

As for testing a tomahawk against the entrenching tool, Nash remains skeptical.

"It's hard enough [to dig a fighting position] with an entrenching tool. The hatchet's a better hatchet than the entrenching tool is. But we didn't buy the entrenching tool for a hatchet. We bought it to dig holes."

Nash was not totally negative in his assessment. "Now ... at the same time, an innovative person comes up with something that may be useful, but it takes a long time for the Army to test it and get it in the field. That frustrates the soldier."


Does This Relic From the Past Have a Future?

Currently, service members are buying tomahawks individually or, in some cases, units are using operational funds to buy them for their group. But manufacturers would not be displeased if their products were adopted more widely in the armed services.

"This is not a standard-issue item per se — [but] are we moving that direction? Yes indeed, in my view we are," said ATC's Prisco. "The tomahawk's got a lot of versatility — soldiers don't have to carry seven or eight pieces of larger kit. They can carry a tomahawk and do the same thing."

continued.......

thedrifter
08-22-03, 06:03 AM
RMJ Forge's Johnson said in his opinion, the tomahawk won't be a standard-issue item for all of the military, but "I think it will definitely be an issue item for a lot of the special forces eventually."

Prisco added that the appeal of tomahawks goes beyond the military. He said members of the Border Patrol and Department of Justice carry his products along the border, and members of the Drug Enforcement Administration use it when they conduct operations in forest environments.

"As far as firefighting and law enforcement, there are a lot of crossover applications of our products," Prisco said. One message on the forum of ATC's Web site written by a firefighter describes how he used his tomahawk to break a padlock off a gate, then hacked open a door to get access to a burning house.

Johnson said it was a conversation with a firefighter that gave him the idea for a modified tomahawk small enough for firefighters to carry, but big enough for them to cut or pry their way out of a dangerous situation.

"He said, 'I'd love to have one to carry on my personal gear. If you did this and this and this, that would eliminate three things that I'd have to carry — I could just have it all in this one tool.' So that's kinda the direction we've been going, to come up with a multipurpose tool."


http://a.abcnews.com/media/US/images/ho_tomahawks_030325_nh.jpg

From top right to lower left: American Tomahawk Co. founder Peter LaGana's original 1966 design for the "Vietnam Tomahawk," with drop-forged head and hickory handle; today's Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk with synthetic handle; LaGana Titanium Tactical Tomahawk. (www.americantomahawk.com)


http://a.abcnews.com/media/US/images/ho_tomahawk_030401_nh.jpg

RMJ Forge's version of a modern tactical tomahawk, the Eagle Talon Special Forces Tomahawk. (www.rmjforge.com)


Tomahawk Strikes a Balance Between Tool and Weapon


April 15 — Regardless of the tomahawk's historic combat uses, American Tomahawk Co.'s Andy Prisco said primarily he considers it to be a tool.
"There's no doubt [that a tomahawk is also a backup weapon], but the entrenching tool is also a backup weapon, so there is nothing new about the tomahawk's ability. It's extremely capable in this regard ... The Patriot and The Last of the Mohicans are well-known movies where a tomahawk is used combatively."

One e-mail sent to the U.S. Army Infantry School supporting adoption of tomahawks came from an instructor in the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School's International Terrorism Division.

He said that while he was deployed in Afghanistan, tomahawks were useful for tasks that field-issue bayonets and fighting knives were too delicate to accomplish. He said troops were constantly borrowing tomahawks from those who had them, and they were used for everything from cutting open foreign metal ammunition cans to ripping apart wooden pallets for construction to kitchen duty, when a cook used one to butcher a goat.

Both Prisco and Ryan Johnson of RMJ Forge say their tomahawks are being chosen by members of a broad spectrum of the military, including elite units from Air Force security groups, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and special forces. In fact, one special forces team's new patch features an ATC tomahawk crossed with a bayonet and arrow, topped with a skull.

Prisco said that between purchases by individuals and some military units, his firm has sold several thousand tomahawks to armed services personnel.

Johnson said he wasn't at liberty to say how many tomahawks he's sold to members of the military. "It's been enough to keep us busy, let's put it that way."

U.S. forces have much more deadly items in the arsenal, and even bayonets are accepted as military weapons. But despite the tomahawk's dual role as a tool, the prospect of its use as a weapon makes some people uncomfortable.

Johnson said that during an interview at his shop, a reporter held one of his tomahawks. "Don't you think this is kind of vicious?" he was asked.

"And I told her, 'These guys aren't playing tag football out there.' This is serious business. The average person that carries our stuff, they're special forces, and these guys, this is the kind of stuff they need."


— David Tillett, ABCNEWS.com

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/tomahawk_030415.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

thedrifter
08-22-03, 06:05 AM
Hatchet Job
Army Brigade Adds Frontier Standard — the Tomahawk — to Its ‘Bag of Tricks’

By David Tillett



Aug. 18— Modern versions of the frontier tomahawk have been quietly finding their way into the hands of members of the U.S. armed forces for a couple of years now. But now it's one step closer to becoming a standard-issue item.

Beginning this month, the newly formed Stryker Brigade Combat Team will begin begin equipping infantry squads with "breach kits" (used to clear obstacles and force entry into buildings) that will each include a tomahawk.

And according to at least one member of this new team, the tomahawks have been a welcome addition.

"[This] tomahawk has allowed us to do stuff in the breaching arena that the Leatherman [multitool] allowed us to do early on when we got the Leatherman. It's kind of a do-everything little widget, if you will," said Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Myhre.


Chopping Through Army Bureaucracy

Tomahawks have been used by U.S. soldiers since before the Revolutionary War, and, less commonly, in modern times.

Andy Prisco, president of the American Tomahawk Co., has been selling tomahawks to individual members of the U.S. armed forces and, occasionally, making larger sales to military units. But so far Prisco and his business partner, former Army Ranger Justin Gingrich, have found getting their tomahawks accepted into military procurement channels a much bigger challenge.

In the summer of 2001, Prisco submitted his company's tomahawk to the Soldier Enhancement Program, a congressionally mandated system that allows the military to evaluate and adopt commercially available, off-the-shelf items. But after almost two years, progress on the tomahawk proposal seems to have bogged down.

Then, just a few months ago, Prisco learned of a relatively new program, the Rapid Fielding Initiative. Prisco said that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, RFI was introduced as a way for military units about to be deployed overseas to quickly equip themselves with commercially available items that are not part of the military inventory.

RFI provides a brigade commander with a budget and the discretion to purchase whatever he feels he needs for the members of his unit — typically, a list of hundreds of individual items. It is a limited program, however. RFI budgets and ordering authority are given to an individual brigade commander in the months prior to a deployment. Once the purchases are made and the unit is deployed, the RFI authority passes on to the next unit or units scheduled to be deployed.

New Unit, New Equipment

Myhre, who is the force modernization NCO for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team) based in Fort Lewis, Wash., has been involved with the Rapid Fielding Initiative program for about two years.

Myhre said members of his brigade were looking for an all-around digging/cutting/chopping tool, and tested samples of the tomahawk when the brigade went through its own testing at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.

"We really ran it [the tomahawk] through its paces and it does everything it's supposed to be able to do, so we added it to the RFI," he said.

Myhre said that, using the RFI "menus" created by other units that have deployed previously, his job is to evaluate which items his unit needs from the list, and research other items that would be more appropriate for his unit.

The Stryker brigades are "interim" brigades, designed to fill the gap between "light" forces such as airborne units — which can be deployed quickly but lack heavy firepower — and armored brigades, which can be very slow to deploy. The brigades are named for their eight-wheeled, 19-ton armored vehicles, which have high-tech communications equipment and come in 10 variations using a common chassis.

Members of the Stryker Brigade will be deploying to Iraq later this year, sending 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 vehicles, including about 300 Strykers.

Myhre said that typically a Stryker vehicle is operated by a driver, a gunner and a vehicle commander, and additionally carries a nine-man infantry squad, which transports its equipment aboard the Stryker. Each squad has its own breach kit, which is a 30-pound backpack containing a 5-pound sledgehammer, a set of bolt cutters, a Hooligan tool (like a fireman's crowbar for opening doors), a battering ram, a 12-foot-tall collapsible ladder and a tomahawk.

Myhre said that breach kits have existed in the Army for years, but early versions were more basic, containing upgraded wire cutters, a machete and perhaps a few other tools. He added that the kits have evolved by looking at how fire departments get into locked houses that are on fire and how SWAT teams get into a barricaded buildings when facing armed resistance.

"We've gotten to where it's about a five-item kit in a backpack configuration that … will truly let you get into just about anything you want to get into. … But unless you want that guy to carry those 30 pounds around all the time, there's really not always the calling for such drastic implements."

Myhre said that in many cases, soldiers decide to carry just the tomahawk instead of the entire breach kit, and some members, after using the tomahawk in the breach kit, have decided to use their own money to purchase one to carry as part of their personal gear.


Looking to the Future

For American Tomahawk, based in Anderson Island, Wash., the RFI program has offered welcome, quick results when compared to the normal procurement process. While Prisco overcame a major hurdle by getting his product onto the current RFI menu, there's also a downside: Each time the RFI program moves to a new unit preparing to deploy, the whole process of creating a purchase list begins again.

"It's bittersweet, in that it took commercial recognition of our item to finally get it into the Army, because the military's process for doing that is convoluted," Prisco said.

So, rather than going through the traditional procurement channels, he said, "The way we got in the Army was based on the people who actually use our products see the merit."

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/tomahawk_030818.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Red Dragon
08-22-03, 11:28 AM
A weapon from our past used today, just as deadly today as it was then. Maybe we should take a few scalps.

Red Dragon aka HL