The KA-BAR Fighting/Utility Knife is the most widely recognized and popular combat knife ever to be produced in the United States. Since its introduction on 23 November 1942, the KA-BAR has performed brilliantly on the battlefields of Europe, the South Pacific, Korea, Southeast Asia, Central America and the Middle East, earning its moniker as the "ultimate fighting knife. " Early in 1995 the KA-BAR company decided to update the venerable combat veteran to ensure its combat readiness for the next century and immediately began assembling a team of the top military combat men in the country. On this team was the author, Greg Walker. In this book Walker gives readers an inside view of the exacting design criteria, cutting-edge materials, extensive factory tests and exhaustive real-life field tests that went into the historic redesign of the blade, handguard, handle, pommel and sheath of the ultimate fighting knife of the future. The new fighting knife excelled at these rigorous tests, earning the right to be called a KA-BAR.