My friend Joe Taylor hit a home run with his points. GSP Jr. was a horseman and had aspirations for the M1913 saber that were not to be seen in real warfare. However, Patton's theory that the cutting edge of the saber was less useful than the point was correct and this theory was carried through to later wars, such as Viet Nam when the stabbing knife, the wonderful (and cheap)Gerber Mark 2, was much more popular than the cutting blade of the Randalls. True, you could stab with a Randall 14, but it was so much slicker with the Gerber. As Joe remembers from Viet Nam, the soldier who carried the Gerber probably carried another small weapon that may not have been issued to him.