Spyderco Tenacious. ©ML Ayres.

Tactical Folders: Death Among the Reeds

By James Morgan Ayres

Can you get by with only a folder? Maybe. Many do.   In many cases tactical folders can, and do, stand in for the small fixed blade utility knife. They can even serve as lifesaving weapons. Here is one Marine’s story that serves as an example of this fact.

On January 29, 2005, the day that the first democratic elections were held in Iraq, a professionally trained insurgent mortar squad dispatched from Baghdad took up position to rain fire, death and destruction on Camp Fallujah, a military base about ten kilometers southeast of the city of Fallujah.

This mortar squad had hit the base previously. In response, a team from Marine Sergeant Heath Lanctot’s platoon had set up an Observation Post about two kilometers from the Marine base, near a point where they suspected the mortars would be placed to fire on the base again. “We wanted to catch the insurgents in the act and ambush them,” Sgt. Lanctot said. Lanctot’s team was designated as the Quick Reaction Force and held in reserve at the Marine base. The QRF’s responsibility is to respond to calls for immediate assistance.

Chris Reeve’s Sebenza. ©ML Ayres.

About noon Sgt. Lanctot’s team received a call from the OP saying that the enemy had set up mortars right in front of the OP and that the OP team had opened fire on the enemy mortar crew before they could fire on the base.  Lanctot’s QRF sped from their base in open backed Hum Vees. Seven minutes later they leaped from their vehicles at the OP and joined the fight.

The OP team had killed one of the enemy with their Squad Automatic Weapon, but three other insurgents fled using the nearby canals and surrounding berms, part of the Euphrates River system, to cover their retreat. The insurgents then took up position in one of the canals concealed by thick reeds.

Sgt. Lanctot and two of his team members charged the canal, firing their M4 carbines as they ran. “We hoped to draw their fire from a distance, but it didn’t work out that way. By the time they fired we were on top of their position. The enemy opened up from a concealed position three meters from us. One of my teammates was hit and went down. I dumped three magazines into the reeds. Then, while my other teammate laid down covering fire, I ran down the berm and pulled my friend out of the kill zone. But it was too late. He had been killed instantly.”

There were at least two of the enemy still at large, but the firing had stopped and the enemy was not to be seen. Maybe they had fled the area. Sgt. Lanctot went into the canal to retrieve the enemy body and search for any evidence. The water was chest deep, and icy cold. Lanctot retrieved the enemy body and returned to the canal when he noticed a trail through the reeds.

In the matter-of-fact manner of a professional Marine, Sgt Lanctot told me, “I followed the trail, and, having left my weapon, ammo, and web gear on the berm, I pulled out my Columbia River Knife and Tool folder. I made my way along the canal and into the reeds. Suddenly one of the enemy popped up and grabbed my right arm.”

There, cut off from any possibility of help, Sgt. Heath Lanctot fought his enemy as men have done since the beginning of the human race, with hand weapons, to the death. The water was deep, the reeds were thick, the bottom of the canal slippery. Footing was unsure. During the course of the desperate, furious fight Sgt. Lanctot dispatched his enemy with two knife thrusts to the neck.

Lanctot was climbing out of the canal when he heard a cough from the reeds. Without thought for his own safety, he immediately went back into the canal with his knife, ready to face another enemy. As he again moved into the reeds, the thick reed wall parted. He could see the enemy’s eyes. But this time some of his buddies were on the berm above and behind him. The platoon corps.man fired right over Lanctot’s shoulder, killing the insurgent, and eliminating the need for Lanctot to engage in another hand-to-hand fight in the canal.

That was the last enemy Heath’s unit engaged that day. This insurgent mortar squad would kill no more Marines. They would never again attack Camp Fallujah, or any other American or Iraqi base.  Next Page

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