Quote Originally Posted by Richland View Post
As I understand it:
K-BAR stands for "Knife, Browning Automatic Rifle."
As the BAR did not have a bayonet lug. BAR gunners needed a general purpose knife that others used their bayonet for. It is not actually a Marine Corp Specific item.
But Marines are far more attached to the design than the Army...
I carried one on my web gear in the 82nd Airborne div in the 80s.
Never heard that story. Most accounts consider the name to have come from the Kabar Cutlery Co, the name of one of the principal suppliers of the knife. Kabar Cutlery (formerly Union Cutlery and other names) claims to have adopted the name from a letter received from a semi-literate mountaineer proudly proclaiming that he "kilt a bar" with one of the company's knives. (No, it wasn't Davey Crockett*, though there seems to be a common thread.) For a time Kabar used a logo depicting a man single-handedly fighting a bear with a knife.

*Yeah, that's where I got my forum name, though I haven't killed any bears, with knives or otherwise--we just share a first name and a Scottish heritage.