July 14 in Firearms History

1 date for gun owners on July 14

  • Remembered 1
  1. Remembered1998 · 28 years ago

    Rex Applegate – Died

    Rex Applegate
    June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998

    • American military officer
    • worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II
    • 1941 - developing armed and unarmed close quarter combat courses for the US Army
    •  served as the personal bodyguard to President Franklin D Roosevelt
    •  advisor to the government of Mexico "Honorary General"
    • Tought John Wayne how to shoot
    •  technical advisor on the set of The Alamo
    • Applegate was said to be the source and inspiration for several of Ian Fleming's characters in the James Bond novels
    • 1943 he wrote Kill or Get Killed
      a classic manual of Western-style hand-to-hand combat.
    • 1976 Kill or Get Killed was published by the US Marine Corps as Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication 12-80
    • 1941  Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife
    • 1993 - Combat Use of the Double-Edged Fighting Knife