Rex Applegate | |
|---|---|
 Lt. Col. Rex Applegate demonstrating his knife fighting technique. | |
| Born | Rex Applegate (1914-06-21)June 21, 1914 Yoncalla, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | July 14, 1998(1998-07-14) (aged 84) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author and journalist |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1943–1998 |
| Genre | Combatives |
| Spouse | Edith, Carole |
| Children | Shannon Applegate (daughter), Rex Applegate (son), Lisha Allen (daughter) |
Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998) was an American military officer who worked for theOffice of Strategic Services, where he trained Alliedspecial forces personnel in close-quarters combat duringWorld War II. He held the rank ofcolonel.
Applegate was born on June 21, 1914, inOregon. He was a descendant ofCharles Applegate, who blazed theOregon Trail in 1843 with his brothersJesse andLindsay and established theApplegate Trail. Applegate began hunting and shooting at a young age and learned marksmanship from his uncleGus Peret who was a famed exhibition shooter andprofessional hunter at the time. Applegate graduated from theUniversity of Oregon with a Business Degree in 1940 and went on to take a commission in theUS Army as asecond lieutenant. His first billet was with the 209th Military Police Company as a lung ailment kept him from holding a combat position.[1][2]
In 1941, Applegate was developing armed and unarmed close quarter combat courses for the US Army atCamp Ritchie when he was recruited byWild Bill Donovan for the OSS, specifically to build and run what was called "The School for Spies and Assassins", the location of which is nowCamp David.[2] Donovan had Applegate learn all that he could about armed and unarmed fighting fromWilliam E. Fairbairn to form a brutal and effective system. He was the close-combat coordinator for all clandestine missions and this role brought him into contact with other fighters and martial artists of the time period such as a Finnish soldier who killed 21 Russians with a knife, and the founder of theBritishSAS:David Stirling.[3]
At one point during the war, he served as the personal bodyguard to PresidentFranklin D Roosevelt.[1][2]
After the close of World War II, Applegate spent the next 15 years as an advisor to the government ofMexico who made him an "Honorary General".[3]
Applegate was friends with actorJohn Wayne and in addition to teaching Wayne how to shoot, Applegate served as a technical advisor on the set ofThe Alamo. Applegate was said to be the source and inspiration for several ofIan Fleming's characters in theJames Bond novels.[3][4]
When not traveling to promote his pistol-shooting methods, Applegate spent his last years at theApplegate House inYoncalla, Oregon and at his home in Scottsburg, Oregon. Rex Applegate's daughter, historianShannon Applegate, who writes and lectures on Oregon and the Applegate family history, lives in the adjacent homestead. Granddaughter, Jessica Applegate Brown, owns and managesApplegate House Vineyards, an organic vineyard on the historicApplegate House property.
In 1943 he wroteKill or Get Killed, which is still considered a classic manual ofWestern-style hand-to-hand combat. The updated 1976 edition ofKill or Get Killed was published by theUS Marine Corps as Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication 12-80. From the foreword:
Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-80,Kill or Get Killed, is published to ensure the retention and dissemination of useful information which is not intended to become doctrine or to be published in Fleet Marine Force manuals.
and
This reference publication was written in 1976 by Lieutenant Colonel Rex Applegate, USA (Ret), with the help of the Combat Section, Military Intelligence Training Center, Camp Ritchie, Maryland. At last there is one volume which speaks to the subjects of unarmed combat (offensive and defensive), combat use of weapons, disarming the enemy, handling of prisoners, the handle of mob/crowd disobedience, the use of chemicals in such situations, and how to establish a professional riot control unit.
Applegate developed the techniques outlined in the book during his work withWilliam E. Fairbairn, who had previously developed his own techniques while working for the Shanghai Municipal Police from 1907 to 1940. Fairbairn drew heavily onChinese martial arts, which he simplified and tailored to the needs of police training in one of the world's most crime-ridden cities, due to its history of crime related to theopium trade, therebellion, and the activities ofTriad gangsters. His result was the development ofDefendu, widely considered the first of what became known as moderncombatives.[5] Applegate's techniques are heavily based on Fairbairn's Defendu, enhanced with feedback from the OSS operatives who put his techniques into action during World War II.
Applegate was a proponent of thecombat pistol shooting system outlined inKill or Get Killed, which is based onpoint shooting with a strong emphasis on training for close-range, fast-response shooting. This system is somewhat at odds with another prominent system (developed and promoted byJeff Cooper) called themodern technique. Both systems have many supporters, with variants of Cooper's system being more commonly used. Supporters of Cooper's methods point to the near-universal use of his system in theInternational Practical Shooting Confederation and other forms ofaction shooting, while Applegate's supporters point to police incidents where officers trained in Cooper's methods discharge many rounds at close range (most measured in tens of feet (3 m) or less) with few (if any) disabling hits. The last years of Applegate's life were spent promoting his combat-pistol-shooting methods to police agencies. Applegate co-wroteThe Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate[6] (with Chuck Melson), and was a founding member of the International Close Combat Instructors Association.
In the early 1980s, Applegate released a design called theApplegate-Fairbairn fighting knife (a modified version of the World War IIFairbairn-Sykes knife). The new knife's design was a collaborative effort by Applegate and Fairbairn during World War II, eliminating the major weaknesses of the F-S knife (among them a weak blade point and the impossibility of determining the blade's orientation by grip alone). Boker Knives offers several versions of the A-F knife.Gerber Legendary Blades produced a line of folding knives by Applegate andBill Harsey, Jr. based on the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife.
In the late 1980s Applegate released a modified version of Fairbairn'sSmatchet, which had been used by the SAS and OSS during World War II. The development of this weapon began as a collaborative effort between Applegate and Fairbairn during the war. Applegate named his 10-inch (25 cm) double-edged knife the "Applegate-Fairbairn Combat Smatchet"; it was initially offered as a handmade knife by Bill Harsey, Jr., and later by Wells Creek Gun and Knife Works, and after that byAl Mar Knives. Following Mar's death,Böker Knives was licensed to produce it. Applegate later had Harsey design a "Mini-Smatchet" (with a 4.75-inch (12.1 cm) blade) which was produced by Boker.
Applegate was inducted into theBlade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 1994 Blade Show inAtlanta, Georgia in recognition of the impact his designs have made upon the cutlery industry and for his writings on knife fighting.[7]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)ISBN 978-0873649988| International | |
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