During Operation Attleboro, conducted in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh Province in 1966, M/Sgt. William B. Hunt, a Special Forces non-commissioned officer with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Mobile Strike Force—already severely wounded after two days of battle with Viet Cong forces—valiantly chose to stay behind so that he could cover the withdrawal of his fellow soldiers.
Follow-up search missions were unable to recover Hunt’s body, and he was first listed as Missing In Action—and then eventually declared dead a decade later on April 9, 1976. Master Sergeant Hunt’s son, Ken Hunt, would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps, serving in the Army Special Forces himself before retiring and establishing a knife company that he would name after the operation that claimed his father’s life—Attleboro Knives.
And now, thanks to its inclusion in the Friends Of NRA standard package for 2021, attendees at any of this year’s FNRA banquets will have the opportunity to take home a limited-edition Attleboro Knife for themselves. The American-made Attleboro features a cryogenically treated, 4.5", S35VN stainless steel, drop-point blade, with black micarta scales, and both a lanyard hole and a glass breaker incorporated into its pommel.
For more details regarding M/Sgt. Hunt’s story, or for additional specifics about the knife created by his son in his honor, visit attleboroknives.com. Or for more information about the Friends Of NRA program, and upcoming events near you, contact your local FNRA field representative or visit friendsofnra.org.
