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Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998) was an American military officer who worked for the Office of Strategic Services, where he trained Allied special forces personnel in close-quarters combat during World War II. He held the rank of colonel.
At one point during the war, he served as the personal bodyguard to President Franklin D Roosevelt.
Applegate was friends with actor John Wayne and in addition to teaching Wayne how to shoot, Applegate served as a 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.
When not traveling to promote his pistol-shooting methods, Applegate spent his last years at the Applegate House in Yoncalla, Oregon and at his home in Scottsburg, Oregon. Rex Applegate's daughter, historian Shannon Applegate, who writes and lectures on Oregon and the Applegate family history, lives in the adjacent homestead. Granddaughter, Jessica Applegate Brown, owns and manages Applegate House Vineyards, an organic vineyard on the historic Applegate House property.
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Applegate developed the techniques outlined in the book during his work with William E. Fairbairn, who had previously developed his own techniques while working for the Shanghai Municipal Police from 1907 to 1940. Fairbairn drew heavily on Chinese 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 the opium trade, the rebellion, and the activities of Triad gangsters. His result was the development of Defendu, widely considered the first of what became known as modern combatives. 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.
In the late 1980s Applegate released a modified version of Fairbairn's Smatchet, 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 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 by Al Mar Knives. Following Mar's death, Böker Knives was licensed to produce it. Applegate later had Harsey design a "Mini-Smatchet" (with a blade) which was produced by Boker.
Applegate was inducted into the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame at the 1994 Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia in recognition of the impact his designs have made upon the cutlery industry and for his writings on knife fighting.
Postwar life
After the close of World War II, Applegate spent the next 15 years as an advisor to the government of Mexico who made him an "Honorary General".
Battle methods
Unarmed combat
In 1943 he wrote Kill or Get Killed, which is still considered a classic manual of Western-style hand-to-hand combat. The updated 1976 edition of Kill or Get Killed was published by the US 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.
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.
Combat handgun techniques
Applegate was a proponent of the combat pistol shooting system outlined in Kill or Get Killed, which is based on point 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 by Jeff Cooper) called the modern 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 the International Practical Shooting Confederation and other forms of action 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-wrote The Close-Combat Files of Colonel Rex Applegate (with Chuck Melson), and was a founding member of the International Close Combat Instructors Association.
Combat knife innovations
In the early 1980s, Applegate released a design called the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife (a modified version of the World War II Fairbairn-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 and Bill Harsey, Jr. based on the Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife.
Books by Applegate
(1998). 9780873649988, Paladin Press. ISBN 9780873649988
See also
Notes
External links
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