Quote:
Originally Posted by Papa Zero Three
I believe that is correct in so much that you could get them at the gift shop while they were initially being issued in the beginning of the program and they had that run/batch in stock. Once they stopped selling them at the gift shop and only issuing them, the serial numbers continued on with each graduating class.
When the gift shop sales opened back up it created an issue as they have a batch of knives already set aside for the graduating classes and had to create the "-SF" version. The way it was explained to me by the woman at the gift shop was that it was easier for everyone involved to simply start the sales run/batch off with the "-SF" starting with 001 and keep the two programs separate than try to sell and issue from the same pool of knives they already had. Plus it's a money thing as I understand it, as the issued knives are budgeted and paid for by SWC and there was no way for the Gift shop to sell the knives to the rest of the SF community from that program and also keep the serial numbering in order. The easiest solution was introduce the "-SF" version for the rest of SF and let the gift shop sell them while maintaining the same kind of accountability as the issued ones.
If anyone knows anything different or I got something backwards please chime in as this is the kind of verbal history/story telling that seems to last or get lost over the years, kind of like the "Nous Defions" phrase thread.
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You are close. The reason that they went to the Yarborough SF numbering system was that 1-1200 (or so) already went to the individual sales program, and 1201-whatever were being issued to the graduates. Unless they wanted to start the numbers for a block of individual sales knives at 8000 or so, they had to start with a new prefix, essentially creating a new number run starting at 1. This will create a system though, where there will be a Yarborough #180, and a Yarborough #SF 180.
When I was involved, the money for the graduate knives came from USASOC.
HTH.
TR
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De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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