16 Facts About Rex Applegate

Rex Applegate 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.

Rex Applegate was a descendant of Charles Applegate, who blazed the Oregon Trail in 1843 with his brothers Jesse and Lindsay and established the Applegate Trail.

Rex Applegate graduated from the University of Oregon with a Business Degree in 1940 and went on to take a commission in the US Army as a second lieutenant.

In 1941, Rex Applegate was developing armed and unarmed close quarter combat courses for the US Army at Camp Ritchie when he was recruited by Wild Bill Donovan for the OSS, specifically to build and run what was called "The School for Spies and Assassins", the location of which is Camp David.

Donovan had Applegate learn all that he could about armed and unarmed fighting from William E Fairbairn to form a brutal and effective system.

Rex Applegate 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 the British SAS: David Stirling.

Rex Applegate was friends with actor John Wayne and in addition to teaching Wayne how to shoot, Rex Applegate served as a technical advisor on the set of The Alamo.

Rex Applegate was said to be the source and inspiration for several of Ian Fleming's characters in the James Bond novels.

Rex Applegate's result was the development of Defendu, widely considered the first of what became known as modern combatives.

Rex 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.

Rex 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.

The last years of Rex 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, and was a founding member of the International Close Combat Instructors Association.

Rex Applegate named his 10-inch double-edged knife the "Rex Applegate-Fairbairn Combat Smatchet"; it was initially offered as a handmade knife by Bill Harsey, Jr.

Rex Applegate later had Harsey design a "Mini-Smatchet" which was produced by Boker.

Rex 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.