hi guys
greeting from italy
this is one of my Randall 18

anyone could tell me the era or year of production??
thanks

Just a wild guess but I'd say 1977....

Dont know Ronnie
12-77 could be the end of service of Mr. Kelley, or the begin. Dont know

I think the knife could date from the mid 70's to the early to mid 80's. That is if the sheath is the original sheath.

Well it could be. The 26th avn brigade became the actual 126th brigade in early '80.
Really i thought it was a late vietnam era knife.
The sheath appear to be the correct one. It show the signs of the time...

Johnson stopped installing rivets on sheaths in about 1971. You can find sheaths out there that were punched for rivets but they had been cancelled so no rivets were installed. You will just see a little dimple where a rivet was to have been installed. This is a way to date sheaths. I don't think your sheath is a war time sheath. Technically our involvement in V/N ended in 73 but the war wasn't over until April of 75. So it was possible for a mod. 18 like yours to have been carried by a Marine in April of 1975 while evacuating the Embassy but since yours is marked to a specific aviation outfit I don't think it was used during wartime.

Sound good Ronnie
Thanks for the help

You bet.

Wow what a beauty!! Nice find

Only one I have ever seen. Obviously an earlier forging probably put together two or three years later.