Gerber tool in No Easy Day

H

Harayasu

Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
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I just wanted to share something with you guys. It doesn't occur very much that I'm reading a book in which a multitool is mentioned, but currently I'm reading No Easy Day by Mark Owen and in chapter 3 he is preparing his bags of gear for deployment. At page 43 he writes:

"But some of the gear, like a Gerber tool, came in handy on most missions. Back at SEAL Team Five, you were issued one Gerber tool, which had a knife blade, screwdriver, scissors, and a can opener."

At the bottom of the same page:

"My team leader came by my cage later that day to double check how I was doing and saw my load-outs in the colorcoded bags. Off to the side, I had an extra bag with the gear I thought I'd need for most missions, including a Gerber tool."

Then on page 44, Owen his team leader tells him to get a Gerber for each of his four mission load-out bags. The team leader fills in request forms and Owen goes to supply and gets his four Gerbers and other gear for each of his bags.
 
Is Gerber co-authoring this?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Please forgive my humor or lack of. I'm only a bit of a sceptic from my niece
s navy experience. She was an electricians mate on the U.S.S. Blueridge in the Pacific. They were issued two kinds of multitools with no choice of either, Leatherman and Gerber. For some reason, a very large amount of Gerber multitools went over board, (at least that's what was said) and the sailor going down to supply to draw another one in hopes of getting a Leatherman. Apparently the Gerber's were not held in very high esteem.:confused:
 
Well since the author didn't want to give away any of the tactics, etc..Of the United States military, perhaps he was referring to a leatherman, but wanted to throw out gerber, in case the terrorists were reading the book for tips.

Who knows, maybe their gerber blade will snap in the middle of a suicide bombing leading to a premature detonation??
 
I don't know if it's true or not. He does write a bit on his gun system too, but I don't know anything about guns. Anyway it just strikes me that he's specifically mentioning Gerber and not just writing 'multitool'.

I've tried a few Gerber multitools in the past years and took an old Multiplier with me once on a camping trip. It wasn't bad, but I didn't like it that I have to move out the pliers first before I can use the other tools. Later I've tried an MP400 and MP600, not really bad either, but I am simply too much used to Leathermans and SwissTools. I think that if you mainly use the pliers and use the screw drivers every now and then, it's a tool that is good enough to do the job, just not outstanding. But I don't know what a soldier expects from his multitool.
 
My only experience with Gerber multi-tools was handling some in a knife shop that's now long-gone. I never liked the feel of them, and did not like the tools on them, either. I've also heard from more than one person, including a couple of the salespeople at that shop, that the Gerbers pliers had a tendency to break.

My MT now is a Swisstool Spirit S, but before that I used a lot of Leathermans. IMO, both make better MTs than Gerber.

Jim
 
Like it or not, Gerber is what the military typically issues, at least for multitools. It was most likely a MP400 or MP600. I own a Vic. Swisstool X, a Leatherman Wave and a Gerber Suspension and although I probably like the Swisstool and Wave the most, the Gerber is hands down the best bang for the buck. The odd thing is, I didn't think the US Gov't. was all that concerned with fiscal responsibility.
 
I wondered the same thing, I thought maybe they refered to all MT's as a "Gerber". You would think that in DevGru, you would buck up and just buy your own LM or Vic tool.
 
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