Rex Applegate

Rex Applegate was born in Oregon in 1914, where he learned to shoot and hunt from a young age. After graduating from university, he joined the U.S. Army in 1940. Shortly before the outbreak of war, he became a member of the OSS, the intelligence service of the United States War Department. The OSS's responsibilities included operational intelligence gathering, disinformation, psychological warfare, guerrilla warfare support, asymmetric warfare, sabotage, and counterintelligence. Colonel Rex Applegate trained Allied special forces in hand-to-hand combat and founded the "School for Spies and Assassins" at what is now Camp David. He coordinated covert operations throughout Europe and was assigned to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After World War II, he continued to work as a consultant and instructor, wrote numerous books on hand-to-hand combat techniques, and began developing and improving combat knives.