I was stationed at F.O.B. Joyce, Afghanistan from May 2010 to May 2011. Formerly known as Camp Joyce. Famously known from Dakota Meyers story. In 2010 I acquired a bayonet from a local, if you know what I mean. I assumed it was a fake, Chinese made novelty since as far as I knew, no one had been issued bayonets since the 90’s (I was Army). The other day a Marine mentioned they still get issued bayonets to this day. So, I started looking into mine. It seems to be a legit Marine issue. It got me wondering if it belonged to one of the four marines killed from Dakota Meyers' unit in the same area in 2009. We (my squad) found a pair of what we assumed was one of their pairs of boots, with a blood type written on them in Qari Ziaur Rahman's house when we assaulted the Taliban strong hold, Barawala Kalay in March of 2011. Here is an excerpt from a report covering the Marines story: “But he couldn't save Kenefick, Layton or the two Johnsons. Their bodies were found in a ditch where they had taken cover. They had been stripped of their weapons and other equipment before Meyer could get to them.”

There are, of course, other possibilities of where the local got this bayonet, but I wanted to know if it is a legitimate Marine issue. It doesn't have the makers roll mark as some of them I see online do, but I found a few photos with similar markings.

Is this a Marine issue bayonet?

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M9 is typical Army issue.  But that one does not look like the typical M9 either since it has no maker marks.

The Marines use the OKC3s.

I don't know what army units are getting issued bayonets? I never saw a bayonet besides this one during my service period from 2009 to 2013. Yeah, looks like the marines have been issued the OKC3 since 2003. Maybe this M9 is from an earlier deployment then, that is if it is legit.

Similar M9 on eBay

I don’t believe that’s a .gov issue M9

Yeah, maybe just a Chinese made knock off after all.

Most have roll marks or stamping from the makers here in the US.    Such as Lan-cay USA. Or Phrobis  some where made by Buck ,  The newer M9's are being produced by  Ontario  now along with the Marines OKC3 type bayonet.
 A lot of the ones I see that have Lazer type marking seem to be made by
   Smith&Wesson or some other manufacturers seem to be made out of country, I don't know who..   it seems to be very close to the phrobis/buck type of M9.

It is a Chinese copy.

The real USMC M9 bayonets were marked:
M9-USMC
Buck+
USA

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The USMC batch was made in a single production run (of approximately 5,000) in 1991 and issued within the 2nd Marine Division (as part of a field trial).

Other than the USMC marking, they're physically identical to Army bayonets from the same production period. (Buck actually got scolded for adding year markings like the "+" because they violated the contract/TDP so they stopped doing it).

The USMC decided not to adopt any variation of the M9. They were initially considering a new prototype "rat-tail tang" variant of the M9, but eventually chose Eickhorn's Bayonet 2000 instead.

Then domestic knife manufacturing lobbyists pitched a fit over all the potential lost revenue from not having the new contract, and essentially the congress critters forced them to adopt an Ontario model instead (the OKC-3S, which is based on the old SP6 Fighter). Paul Tsujimoto (Toooj) designed the SP6 around 1993 using the Randall Fighter knife as his inspiration for the blade's shape.

I do not know if 2nd MAR DIV's M9 bayonets were left in service until replaced by the OKC-3S (likely), or returned to depot/DLA and replaced by the older M7 until the OKC-3S was fielded in the early 2000s.

In any case, Meyers' unit was part of the 3rd Marine Division and therefore would never have been issued an M9 as part of the 1990s field trial (and I'm sure they were long gone, even from the 2nd Marine Division by 2009.)

Thank you for your service @Bastogne101
Were you serving with 2/327th Infantry?

That's the info I was looking for. Thank you! I guess my gut feeling about it was right. If it was even possible for it to have been stolen that day I wanted to return it to the unit or family.

I was with the 101st TF No Slack. We replaced 10th Mountain.

You're quite welcome.


A very honorable and noble thought

Thanks, I had just changed my guess before you replied. (I should've read the linked articles first. lol)
That's awesome!

What’s your story? Did you serve in that area?

No, I never served in the military.
Tried to attend USNA to become a Marine officer.

Unfortunately I was not medically eligible.
Fortunately what they DQ'd me for never resulted in a deteriorating condition.

Now I just collect the weapons and study the technology and history (ok, I've done that since I was 8 lol).
I serve in LE but obviously that's very different. I find it rewarding though.


I don't have one of the USMC M9 bayonets. I've eyeballed them real hard a couple times, but just didn't want to pay the $300 they typically bring.
(The most I've ever paid for a bayonet was $200 for an SVT-40 bayonet.)

I have a standard M9 of similar vintage (because the older ones looked cooler).

I've got all the US rifle bayonets from WWII and later, but I like the Eickhorn bayonets the most (for the M16 family). Canada adopted them before the USMC considered them (kinda like how CADPAT led to them adopting MARPAT uniforms.) The B2000 was the best choice, but politics got in the way (unsurprisingly).

Oh, and if you want a USMC OKC-3S try to find an older one that's roll marked. All the issued ones are roll marked and then Parkerized, but current commercial production uses laser engraving which burns through the Parkerizing. (They'll rust there quite easily.)

Thread with info and pic: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Ontario-6504-OKC3S---USMC-Bayonet---How-to-Avoid-Fakes-/5-2320554/

I'd like to see the SVT-40 bayonet.  That's a really good price too.

Wait till you an FZR M7 and the owner knows what it is.