#169: The Green Beret Dagger - Stroup Knives Founder Chris Stroup

Since 2002, graduates of the U. S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course have been awarded the Yarborough Knife; an elite symbol of distinction, identity, and mission. Named after LTG William P. Yarborough, who was instrumental in solidifying President John F. Kennedy’s support of Special Forces, the blade was forged to mark the moment a soldier became a Green Beret. Each knife was engraved with a serial number, connecting it to the operator who earned it. But in 2015, that tradition ended. Budget cuts discontinued the official presentation, and for nearly a decade, new Green Berets have crossed the stage without a blade in hand; without that powerful, tangible connection to the generations who came before. Now, Chris Stroup https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-stroup-47856024b/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://greenberetfoundation.org/ are bringing it back. A former Army Special Operations soldier, Chris, like so many who serve in the elite ranks, battled loss of identity and purpose when he transitioned to civilian life. On came a new mission. He founded Stroup Knives https://www.instagram.com/stroup.knives/; an American-made, family-run company dedicated to building rugged, high-quality blades for hard use. I sat down with Chris at his shop in Fayetteville, North Carolina to learn just how he started Stroup Knives, why every part of the process is done in-house, and how his military values of precision, discipline, and purpose now shape every product he makes. We spoke about his commitment to quality over quantity, employing veterans, and his newest creation: the Green Beret Dagger; a modern descendant of the Yarborough, designed to once again be fielded as a symbol of elite service and brotherhood. This is about more than a knife. It’s about restoring a tradition, honoring sacrifice, and forging identity through craftsmanship. Watch, listen, or read our conversation from the floor of a veteran-owned shop where steel meets legacy and where a mark of distinction is being brought back. Head over to greenberetfoundation. greenberetfoundation.orgorg greenberetfoundation.org today to get yours. Proceeds support our Green Berets and their families. Highlights 00:00 Introduction03:54 The Green Beret Dagger08:23 Why Enter Special Operations?10:56 How to start a knife company14:28 Family involvement in the business17:02 How hard is entrepreneurship?20:47 Knife skews and design21:22 Maintaining quality23:15 Competitive advantage24:27 Green Beret Dagger25:40 What's next? Quotes “I get to make knives for the most elite." “Let’s go find something hard. So I joined the Army.”“That’s what I was looking for, working with the best there is.”“If I’m telling my kids they have to do the best that they can, I have to.”“Transition was hard in a lot of ways that I never expected it to be.”“I think that’s really what we’re trying to build here, is just a place to build a community.”“This is fun, making something cool, and I could do it with my family.”“We can teach you how to make a knife. I can’t teach you how to be a good human and fit into our team.”“You are well suited as a Special Operator to run a business.”“Learning in the military, it’s just everything is a problem. We’re just professional problem solvers. It’s kind of what being an entrepreneur is.”“Everybody wants the best knife possible to come out of here.”“Just because you graduated the course doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a great Green Beret.” The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by University of Health & Performance https://university-hp.com/, providing our Veterans world-class education and training as fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Fran Racioppi?

  Since 2002, graduates of the US Army Special Forces Qualification Course were awarded the Yarborough Knife, an elite symbol of distinction, identity, and mission. Named after Lieutenant General William P. Yarborough, who was instrumental in solidifying President John F. Kennedy's support to special forces, the blade was forged to mark a moment a soldier became a Green Beret. Each knife was engraved with a serial number, connecting it to the operator who earned it. But in 2015, the tradition ended. Budget cuts discontinued the official presentation, and for nearly a decade, new Green Berets have crossed the stage without a blade in hand, without a powerful, tangible connection to the generations who came before. Now, Chris Stroup and the Green Beret Foundation are bringing it back.

• 0:42Fran Racioppi?

  A former Army Special Operations soldier, Chris, like so many who serve in elite ranks, had a loss of identity and purpose when he transitioned to civilian life. On came a new mission. He founded Stroup Knife, an American-made, family-run company dedicated to building rugged, high-quality blades for hard use. I sat down with Chris from his shop in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to learn just how he started Stroop Knife, why every part of the process is done in-house, and how its military values of precision, discipline, and purpose now shape every product he makes. We talked about his commitment to quality over quantity, employing veterans and his families, and his newest creation, the Green Beret Dagger. A modern descendant of the Yarborough, designed to once again be fielded as a symbol of elite service and brotherhood, this is about more than a knife.

• 1:27Fran Racioppi?

  It's about restoring a tradition, honoring sacrifice, and forging identity to the craft of trade. Watch, listen, or read our conversation from the floor of a shop where steel is legacy and where a mark of distinction is being brought back. Head over to greenberetfoundation.org to get your Green Beret Dagger today. The Jedberg Podcast is brought to you by University Health and Performance, providing our veterans world-class education and training in fitness and nutrition, arts and nurse. Follow the Jedberg Podcast and Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show you why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. Chris, welcome to the Jedberg Podcast. Thanks for having me. Well, thanks for having us in the shop.

• 2:11Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, this place is pretty impressive. There's like multiple buildings. I mean, we're here in what appears to be the final production area because I I know you already took us through a tour of the other side. We're gonna go back and look again. But there are a lot of knives in these buildings.

• 2:26Speaker 01

  Knives? I would hope so.

• 2:27Fran Racioppi?

  Being a knife company and all.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  This is the building we call corporate.

• 2:31Fran Racioppi?

  Ah, yes, it's very formal and it's very formal pinky, you know?

• 2:36Fran Racioppi?

  We're gonna talk all about Stroup knives. We're gonna talk about your journey in the army, post-army, transition. But before we get to any of that, we gotta talk about the partnership with the Green Beret Foundation because for a very long time, for decades, when you graduate the Special Forces Qualification Course, you are given a knife and that knife was the Yarborough Knife. And about nine or 10 years ago, the decision was made to no longer field that knife to everybody who graduates the course. Big source of discussion, argument, valid arguments on all sides. When you look at why that process and that practice stopped, but over the last couple of years, there's been a lot of discussion about how are we gonna get that back?

• 3:18Fran Racioppi?

  How are we gonna take these guys that we invest millions of dollars into their assessment? And their development there, you know, how do we recruit them and then actually train them to be Green Berets and put something in their hands that binds and bonds them together? That they can carry forward with them. And you have answered that call. You and your team and have developed the Green Beret Knife in conjunction with the Green Beret Foundation. So, talk for a minute about, and you know, by the way, this one right here, 202, might be coming with me because this was my Ranger School roster number. And so I'm not sure I could in good faith leave this behind. So, talk about the knife. Let's talk about the partnership with Green Beret Foundation and why'd you answer the call on this one?

• 3:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so first, it's a huge honor to be able to do this. I mean, when I started this knife company, who would have ever imagined this is where it would lead? Get to make knives for the most elite. It is freaking cool, you know? So it's a huge honor. Our friend Doug, who's still in the army, so we'll just call him Doug, came up to me with this idea at a dinner randomly. I didn't even know him at the time. Hey, would you be willing to make a dagger for everybody that graduates the Q course? Well, yeah, of course, but who are, I don't know you. And then he came up to me at Shot Show and said, hey, I talked to the Green Beret Foundation.

• 4:32Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, you talked to me.

• 4:34Fran Racioppi?

  He did shortcut, right?

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Doug, he's got a mustache.

• 4:36Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He came and talked to Jenna and I. And then we passed him off to Charlie.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it all happens. It seemed like one of those things, so such a far off giant idea. Hey, will you make these for every Green Beret? Well, heck, yeah, would, who wouldn't? And then it happens. It was like, almost a fairy tale to me, you know?

• 4:57Fran Racioppi?

  And it wasn't that long ago. And when we think about when it was Shot Show, Shot Show was in what, January, the end of January? And we're sitting here now, you know, almost the end of May. And, you know, here it is, it's in production, the first class. Regimental first formation was last week and these got fielded to the whole class. And now, you know, we got a whole bunch over here in the shop and you got people producing hundreds more. Getting ready for the next graduating class. But talk about the knife, let's talk about the construct and the design of it. And why is it a dagger?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  So we wanted to go with similar to what's in the crest. The heritage behind that. So naturally a dagger, it's also a great combat knife. It's a slim package. It's really secure. So this can get put on your vest, on your battle belt. Anywhere you can tuck it. So it's a perfect addition for your combat kit. But it's also got the heritage and kind of the shape of what's in the crest. That's why we went with this profile. We wanted our modern take on this. So it's ceracoted to prevent corrosion and rust. And it looks cool.

• 5:57Fran Racioppi?

  And it looks sick.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:58Fran Racioppi?

  It's amazing.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  It's just fun. You hold this thing, you're like, man, this is cool. Some of the generals had input on this. We made some prototypes and everybody had a little bit of input. And this is what we came up with. And then the Kite X sheath because of the retention and all the different mounting options. There's so many different belt clips and attachments you can mount on here. Or just zip tie it or Velcro it. So we wanted something with all of the flexibility and things that you would want to be able to mount it for combat.

• 6:27Fran Racioppi?

  Transitioning out of the military is about more than polishing a resume or attending a LinkedIn workshop. It's about rediscovering your purpose and forging a new path that's worthy of your service. At the University of Health and Performance, veterans are offered transformative GI Bill approved programming designed to help take them to the next level with confidence. Nestled in the heart of the Ozarks, their 800-acre, all-inclusive campus features world-class training facilities, modern living spaces, and miles of trails for reflection and growth. Here, veterans find a structured, immersive environment where they can explore their strengths, develop new skills, and build a life that not only honors their past but prepares the future.

• 7:07Fran Racioppi?

  Well, understanding where special forces comes from is something that's inherently in your nature. So you spent 11 years in the Army. Most of that, or really, you know, the majority of that time being in special operations units. So you spent time in the 160th, and then you spend time over there, you know, across the field, across Bragg and in Delta, supporting operations over there. So talk for a minute about, you know, why did you want to go in the Army? And why choose the route that you did in special operations?

• 7:40Speaker 01

  So I was doing construction and I was young and I was already in charge of the construction teams. But it is boring. I just go to different houses and do kind of the same thing. Let's go find something hard. So I joined the Army. I went to a Cav Scout unit. It wasn't hard. Like this is, there's got to be something cooler or I'm going to get out. And I wasn't eligible yet to go to the unit, so I was still too junior. So I applied for 160th and went there and that was just so cool, working with all of the different units and traveling everywhere. But then that got kind of boring because all I did was go to a hangar, set up a talk, you know, coordinate all the communications. But then when they were doing operations, I was in the talk. Or not even, because I wasn't the one talking on the radios. So then as soon as I could, I applied to go to the unit.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  And that was challenging. That's what I was looking for, working with the best there is. Every day I was, you know, just trying to keep up. Everybody wanted to be there. It was so cool.

• 8:36Fran Racioppi?

  When we look at elite performance and we always put our special operators at the top of the list when we look at the military, but even when you look at professional athletes and Olympic athletes, they have a mindset. I'm thinking about this because you said you were a Cav scout and it wasn't hard and you wanted to chase the thing that was hard. When you look back at that decision and you think about the things that drive you, that make you want to go and be elite. How do you develop that mentality? And then how do you maintain it over a long time?

• 9:07Speaker 01

  You develop that. I guess you just do it.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  I hit the guy next to me is better than me. I gotta keep up with him. He's having fun. This is fun. But I have to be really good at what I do to do the fun things. I always believe in just doing the best that you can at everything. That's what I tell my kids to do. That was a big choice for when I applied to go to the unit also was my kids. If I'm telling my kids they have to do the best that they can, I have to. So I can't tell them to do their best. So I'm like, they used to tell me that I was the big fish in a little pond. I aced the fitness test. Everything was not that challenging. So if I'm telling my kids to go do something hard, I had to go do something hard. And it was definitely hard. Why'd you get out? I got hurt. This knee has a giant hole in the cartilage, like about that big.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  This knee has a chronically torn meniscus and because of that, you can imagine it messes up your hips and ankles and shoulders somehow and back. So I couldn't run anymore. I couldn't put on kit like an idiot. They offered me admin positions. Like you can't lock me in a office for 10 years. We're gonna drive each other nuts. So it was time. It was probably one of the hardest choices I ever made. I was also going through a nasty divorce while making that choice. So it was just kind of like all of my life changing at once. But I just went for it. And it worked out. Now we have this amazing business. My wife is really cool. My kids are awesome. So pretty stoked with how everything's going.

• 10:35Fran Racioppi?

  Well, let's talk about that transition process. We talk about doing hard things and absolutely serving in special operations. And by far, one of the hardest things all of us who served in the community have gone through. You know, and I put these things that, you know, my list is kind of like, you know, rowing, being a collegiate rower physically, you know, and mentally in a lot, you know, probably the most hardest thing I've ever done. Prepared me extremely well for going to Ranger School, going to Special Forces Qualification Course, understanding that you have to embrace the suck and nothing's as bad as a 2000 meter race in rowing. So you can kind of just grit and bear it when you're cold, you're tired, you know, you're wet, you're hungry. But then there's transition.

• 11:19Fran Racioppi?

  And often when I look back at my career, I'm like, yeah, that was hard. But transition was hard in a lot of ways that I never expected it to be. Talk about your transition process and when you were getting out, you were trying to now figure out what do I want to be when I grow up? How do you go from serving at that elite level to making the decision to come out? And then saying, I'm going to go build a knife company?

• 11:45Speaker 01

  So I got out during COVID, which made everything a million times harder. My last day in the army, I, you know, I met down in the human resources troop. I think it was like 7:30 in the morning. Okay, sign your leave form. Okay, I signed my leave form and then I handed in my badge and they escorted me out of the building. That was my goodbye ceremony. I didn't get to say bye to anybody. Nobody even knew I left. It was just, that's it. Wow, 11 years in the army and that's how it ends. So I don't even have my going, one of my plaques. I think my troop sergeant major is actually coming tomorrow. I got out in 2021, I think, 2020, 2021?

• 12:24Speaker 01

  It's been years and I still don't have my gift. There was no ceremony. It was just in the army, out of the army. So that was rough. And then all the crazy stuff was going on in Afghanistan. And I'm like, man, I got friends over there and I'm stuck here. So that was a little hard to get through. But then we started this knife company and we started hiring veterans and supporting our community. So being able to have a lot of like-minded people here and help them through all of that has been really cool. The three guys that helped run the production of the shop, John, Mikey and Roy, they were all interns as they transitioned out. So for their last six to eight months, they were in the army but coming here. Which was really cool because they didn't have to go to PT or put up with any of the nonsense.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  So they got to slowly figure out how to be a normal human again. And then we hired them. Which was the best. But we gave them a place to land, a place to be part of a team again. So I think that's really what we're trying to build here is just a place to build a community. Hey, you're not in the army anymore. Cool. Now you're a part of our family. So we do things. Last Friday, we took our whole shop for the whole day out to a range. So we had this whole range complex and we all spread out and we shot all the, you know, long range, short range pistol. It was just great. It's team building, but it's a lot more than just making knives. We're building a community here.

• 13:45Fran Racioppi?

  And how many people you have working in the company now?

• 13:47Speaker 01

  We have about 20.

• 13:48Fran Racioppi?

  That's not a small company.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  We're trying to hire more. We can't keep up.

• 13:52Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Which is amazing. Who would have thought this would have happened a couple of years ago?

• 13:57Fran Racioppi?

  Did you know anything about knives?

• 13:59Speaker 01

  YouTube does.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  My oldest son, I think he was seven. I just wanted a hobby. I need something to do with my free time. So we started making knives. We just got a, you know, like a little piece of steel off the internet and some hand tools. My ex-wife told me I was an idiot. You'll never be any good at this. I'm gonna try anyways. Why not? And we just, really just a file. Started filing a piece of metal. I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool. And then we made a few more and they started looking and functioning like real knives. And we took them into the team room and guys bought them faster than I could make them. Man, there's something to this. This is fun. Making something cool and I could do with my family. That is cool as it gets, you know?

• 14:41Fran Racioppi?

  Well, your family's involved in the business. And one of the first things you said to me when we showed up here was that your sons and your daughter are fully involved in the business. They have to work here a certain amount of hours every day. They get paid, they're on the payroll, you know, that some of that money gets invested. And you're really spending a lot of time developing a work ethic in them. Why is having the family involved in the business so important to you?

• 15:10Speaker 01

  I think a lot of it is when I was in the army, I was gone all the time. You know how it is, never home. So now I have this chance to be around my kids all the time and my wife. So normally when we travel, we all go together. So I never have to be away from them, which is really cool. And they're learning all of these skills. They can stand at a trade show booth and talk to a thousand grownups in a day. And hold conversations and eloquently talk about our knives and all the processes. And they know the prices and they can negotiate pricing and they can walk around the show floor and haggle with people, hey, I got this thing, I want that thing, you want to trade? And they go back and forth and it's just the coolest thing in the world to see. And they can walk around the shop and work with grownups.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  I see so many kids, we see them here sometimes, they come to try and work here and they can't put their phone down. They're like, what's on my phone? Time to work, man, like, let's go. So we're trying to teach our kids, just here's all the tools to create whatever life you want. So they're on the payroll and at least 70% of their paycheck goes to their investment accounts. Can you imagine being a 10 year old and already having an investment account going? By the time you're our age, you're filthy rich. But we're trying to build those good habits from the beginning. That way you don't have to break bad habits, just start with good ones. But they work two hours a day. They want to work more. We don't let them work over a certain amount of hours a day because they would work here all day. They find tasks they like doing and they like being here. But we tell them to go be kids.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  Go be, shut her up on the jujitsu mats in the garage or.

• 16:42Speaker 01

  Good. They like to dry fire. We have one of those Ace virtual trainers. Those things are really cool. Go draw, do kid things, but they're learning. They're learning photography and how to run a business, how to deal with people. So it's just super cool having them here as a part of all of this.

• 16:58Fran Racioppi?

  And there, as you said, well versed in the business as we were sitting up here, you know, we're talking to them and they can talk about every aspect of the production cycle and why that happens. And it was really amazing to see, you know, how much detail they actually knew about the whole process and how involved they are and truly excited to do so.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Oh yeah. It's honestly, it's so cool that they're interested in it. Cause if they didn't want to work, I wouldn't force them to, but they want to. So that's really cool to me. But they know how to do almost everything. They can't run the CNC machine for the handles, but they can sharpen knives and they can probably do between them 80% of a knife. So it's pretty crazy.

• 17:40Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, that's impressive. How hard is entrepreneurship?

• 17:43Speaker 01

  It depends. Ask me in an hour. Ask me an hour ago.

• 17:48Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, I live in every day. It's true. We're laughing because I know exactly what you're talking about. I mean, you wake up in the morning and you're like, I run the best business in the world. By lunch, you know, you're poor, you gotta shut it down. And then by dinner again, you know, we're crushing it and we're going to take this thing to the next level.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  That's about it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's so many, there's always a new challenge, a new thing to learn is what I like about it. There I finally got this invoicing system to work. Now I gotta figure out how the next thing works and oh, that did not work. Let's retry that. Dealing with people, people is really hard. It's not like in the army, you can fire people. It took me a while to learn that. You don't have to give them a million chances. So I guess just learning how to navigate people and how to build a team right now. Every person on our team is amazing. We have a really strict interview process and really strict about our culture and you have to fit in with the people. We can teach you how to make a knife. But I can't teach you how to be a good human and fit in with our team. Cause we've learned.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  The hard way, it just takes one person to really ruin the whole culture. And that's a nightmare. So, you know.

• 18:55Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, you're a hundred percent right. I mean, people are the most challenging thing we do every single day, you know, not only as leaders, but certainly as entrepreneurs and as business owners. And often, I mean, almost every day, I gotta get up between three thirty and, you know, five in the morning, because that's the time until about seven, when the kids start getting up, where it's kind of protected time where I can actually get my work done. Because once the kids get up, and I got three, you got four, so you get twenty-five percent more problems than I do. But it's a lot of problems once that gets going. And then you gotta worry about running the business. But once everyone starts showing up in the business, well, now you're in people management.

• 19:37Fran Racioppi?

  And your ability to actually kind of do your thing starts to become more and more difficult throughout the day. And often what happens to me is, you know, it'll be seven o'clock, even last night. We got here into Fayetteville at about nine thirty, and I was still doing the thing that I was doing at three fifteen in the morning, because I had dealt with so many other things that came up during the day. What I think is really important for special operators to know when they are preparing to transition is that you are well-suited as a special operator run a business. And it doesn't mean, though, that you've got to have some great idea, and you gotta go, you know, be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, and come up with some idea that nobody's ever heard of.

• 20:20Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, you're making knives. Knives have been around for thousands of years. You know, we used to use rocks until we started calling them knives. And, you know, we were in a security business, and there are a tremendous amount of what I call non-sexy businesses that are critical to make the world run, that people are interested in, that can do really well. And you don't have to go create, you know, the next software. That's gonna change the way people play on their phones.

• 20:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. Learning in the military, it's just, everything's a problem. We're just professional problem solvers. That's kind of what being an entrepreneur is. Everything's a problem. What's the solution? There is a solution. There's always one. Look at it from a different angle. Go around, look at it from the bottom. There's... How do I look at it from a different angle? There is, we're gonna find the solution. It doesn't matter what the problem is. Making a knife is just the thing. So it's fun to how many different ways can we make a knife? How many different ways can we sell a knife? I don't it's everything is just a problem. How do you solve it? But being an entrepreneur is definitely not easy. But you've done harder things, so.

• 21:24Fran Racioppi?

  He just said that how many ways can you make a knife? How many SKUs do you have right now?

• 21:29Speaker 01

  I think we're at about a hundred and sixty. And that's all the different models and all their different color variations. I think we have seven colors per model.

• 21:38Fran Racioppi?

  And who's designed all those?

• 21:40Speaker 01

  We have a couple of partners that designed a few of them, but overall I've designed almost all of them.

• 21:45Fran Racioppi?

  And talk about the materials that you use. So one of the things that's been really important to you is to maintain quality. And so, you know, if we look back to the special operations forces truths, you know, people are more important than hardware. We talked about it, you know, quality is better than quantity. You know, number two on that list of five. How are you maintaining quality through this process?

• 22:05Speaker 01

  So we start with known good materials. So we use ten ninety five high carbon steel for all of our knives. So it's been around forever. It's going to take an absolute beating and it's going to hold an edge and it's easy to sharpen. It's also in the lower price point of steel. So we can work hard to keep our prices where we can afford them. Cause we want to be able to afford our own knives. We don't want to charge five hundred dollars for one of our knives. But we have quality control checks all the way along the way. And then before they come from the building where they're all made and come over here. They go through a QC where he somebody goes through every step of it. And then as we oil, the knives are getting checked and looked over and checked for sharpness again. So we take a lot of steps to make sure everything's perfect.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  And then we have no issues kicking it back to some, you know, like, hey, this isn't good. The culture we're creating is, hey, if this knife isn't sharp, it's not an emotional event. It's it's either sharp or it's not sharp. If it's not sharp, we redo it. There's no finger pointing. If somebody makes a mistake, we find what happened. We don't make fun of you for it. How do we solve it? Okay, how do we prevent it from the next time? But you just have to take the emotions out of it. Hey, the knife isn't sharp, it's not sharp. We had one guy get really mad because we kicked back some of the knives and he like flipped out and quit.

• 23:20Fran Racioppi?

  Like they're not sharp. It either is sharp or it is not sharp. It's not a, there's no, that's it. So we, that culture that we've worked really hard to build is everybody wants the best knife possible to come out of here. So if a knife gets kicked back to you to fix it, you're like, okay, cool. No big deal. I know how to fix this. Is what we worked really hard for. I mean, this industry too is very competitive. I mean, I went to a shot show. I've never been to a show that big. I never saw anything. I never saw more knives. I never saw more guns. And that is saying a lot, you know, considering some of the places that we've been. So, you know, how do you maintain a competitive advantage in a very dominated market?

• 24:00Speaker 01

  I would say relationships. I'm really big about helping everybody we meet and just being a good human. So by creating relationships like with the Green Beret Foundation. It's, like you said, it, there's a million knives and I don't know, our knife isn't necessarily better than anybody else's, but we were able to make friends with everybody. Our friend connected us to Doug, who connected us to you guys, and it's just helping people. We're helping solve people's problems. We make friends with everybody. If I meet people that are starting a business, I connect them to, if anybody that I know. And then that always ends up connecting to somebody else. And so just by helping people, it always comes back around. So we're big fans of just be a good human.

• 24:43Speaker 01

  And it always works out that way. I don't really know why we've been, sometimes I look at that. Hey, if the knife industry is down 35%, why are we up a whole lot over that? Like, what are we doing different? I don't really know. I just be nice to people is about what it's come down to.

• 25:01Fran Racioppi?

  What's next for you guys? Where do we go from here? I mean, so this knife, the Green Beret Dagger is coming out for release here uh, in the next couple of weeks. There's going to be two versions. So we got the one version which we're, which we're looking at here, which is being fielded to the graduating classes from the special forces qualification course, but also can be bought by anyone who can prove that they are or were a Green Beret. So they can go to Green Beret Foundation who's working with you to field and get these out to them. But there's going to be another version of this for the civilian market.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we're making it's the same exact profile. It's not going to be cercoated. It's going to be our normal acid edge finish like these knives back here on the board. And it's going to have a ranger green handle, which is the color of the Green Beret. So it's going to be very similar, just different colors. And that'll be available for purchase by civilians or anybody. And most of the money from that's going to go to support the Green Beret Foundation. So those are going to be available through all of our distributors, all of our dealers on our website. And on the Green Beret Foundation's website. So those will be easy to find, hopefully. And we're hoping to sell a whole bunch of those to raise a lot of money for you guys. Oh, I hope that too.

• 26:15Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, whatever we can do to help support that, we're all in on that effort. Where do you want to be in this with the company in five years?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Right here still. Having fun making knives, hiring as many veterans and people from our community as we can. I think by continuing to collaborate with different companies and continuing to grow what we're doing, we're going to make it quite far. I think we're just getting started. So I don't have a big five year picture. It's really hard to forecast that we're doing really well right now. So we just want to keep the momentum we have and continue to support our community.

• 26:48Fran Racioppi?

  When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome, and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill, and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Beret's mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us.

• 27:20Fran Racioppi?

  I love what you guys are doing and bringing veterans in. I mean, one of the biggest, I think. Differentiators we have in my security company is we're very veteran centric. When we bring in veterans, the majority of our of our team are veterans, mostly out of special operations. Cause you got this mindset of we just gotta get the job done. Whatever it takes, we're just gonna get the job done. And I think that that's evident, you know, when you walk around here, when you see the quality of what you guys are producing. When we look at the fact that, you know, the conversations about this happened four months ago. And they're already fielded and in the hands of folks who are coming out of the courses really, really all about willingness to solve the complex challenges like he talked about and get that job done.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  They changed the design on us too about four weeks before the graduation. And the day they finalized the design, they said, oh yeah, and the next graduation is in less than four weeks. So good luck. So yeah, basically good luck.

• 28:15Fran Racioppi?

  So what'd you do? Rally your team, put in the work and get going?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, we made it happen.

• 28:19Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, I know. And it was super successful. I mean, we had folks who attended the event. And, you know, everyone we talked to who went said, you know, it was awesome. And it's really brought back, I think, a very important aspect of what it means to be a Green Beret. And really close that chapter of the special forces qualification course. Just because you graduate the course, doesn't mean that you're going to be a great Green Beret. And we tell those guys all the time, you just, you got a seat at the table now, but now you've got to earn it every single day. But when you look back at your time in the course and what you've learned, how you've grown, you know, how you've matured. And how you really start to embrace the ethos of the special forces regiment.

• 29:03Fran Racioppi?

  You know, having this, you know, in your hand, when you walk away and you walk out of that regimental first formation and you look around and everyone's got it. You know, and it's numbered and you signed for it. And yeah, there are many like it, but this will always be theirs. It's really, really impactful and sits with you for really the rest of your career and the rest of your life. So. Chris, I appreciate you spending some time with us. I appreciate what you've done for the regiment. What you've done for our fellow Green Berets, what you're doing for the Green Beret Foundation. You know, we talk about leading the way and how the special operations is the tip of the spear. Well, you're setting the example for all of us.

• 29:39Speaker 01

  Trying to. Thank you. It's a huge honor to be doing this.

• 29:42Fran Racioppi?

  We got great things to come. Thanks.

• 29:47Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Rychowi. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Extra Threads. Send your comments and inquiries to [email protected]. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel, and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces and their families. Thanks for joining us on this episode.

• 30:32Fran Racioppi?

  How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.