I first learned about the M1 Garand in history class. The Garand was used in World War II as the United States’ standard issued semi-automatic rifle. This paved the way for autoloading as it was the first of its kind. With this new development came great enhancements to warfare, but with such a leap in technology also came sacrifice. One of those sacrifices being the operator’s thumb. To reload the Garand the operator had to use their pinky and their thumb in a top-down, angled fashion. With the location and the frantic nature of reloading individual bullets in the middle of a firefight, the men would get their thumb caught in the bolt requiring them to yank their thumb out. With how regular this user error occurred these men would get sore and bruised thumbs, this lead to the nickname Garand Thumb. Learning about the Garand was what sparked my love for firearms and the push I needed to desire and seek knowledge in my passions.

So, when I was presented with the opportunity to purchase the M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) in 2010 I bit the bullet. But rather than stopping there I wanted to share my passion for this gun on a larger platform and so I started a YouTube channel. Orignially, the videos were going to be all about shooting the Garand, so I named the channel Garand Thumb. After three videos I quickly realized there was no appeal to this narrow topic. Furthermore, with the lack of resources to get a YouTube channel going Garand Thumb was dead in the water.

In early 2017 while working as a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) Specialist in the military we were issued Crye JPC 1.0’s. I have always loved gear, and with this love I spent more time learning how to set up and manipulate my carrier to fit my specific needs. Other guys in my unit started to notice this and asked several times how to set up their carriers. I decided to make a video explaining this process, but further decided to broaden it in case it had appeal outside of my unit. The video quickly took off and gave me a second wind with YouTube. The following week I made another video, this time not on the Garand, but on another area I had knowledge on, packing a pack. I continued to post every week after that and I haven’t looked back since. Every video I make is knowledge I have gathered and gained from different resources. With this change in direction of the channel it has helped me refine the goals of Garand Thumb. My passion for the M1 Garand still exists and I have realized that I want others to share this passion, but not just in the Garand.