Excellent lot of three items from the estate of a distinguished Navy PT-boat officer and Navy aviator, Lt. Charles M. Melhorn, from his service in the Navy PT boat service in the Solomons Campaign against the 'Tokyo Express'. Included is: a custom-made (probably theater-made) Mark I-type fighting knife, 7.25 in. unmarked blade, 12.25 in. overall, with aluminum pommel and leather washer grip, complete with worn leather scabbard; a 14.5 in. wood trench art model of PT-44 and named as such at the bow, ink inscribed on the bottom: 'To 'Horn' From Frank'; and a U.S. Navy Mark 6 signal pistol made by R. F. Sedgley, 1942, operating condition, paint a bit worn. Sold with an original 5 x 7 in. photo of Melhorn receiving a medal in 1961. These historic relics originate from the untouched footlocker of PT-44 boat officer and Navy aviator Lt. Charles M. Melhorn. He and a fellow PT-44 crewman were plucked from the water by PT-40 and PT-109, future President John F. Kennedy's future command, following his ship's destruction by Japanese destroyers on Dec. 12, 1942. In fact, two of the men lost in the destruction of PT-44 had transferred to that vessel from PT-109 only a few weeks earlier. Melhorn would later become a Navy aviator, leading the torpedo bomber attack that sunk the battleship HARUNA and earning Melhorn the Navy Cross.