ARTICLE

November 2003

Marines Sharpen Their Skills In Hand-to-Hand Combat

by Harold Kennedy

Moving in formation at a double-time pace, the Marines of the Basic School’s Echo Company—sweating in the early morning sun—formed a circle on helicopter Landing Zone 6, a training field at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. They stacked their M16 rifles and turned their attention to the instructors in the center of the field.

The Basic School is where recently minted second lieutenants learn the finer points of being Marine officers, and the men and women of Echo Company were here to begin their training as part of the new Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, known as MCMAP.

MCMAP is an effort to put a sharper edge on the Marines’ ability to fight hand-to-hand. The program is a new form of martial arts, a blend of many Asian systems, including kung fu, tae kwon do, karate, Thai boxing, jujitsu and judo, plus bayonet and knife-fighting techniques.

As part of MCMAP, the Marines are acquiring a new bayonet that is more useful for knife fighting than the current version.

According to Gen. James L. Jones, the former Marine commandant who established the program in 2000, MCMAP is “a natural extension” of the Corps credo, “Every Marine a rifleman.” Like marksmanship training, he said, “this program provides our Marines with additional tools that they can use on the battlefield.”

Everybody Trains
All 173,000 active-duty Marines and 58,000 reservists—everybody from the commandant down to the newest recruit, male and female alike—are required to receive the MCMAP training. Like many Asian disciplines, the MCMAP training enables Marines to earn the right to wear a progression of different-colored belts, including tan, gray, green, brown and six degrees of black.

By October 1, all Marines were supposed to complete at least the lowest level of instruction, qualifying them to wear a tan belt, said Maj. John M. Bourgault, deputy director of the Martial Arts Center of Excellence, a division of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico. MACE, which conducts martial arts classes at the Basic School, also coordinates the spread of the program throughout the service.

“We’re almost there,” he told National Defense. “There are a few cats and dogs in remote locations who don’t have access to instructors. But not many.”

The training now is part of the curriculum at the Marine boot camps at Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego, as well as the Basic School. Classes also are being conducted at Marine garrisons across the United States and around the world.

In addition, instructors are being dispatched to isolated units in places like Camp Babylon, Iraq, and the Marine security detachment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Classes are being conducted even aboard ships such as the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group, which this summer participated in U.S. peacekeeping efforts in Liberia.

Classes for the tan belt involve 27.5 hours of training, usually spread over two weeks. In this introductory course, Marines learn fundamental physical, mental and character disciplines.

In the physical arena, they study hand-to-hand techniques, including punches, kicks, throws, use of the rifle-mounted bayonet and knife fighting. They learn how to fight under battlefield conditions, such as moving on rough ground, approaching, closing with and engaging an opponent and fighting while fatigued.

Extensive use is made of obstacle, confidence and stamina courses, Bourgault said. Rough-terrain movement and combat swimming often precede fighting drills. Supplemental combat conditioning involves rope climbing, bodyweight squats, wind sprints and buddy carries.

Many of the exercises are organized around teams, Bourgault said. “That way, they all have to pitch in together. If one guy fails, he lets down his squad. He lets down his buddies.”

Mental studies focus on the development of the combat mindset, said Master Gunnery Sgt. Ricardo Sanders, the senior staff noncommissioned officer at MACE. “Our program teaches more than the ability to kill people,” said Sanders, who is just back from Afghanistan. “It teaches the mental characteristics necessary to succeed in combat. We want people out there who can think, who can make sound decisions under combat conditions, not just killing machines.”

To help prepare student mindsets, they discuss warrior cultures of the past. Recommended reading is Steven Pressfield’s novel, “Gates of Fire,” the story of the Spartans, who in 480 BC fought to the death at Thermopylae to block a Persian invasion of Greece.

Students also study the Zulus, who stood off the British Army in South Africa, and the Apaches, who fought the U.S. cavalry for decades. Another focus is on the Marine Raiders, who conducted commando-style hit-and-run missions behind Japanese lines during World War II.

The program emphasizes the importance of strong personal character. The cornerstones of character are the Marine Corps’ core values—honor, courage and commitment—Bourgault said. Classes discuss conflict resolution, seeking and accepting responsibility, and team-based approaches to all aspects of Marine Corps life.

The training discusses Marines who—throughout the service’s 228-year history—won the Congressional Medal of Honor. “We make the point that these are average guys,” said Bourgault. “Yet, they did extraordinary things. You can see the goose bumps pop up.”

Typically, the core values are discussed immediately after physical training. “We’ve found that the message sticks better after the students have been exercising and their senses are still heightened,” he said.

After receiving their tan belts, Marines are required to continue training, earning higher levels of belts. By this time next year, all current personnel will be expected to qualify for their gray belts, which requires 46 additional hours of training. Eventually, all infantrymen will complete a 65-hour program to wear the brown belt. Other Marines in combat-arms job specialties will train to the green belt, with its own 55-hour regimen.

Sergeants and above, who can complete 71.5 hours of training, can qualify for a first-degree black belt. Promotion to the second through the sixth black-belt levels is based upon maturity, involvement in unit training, advanced skills, martial arts studies and participation in civilian martial arts programs.

Asian Arts
In developing MCMAP, the Marines “borrowed from established systems that were already out there,” Bourgault said. Some of these systems, such as Chinese kung fu, are thousands of years old, he said. MCMAP borrows from systems developed in many Asian countries, including Japan, Korea and Thailand, he said.

Most were designed as ways for unarmed civilians to defend themselves against armed adversaries. In contrast, MCMAP “is a weapons-based martial art,” Bourgault said. “Usually, we prefer that our Marines use weapons in combat. Our motto is ‘one mind, any weapon.’

“If you can shoot your enemy, then shoot him. If you can’t do that, stick him with your bayonet, butt stroke him with your rifle butt, ram him with your rifle barrel,” Bourgault said. “If you can’t use your rifle, use your knife.

“If you can’t do that, find something—a weapon of opportunity. As I look around my office, I see a stapler, a coffee mug, a pencil holder, a phone cord. If I had to, I could use any of those to kill you.”

Marines also learn to kill with their bare hands, if necessary, said Bourgault. Pressure applied to certain points along an opponent’s neck, for example, can cut off an opponent’s air supply. A swift, violent twisting of an enemy’s neck can break the spinal cord.

Even if you have a loaded rifle, you may not be in a position at times to use it against an enemy, noted Sanders. “If an enemy charges you from an unexpected direction, you may not have time to swing your weapon around,” he said. “Also, you may have to kill an enemy with minimal noise. Or you may need to subdue an opponent with non-lethal force.”

Unlike some traditional martial arts, MCMAP does not involve intricate, dance-like movements or attention-getting techniques—such as breaking tiles with your bare hands—Bourgault said. “Everything we teach is directly related to combat,” he said. “Nothing is for show.”

Because the training is designed to prepare Marines for combat, sometimes injuries occur. During one session, for example, a second lieutenant was accidentally hit on the side of his head, sending a trickle of blood down his cheek. Slightly dazed, he was taken aside for first aid.

To minimize injuries, training is monitored closely. In bayonet training, Marines fight each other with wooden rifles with blunt ends. Thrusting drills are conducted at slow and medium speeds, one, two and three assault steps from the target. Performances are critiqued thoroughly by instructors.

Throughout the training, if a student has received a disabling blow, he or she is taught to hold out both hands to the opponent, back away and say, “Stop.” A Marine who has reached the limits of his or her tolerance may also “tap out” by tapping on the opponent, on the mat or ground or saying, “Stop.”

All Marines are required to complete the training, Bourgault explained. “The requirements are exactly the same for women,” he said. “There are two dozen women in Echo Company, and they do as well as the men.”

MCMAP is the most recent form of close-combat training for the Marines, but they have engaged in hand-to-hand fighting since their earliest days. During the Revolutionary War—armed with cutlasses, muskets and pistols—they swarmed from ships of the Continental Navy to capture enemy ships at sea. In those days, training was informal at best.

In the early part of the 20th century, the Corps began a more organized approach toward combat training, teaching marksmanship, bayonet skills, boxing and wrestling. The service encouraged competition between athletic teams of shooters, boxers and wrestlers.

In the 1930s and later, during World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Marines stationed in the Far East increasingly encountered Asian martial arts and included some of those elements in their training.

In the 1980s, the Corps adopted the Linear Infighting Neural-override Engagement, or LINE, system of combat. LINE was a standardized system of close-quarter fighting designed to be taught to company and battalion-size units.

Like many of its predecessors, however, LINE was a system of unarmed self-defense. Not all Marines were required to receive it.

MCMAP—weapons-based and aimed at all Marines—is designed to change all of that, Bourgault said.

To conduct the training, two levels of instructor cadres have been created. The first—martial arts instructor, Military Occupational Specialty 8551—must be a corporal or above who successfully completes a MCMAP course. A MAI can train Marines to one level below the belt that he or she holds. In other words, a MAI who wears a green belt can train Marines to the tan and gray belt levels.

The second level—martial arts instructor trainer, MOS 8552-must be a sergeant or above to attend the MAIT course at Quantico. A MAIT can train Marines as MAIs and qualify ordinary Marines to hold a belt at one level below the one that he or she holds.

Much of the schooling is low-tech, done on exercise fields such as LZ 6, as military training has been conducted for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Now under construction at Quantico is a $1.3 million MACE facility, with space for classrooms, offices, weight room, matted area, showers and laundry, scheduled for completion next summer.

The Marines in 2002 awarded a $3 million contract to Allied Industries, of Jamestown, N.Y. The contract called for Allied to put together 264 platoon-sized martial arts training kits for the Marines, according to Allied’s business operations director, Gregg Bender.

Each kit, assembled on three large pallets, included “all kinds of training tools,” such as helmets, pugil sticks, leg and arm guards and groin protectors, Bender said.

To further encourage enthusiasm for martial arts among Marines, the Corps is developing a MCMAP combat sports program similar to its boxing, wrestling and marksmanship teams. In this program, combat sports teams would compete in striking, grappling and wooden bayonet fighting.

Bourgault said the program is proving to be popular among Marines. “These guys joined the Corps because they wanted to be tough,” he said. “They wanted to be really elite. This program gives them a chance to do that.”

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