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| THE MILITARY MESS: |
Teaching Soldiers to Die Instead of Killing the Enemy
A frank conversation between two active duty military officers*
*(names have been withheld and content edited for political reasons) |
--LETTER FROM OFFICER "A":
"[I
have] an observation and question... Having seen the straight to the
point methodology of Ki Chuan Do it has become apparent that we are
doing a great disservice to our soldiers in the way we prepare them for
hand to hand combat. This is especially prevalent in [a branch of the
military]'s Combatives system. This system is incredibly inefficient
when it comes to killing the enemy as most of a soldier's energy is
wasted trying to grapple and get into a mount position instead of
focusing on killing blows.
I understand that as leaders we are
supposed to lead the way and set the example; however when faced with
such an inferior hand to hand combat system I feel that we are setting
our soldiers up for failure at the crucial moment when their lives will
be on the line...
...[What would be] an effective means of
getting the word out about Ki Chuan Do and possibly incorporating
training opportunities for the soldiers in my unit as we prepare for a
deployment to come in the future. Your input is much appreciated."
--LETTER FROM OFFICER "B":
"Thanks for the kind words. As you can imagine I too have the same frustrations with what is being taught within [a branch of the military] and being billed as hand to hand Combatives. In both situations these [branches of the military]
have been duped by the sport fighting crowd and those proponents within
the services into believing that such sportive techniques are suitable
for the battle field when in fact they are nothing more than a recipe
for disaster.
I actually know one of the developers of the [a branch of the military]
Martial Arts Program who happens to hold a Black Belt in Ju Jitsu and
he told me was adamant against teaching the throwing techniques and
ground fighting stuff since it requires tremendous physical ability
which he happens to have, in order to make it work.
He felt
that because some of our missions require us to roll people up and
detain them that the basic arm control techniques were essential from a
non-lethal perspective but, and I want to make this clear, he believed
such skills should be taught "only after we taught [soldiers in a branch of the military] how to kill the enemy." Well to make a long story short he was a Master Sergeant and got out ranked and so that was that.
I
understand that a part of this may be something that is used as an
excellent recruitment tool and I'm all about that but if we are going
to teach something, then why not teach something that is for real? I
mean if you were going to teach someone how to fish you wouldn't give
them a big rock, a stick and some string you would actually teach them
the right way with the right tools from very the start. Makes sense to
me...
Other excuses that I've heard as to why we don't teach
folks to kill within the system (generally from senior officers and
Sergeants Majors) is the old refrain that if they taught such
techniques that there is a fear that [soldiers in a branch of the military] would be apt to use them out on liberty against civilians, I've even heard some [a branch of the military]
officers spew this nonsense as well (as an aside, notice that it is
generally Officers that say these kinds of dumb things and not our
enlisted men, hmmm... I guess you have a different opinion on this sort
of thing when you're the closest dog to the sled).
I call BS
on this because we teach ...soldiers to fire rifles and pistols all the
time and there is nothing to stop them from going out to your local
pawn shop, buying a gun and snipping at people from the bell tower. As
easy as that would be you just don't see it happening. So as far as I'm
concerned that line of thinking just doesn't pass the straigh face
test.
From a psychological stand point many people are dancing around the issue. I believe the reason for this is three fold:
1)
because they have never seen real down and dirty street fights they
really don't know what people are capable of, the speed, the ferocity
it's just on a different level and it is something that they are
oblivious to,
2) their impression of real fighting (like most
people in our culture) has been shaped by sports fighting, movies and
TV so they have no frame of reference from which to work based in
truth,
3) finally, there is fear of stepping into the dark
world of real up close and personal life and death combat. Many people
pontificate on it and write all sorts of books about it but very few
actually call a spade a spade on this stuff because to acknowledge it
is to acknowledge the fact that some of our preconceptions about life
and death combat are just plain wrong and must be changed (i.e.,
stepping out of their personal comfort zones and accepting what is real
even if its ugly). There are other reasons I could point to but you get
the point.
Think about it: they are expecting Soldiers... who
are wearing on average 71-lbs of gear to go to the ground and grapple
with people who are probably trying to kill them and then to do what?
To control them? This is insane yet it is what passes in this day and
age for military Combatives.
The other argument I hear is that
"...well if such techniques are not suitable for combat then why are
they taught to Law Enforcement?" Probably because most laws and
policies state that Cops just can't shoot these fools out right and the
bad guys know-- it which is why some of then try to resist. If the Cops
had the latitude to shoot these folks for even the slightest
provocation it would be an entirely different story.
Just look
at your average episode of "COPS": these folks use these grappling and
locks and holds techniques or at least attempt to all of the time and
at the end of the day what do they end up doing with an uncooperative
assailant-- dog piling them on the ground with about three or four
Cops. Why? Because people are not easy to control when they don't want
to be controlled; also because the cops are not allowed to just crush
these people outright with their weapons or their hands, they have to
resort to this sort of thing.
How compliant do you think someone
would be if at first provocation they were struck across the wind pipe
or poked in the eye? I can assure you contrary to those who practice
"mystical super double secret Kung Fu" there really is no good counter
measure to a crushed wind pipe. Sorry...
Why is it that we can see that yet some folks in the military can't?
Isn't
it ironic how these two systems which tout themselves as military
Combatives (with the exception of some of the knife and bayonet
fighting training) does not have one hand to hand killing move?
Isn't
it strange that in either system while there are a lot of submission
holds and choke out techniques there is not one technique that teaches
you how to snap someone's neck?
"Yet
the alleged Al Qaeda training manual recovered in Manchester, England
several years ago and used in several terrorist trials teaches exactly
the kinds of killing techniques that we used to teach. Apparently the enemy gets it and we don't."
In
Guided Chaos (formerly known as Ki Chuan Do) while not always shown on
our DVD's and other publications such techniques "are taught"
especially to those who are tasked to go into harms way (i.e.,
military, security / PSD and Law Enforcement types).
For those
in Law Enforcement or PSD work it becomes a means of last resort if
they have to use such techniques to save their lives or others, for
military personnel it is what is taught from the very beginning
starting with strikes and progressing to snapping necks etc...
The
truth is the current status of hand to hand combat in the services is
at a woeful state and is totally inadequate for the reality of what we
are faced with today. We're just fortunate that as Americans and
Europeans in most cases we are physically stronger than the average
person from these third world countries that we encounter so in some
respects it does allow us to apply some of this nonsense with some
measure of success. Also remember that the enemy knows our rules of
engagement as well as we do and intuitively knows that if caught, if
they surrender, we will not harm them.
Heck in most cases the
terrorist actually live better as detainees than before we captured
them, (i.e., three square meals a day, a warm rack to sleep in, a
prayer rug, clean shower facilities etc...).
But I digress...
The
important thing is that one must first recognize what is real versus
what is not. I personally have nothing against sport fighting or
ultimate fighting but people in the military need to realize that in
the real world when such techniques run up against the brutal reality
of life and death combat they almost always fail even for the most
gifted among us.
Remember that everything has it's own dynamic
and fighting is no different and real fighting and sport fighting are
not the same thing and anyone who can't see the difference does not
know what they are talking about, period!
Hey [Officer A] I know I've rambled on but like yourself I needed to get it off my chest...
Take care." |
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