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Marine Times
Published: 05-08-00
Category: COVER STORY
Page: 18
Kung Fu Corps / The Plan To Make Every Marine A Black Belt
By C. Mark Brinkley
Everybody was kung fu fighting, or at least they will be if a
new pilot
program proves successful. Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones
wants to add
a serious martial arts program to the Corps' current training
doctrine,
giving every grunt an opportunity to earn the equivalent of a
black belt.
Once the program is solidified in the infantry, it likely will
spread across
the Corps to men and women in every occupational specialty.
The pilot program kicked off May 1 in California, with Marines
from 3rd
Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, based at Twentynine Palms. A
handful of the
Corps' top close-combat instructors will provide the students
with four weeks
of intense training.
The success and enthusiasm of the Marines involved, as well as
any training
challenges, will be evaluated this summer, and a report on the
pilot program
will be presented to the Corps' leaders at the annual General
Officer
Symposium.
Any full-scale training program will be implemented after that.
"We want to try to give the Marine Corps something unique," said
Brig. Gen.
Tom Jones, head of the Training and Education Division in
Quantico, Va. "We
want to make something that will really enhance the combat
skills, the
physical and mental toughness."
Credit for the idea comes, in part, from the Republic of Korea,
where ROK
Marines are known for their daily martial arts training and the
discipline
that comes with it.
But rather than study one traditional martial art -- such as
karate or tae
kwon do -- U.S. Marines likely will study a conglomeration of
more than a
dozen major fighting forms, designed to make them capable of
fighting in
every clime and place.
Semper Fu?
"The problem with martial art systems is that they are
doctrinally driven,
which means that a Korean art might do heavier leg techniques,"
said Master
Gunnery Sgt. Cardo Urso, one of the Corps' martial arts experts
and a
longtime close-combat instructor.
"Doctrinally, we don't know where we are going to be fighting in
a real
fight," Urso said. "If you're in Norway, on ice, it's probably a
bad idea to
be kicking."
He should know. An artillery operations chief by trade, Urso
holds black
belts in several art forms, such as karate and judo, and
instructs several
others, such as jujitsu and sombo, the former close-combat
system of the
Russian army that evolved into a studied martial art.
He is the head close-combat instructor at The Basic School in
Quantico, Va.,
where the Corps creates its close combat instructor-trainers,
who eventually
will train instructors.
Those instructors are assigned to The Basic School, the two
recruit depots
and the two infantry schools, for example, to train new Marines
in the art of
fighting.
Urso coached the U.S. judo team in the 2nd World Military Games
last year and
helped the Corps create a close-combat training system two years
ago to
replace the old Linear In-fighting, Neural-override Engagement
course, known
as LINE.
Urso has a reputation for being as nice on the street as he is
ferocious in
the ring.
Who better to run the Corps' pilot program?
"My expectations when I came in the Marine Corps for close
combat were very
high," Urso said April 21, three days before he was to head to
California to
prepare for the program.
"I thought I was going to come in and find this unique system of
killing. I
thought I was going to get this high-speed, low-drag killing art
form."
But in 1978 at Parris Island, he got the standard pugil stick
and bayonet
training, which he never really considered effective. Skilled in
martial arts
even then, he was surprised to find that the Corps had no
hand-to-hand combat
training.
Going on the offensive
In 1993, he went through the LINE program, a series of
choreographed martial
arts moves that Marines practiced with a partner until they
memorize it. The
idea was to make it a muscle reflex, so that a hurt or scared
Marine
instinctively would respond with the practiced moves, which
always culminated
with a crushing stomp to the opponent's head.
The program was flawed, many believed, and was discarded three
years ago in
favor of a new system designed specifically for the Corps.
"LINE was completely defensive -- I had to wait for you to
attack me before I
could attack, and that's not what we're looking for," Urso said.
"We're
looking for a Marine to be able to go out and become aggressive
and go on the
offensive."
The new system went into full swing just over a year ago, the
result of three
years of hard work by more than a dozen subject matter experts.
The goal was
to create a conglomerate system that incorporates the full
spectrum of
violence, from non-lethal to lethal, to meet the three-block war
theory.
In LINE training, close combat always lead to death.
"We do NEO ops, we do humanitarian relief efforts, we do all
these things. We
go out and we are with civilians," Urso said. "You can't swing
to stomp a
civilian's head."
There are two types of close combat training, the core and
core-plus systems.
Under the core system, Marines learn to fall down, to generate
power using
their hips and shoulders and to fight effectively with a rifle
and bayonet.
"This system really concentrates on fighting with weapons," Urso
said.
"If you are in a deadly conflict, you're going to grab whatever
is available
-- whether it's a rock, or a piece of battlefield debris --
that's what
you're going to fight with, so we go weapons-heavy."
The Marines also learn counters for chokes and holds, non-lethal
restraints
and manipulations and how to fight once knocked or dragged to
the ground.
The core-plus system -- taught at boot camps and the School of
Infantry --
covers weapons of opportunity, knife-fighting, combative stick,
expandable
baton, weapons disarmament and pepper spray.
Units lucky enough to have their own instructor-trainer can get
the core-plus
training in everything except pepper spray.
But the amount of close-combat training a Marine receives after
arriving in
the fleet differs from command to command.
"Right now, that's up to the individual unit," Urso said. "I
would say that
they get a good amount."
A possible plan
The pilot program, and possibly the full-scale training program,
will be
based on a beefed up version of the same system. And like
students in a
million strip mall dojos across America, the Marines will be
graded on their
performance and tested on their abilities.
Unlike civilian martial arts students, Marines will learn
techniques from a
variety of disciplines, from ninjitsu to boxing.
The training will have six levels, with Marines who complete
training at boot
camp and the infantry school qualifying for Close Combat Level
6, indicated
by a red close-combat emblem printed on a standard green
T-shirt.
The Marines will move up the skill levels, but instead of
donning belts to
indicate skill levels, the Corps will hand out T-shirts with
different
emblems for each level.
For example, a brown emblem will be equal to a brown belt, a
black emblem
will indicate Marines who are black belts and close-combat
instructors. Only
the more advanced instructor-trainers, like Urso, will get black
shirts and
red emblems.
"What we are trying to do is get Marines fired up about
close-combat, to
where a guy will do it on his own after hours," Urso said. "If
he does that,
he could go very quickly" through the levels.
The Corps is even tossing around the idea of bringing in a
civilian company
to teach the course, rather than using Marine instructors, Brig.
Gen. Tom
Jones said. The 1st Marine Division likely will be a test bed
for several
different scenarios.
"I think there is going to be a lot of support," Urso said.
"Once you spark
their interest, they're all over this stuff."
Injuries are a concern, but so far were kept to a minimum for
the thousands
of Marines who went through the new and improved close combat
training.
"There were a lot of injuries in LINE. Traditional martial arts
don't do
that," Urso said. "If you break your students, they don't come
back. They do
get bumped and bruised."
Jones, who oversees all Marine training, said that risk comes
with the
territory.
"There's the risk of injury in all the training that we do,"
Jones said. "We
do inherently risky training daily."
Ultimately, many believe Marines will be interested in the
training.
"Marines come into the Corps to be Marines," Urso said. "I see
close-combat
being the tie for that kid who isn't the infantry guy or the
artillery or the
combat-arms guy, to bring him back to being a warrior," Urso
said. "That's
the kind of training that these guys want."
Jones agreed, but added that the training also will be designed
to further
the core values of honor, courage and commitment.
"Any program we develop, whatever 'Mr. Potatohead' looks like,
it's going to
be tied to individual discipline and comportment," Jones said.
"General [James] Jones is not concerned about having 172,000
Bruce Lees. He's
looking to develop the martial arts that will give us more of a
combat edge,
more of an elite force, that will raise the individual
discipline of the
Marine at the same time."
Jones dismissed the idea that ordinary problems, such as
fighting in town or
in the barracks, will be intensified by the close combat
training.
"I can't tell you exactly what the standards will be, but I do
know one
thing: To really get into the martial arts program and be
successful, you're
going to have to be a player in the unit. I mean a player,"
Jones said.
"You're not going to go out and get drunk and cause problems at
night time or
whatnot, and you're not going to be doing Bruce Lee on the
streets of
Oceanside."
Jones says the discipline of the training, coupled with a desire
to achieve
the highest levels, will keep Marines from getting out of line.
Plus, people
who have nothing to prove rarely start trouble.
"We've got a guy sitting here at TBS named Urso, and the guy's
got more
flippin' belts than Carter's got liver pills, and he's never
been in a fight
outside of the competitive ring," Jones said. "But I bet you if
he would,
he'd flippin' clean your clock."
Copyright 2000 Army Times Publishing Company. All Rights
Reserved.
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