Rick Rozoff
Sat, 13 Apr 2002 11:06:28 -0700
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
Stars And Stripes Saturday, April 13, 2002 GIs in Kosovo get lessons in hand-to-hand fighting By Marni McEntee, Kosovo Bureau "We use it everyday downtown." CAMP MONTEITH, KOSOVO — High speed, low drag equipment may be the wave of the future for soldiers around the world, but all that high-tech gear won't do much good if the enemy is grabbing your neck. So soldiers in Kosovo are learning ways to fight through strong-arm tactics and other hand-to-hand moves. "Tell me when it stops hurting," one soldier said after the group took a short water break and compared bruises and sprained fingers. The pain is part of the lesson, said Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Muir, a former Special Forces soldier who watched his 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment troops take each other down. "The first thing you've got to learn is you're gonna get hurt," Muir said. The sparring is part of a two-week training course in "combatives," hand-to-hand fighting techniques that Special Forces and Army Rangers have used for years. In this case, 1st Sgt. Guy Williams is teaching his troops a Russian method called Sambo, a powerful, effective system that's easy for soldiers to learn and simple to remember. "It has a wide range of uses in a peacekeeping mission," Williams said. Strict rules of engagement prohibit troops from using their weapons in all but the most life-threatening circumstances as they patrol streets and villages in Kosovo. "I had no idea it was going to be this physically demanding," said Spc. Rafael Samuel of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment. But a soldier can use a simple "come-along," move, like bending a bad guy's arm painfully behind his back, or manipulating a wrist joint, to quickly subdue a drunken curfew violator or a suspect resisting arrest, Williams said. "We use it every day downtown," he said. Muir said the Army gradually has been trying to beef up its training in such methods. Many soldiers use martial arts on the side to keep their hand-to-hand skills in tune. The rough-and-tumble tricks learned in courses such as Williams' are more useful, Muir said. "It's not meant to be an art. It's not pretty," Muir said. "Martial arts doesn't teach you combat. Combatives is for life and death." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================