What Happened to the Marines?

Rivalries aside, most people agree the Marine
Corp trains some of Uncle Sam's toughest
warriors.

Sadly, the Marines, like so many military
organizations, have fallen prey to political
correctness in modern times.

In 2001, the Marines switched from their battle
proven close combat methods in favor of a system
that is designed to "subdue" rather then kill an
attacker. Funny, I never thought the Marines had
a problem with killing people before...And the
scumbag terrorists sure don't seem to have a
problem killing us.

Since the Marines were first founded in 1775 at
Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, PA, Close Quarter
Combat (CQC) training was heavily emphasized in
their training.

Although many people know about their skilled
sharpshooters who fired from the rigging of
ships, it is important to remember that the
Marines also pioneered close combat techniques as
they boarded enemy ships using rifles and swords.

For over a century Marines fought in every major
conflict battling pirates, guerillas, and other
enemies of the United States. The Marines were
tough fighters, but when the United States
entered World War I, some new training would make
them lethal.

The First World War brought a number of changes
to the Marines. The Corp grew rapidly in size
and the Germans would give the Marines the
nickname "Devil Dogs." To meet the challenges of
trench warfare, the Marines also improved their
close combat training.

The man largely responsible for the new training
was Anthony J. Drexel Biddle who joined the
Marines as a captain at age 41. Though he was new
to the military, the wealthy socialite was an
experienced boxer and began to share what he knew
with the Marines. He taught bayonet and close
combat techniques based upon fencing, boxing and
wrestling.

During the inter-war years, other men joined
Biddle to improve the training. Captains W.M.
Greene and Samuel B. Griffith who had been
stationed in Shanghai trained with British police
officer William Fairbairn.

Fairbairn had been in over six-hundred street
fights and authored several books on close
combat. He eagerly shared what he knew with the
American Marines. They also learned shooting
techniques from Fairbairn's best friend and
firearms expert Eric Sykes.

The Marines learned well, and soon Fairbairn's
techniques became part of the Marines' CQC
training.

The Marines' close combat system would be further
influenced by others during World War II, as the
Marines fought in a brutal island hopping
campaign in the Pacific.

Marine John Styers who was a student of Biddle's
took what he learned and wrote Cold Steel.
Originally, a series of articles in Leatherneck
magazine Styers showed Marines how to fight with
a knife and a rifle with a bayonet. He showed
that unarmed combat training could help Marines
perform even better with their weapons.

The Marines also learned from another student of
Fairbairn, Army Colonel Rex Applegate. Though a
crack shot, Applegate made it clear that
hand-to-hand combat training was necessary part
of CQC.

While the Marine Corp close combat system went
through a number of other changes and names, each
reincarnation of the system held on tightly to
the lessons and methods of Biddle, Sykes,
Fairbairn, & Applegate as the concept of
battlefield survival was always kept in mind.

In the 1980's the system began to fall. With the
rise in popularity of various martial arts, many
Marines began abandoning the authentic,
documented, and proven "simplistic" methods of
combat in exchange for the mysteries of modern
martial arts and psuedo science (aka completely
unproven crap).

In 1996, the Marines began evaluating their close
combat training and determined that a new system
would be developed to deal with Missions Other
Than War (MOTW).

Previously all training (even the junk in the
80's) was designed with the concept of "kill or
be killed". The new system is more concerned with
peacekeeping operations and non-lethal
force...EXTREMELY stupid for men trained to be our
frontline.

The new Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP)
is like a piss poor combined version of Tae Kwon
Do and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

Not only is it nothing like the battle tested
techniques the Marines have used successfully for
over 200 years, but by mish-moshing together two
martial sports (neither of which have battlefield
proven documentation) someone is going to get
killed.

Listen, in Iraq and Afghanistan its all about
close combat and engaging the enemy in tight
quarters. The Marines need a solid CQC system not
a politically correct way to play patty-cake with
the enemy.