Combatives training inspires Air Force

[unhappycamper]

Hand-to-hand fighting
Some airmen will have to train at Benning.


Combatives training inspires Air Force
By Michelle Tan and Erik Holmes - Staff writers
Posted : Monday Jan 28, 2008 12:36:49 EST

The Modern Army Combatives Program has spawned a similar program in a sister service.

In late January, the Air Force is rolling out a hand-to-hand fighting program based on the Army’s highly successful and popular combatives program.

The Air Force combatives program grew out of recognition by senior leaders that deployed airmen are no longer limited to flightlines located safely in the rear. More and more, airmen such as joint terminal attack controllers are going outside the wire into hostile environments with soldiers.

“The combatives program is really just a smaller piece of our overall Air Force effort to better prepare our airmen as they get ready to deploy,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Adelsen, deputy chief of Air Education and Training Command’s technical training division. “We have always produced the smartest airmen ... ready to go out and do the mission ... but now we are producing warriors. The Air Force combatives is just another facet of that warrior production.”

The Air Force sent a committee to research various existing programs, said Matt Larsen, director of Modern Army Combatives and the program’s founder.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/army_combatives_080128w/