Combatives revision
There's a pirate copy of the FEB 2009 edition floating around. They did re-emphasis striking and re-wrote the impact weapons section. They included a couple of weapon retention techniques.
The emphasis on groundfighting is interesting. Ground fighting requires a lot more time to train to a basic competence than the combatives that served Grandad in WWII, but are much more conducive to competition and regular training. But it seems fairly bizarre that 'boxing 101' is under 'advanced' techniques.
The baton section is brief, but better than nothing. The 1992 FM 21-150 took 'cold weapons' (to plaguarize the Russian expression) much more seriously. Given the number of soldiers (and sometimes entire units) carrying tomahawks, it would be easy to justify a section on this handy little implement of destruction. Personally, I think sabers (and by extension, machetes) should be in there, but I'm sure this is just my elitism coming to the surface.
Things that are still missing:
-Sentry removal; this makes no sense at all. Not for "sentries" per se, but as an adjunct to escape and evasion.
-Firearm disarming; again, more about E&E than a stand up fight, but should be there.
The eternal struggle is between effectiveness and minimum training time. If you follow the doctrine from 1942 to present, you can watch this go back and forth, as influenced by popular culture and preferences of the authors (Judo in 1942, Taekwando in the 1971, Indonesian/Pacific Islander influences in 1992, UFC influences in the 2002 & 2009). The impact of sports and competition is nothing new though, look at the Patton saber and the 1914 Saber manual (by Patton).
Merge the best of the 1963 FM 21-150 and the 1992 FM 21-150, then throw in the 1869 US Navy cutlass manual (by Corbesier, hence the destroyers by that name), and you'd have my recommendation for a program.
Originally Posted by Rifleman
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