Military Community, Navy Community, military installations, discussions, blogs, photos, - Navy Times

Editorial: Teach fighting wisely

Half a century ago, airmen were among the most skilled martial-arts practitioners in the military.

Airmen with the Strategic Air Command dominated the national judo scene in the late ’50s and early ’60s, sending strong teams to national championships and winning the national AAU tournament twice. Selected to represent the U.S. at the 1958 world championships in Tokyo, they finished fifth.

But times change.

Today, the service is known more for its technical abilities and smarts than for its fighting ability.

Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley has directly addressed this with his “warrior ethos” mantra: All airmen are warriors.

Warriors should have the confidence built on the knowledge they can take care of themselves in any situation, including close-quarters fighting. Sending airmen who can’t do that into harm’s way is irresponsible.

An increasing number of airmen and their commanders apparently agree. For that reason, training in hand-to-hand combat is taking hold across the Air Force.

The system gaining ground most rapidly is Linear Infighting Neural-override Engagement, or LINE, a system developed 30 years ago — and still taught today — by former Marine Ron Donvito.

Many airmen who have now taken LINE courses rave about the training, especially the confidence and fighting spirit it instills, and the pride it creates.

But the Marine Corps ditched LINE training in 1998, and Army Special Forces abandoned it this year, saying it’s ineffectual in real-world conditions and too violent. Each training encounter ends in a move designed to kill the opponent, and that’s not always the desired outcome in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before the Air Force adopts close-combat training in a large-scale way, it should examine systems the Marine Corps and Army have adopted, and which some airmen — pararescuemen, for example — are already learning.

The type of hand-to-hand combat training airmen receive is too important a decision to be left to individual commanders at the wing or base level. A more considered, uniform approach is needed. That time has arrived.