Ex-Soviet Teaching Marines Hand-to-Hand Combat ...

QUANTICO, Va. (AP) - In a world of smart bombs and high-tech fighter planes, the Marines are putting a new emphasis on hand-to-hand combat training.

And one of the men the Corps has enlisted to help teach the tactics and conditioning required for close-in warfare is an ex-Soviet drill instructor who prepared Soviet special forces for the ``mud war'' they fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Pavel Tsatsouline, who has since become a U.S. citizen and a fitness guru and author, has spent the past week training Marine instructors in the techniques he taught Soviet soldiers.

Tsatsouline's techniques have not yet been officially adopted by the Marines, but they won high praise from Lt. Col. George Bristol, who leads the Marines' new martial arts program.

Bristol said the war in Afghanistan, with pockets of terrorists in mountains and caves, shows the need for well-honed skills in hand-to-hand combat.

``No matter how high-tech it gets, it's going to be a mud war,'' Bristol said. ``And there's going to come a time when they're going to say, `Send in the Marines.' And we're going to go.''

The emphasis on hand-to-hand combat is a not a response to the current situation, Bristol said. Rather, the Marine Corps commandant decided more than a year ago that all Marines need to be better prepared to deal with the one-on-one combat situations that circumstances could thrust upon them.

As a result, all Marine officers, whether they will become desk jockeys or commandos, must obtain at least the equivalent of a tan belt in martial arts, with the opportunity for more extensive instruction.

The martial arts taught by the Marines are adapted for military situations, Bristol said.

``I don't care if Bruce Lee were here, he wouldn't be ready for martial arts as a Marine. Basically, we're training Marines to kill,'' Bristol said.

In Tsatsouline's drills, the emphasis is on seemingly small details that maximize strength and power. For instance, he showed the Marines a corkscrew motion on bayonet thrusts that helps lock the weapon into its victim. Breathing techniques are taught to increase the power of punches and kicks.

The Marines who trained with Tsatsouline said they have little doubt that the techniques will be put to use.

``People have lost sight of war. They've got this concept that we're not going to need ground troops or hand-to-hand combat,'' said 2nd Lt. Nathan Cahoon. ``I think people are realizing in the current situation that it's not the case.''

Are you saying that the scenario has seriously changed in the last decade?

Not that it's readily apparent to the casual observer. In an earlier post I mentioned visiting PI in May of this year ... one senior DI, with 18 years in the Corps, upon learning that none of us were former Marine officers ... confided that he and other DI's were frustrated with having to deal with officers whose only goal, it seemed, was to catch a DI breaking some rule of protocol designed to protect recruits. The protocol manual is a whole lot thicker today than it was prior to the Clinton era.

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