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Soldiers use lines to hone combat skills

Oct-15-2004 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

From strykerdad172nd.

[Link to Article]
Cpl. Douglas DeMaio

FORT WAINWRIGHT – For the past four weeks, more than 30 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team Soldiers spent their physical training sessions at Melaven Gym honing their skills in close quarters combat.

This week, those Soldiers are earning certification as basic instructors in Linear Infighting Neural-override Engagement system, a variation of hand-to-hand combat used by the U.S. Army Special Forces.

“LINEs is something else to add to your combatives knowledge base,” said Staff Sgt. Cody Stowe, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, a student in the LINEs course who is Skill Level 3 certified in the Modern Army Combatives Program.

According to the U.S. Army Combatives School Web site, the Modern Army Combatives Program has five skill sets: Basic Combatives and skill levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker is pushing to mandate all Soldiers be at least Skill Level 1 combatives qualified.

Although LINEs is not part of the official program, it does teach students to defend against chokes, headlocks, punches, body blows and weapons. LINES is a systematic program that incorporates various forms of martial arts, said instructor Ron Donvito, LINEs founder.

“LINEs is a quantifiable program that allows commanders to test the proficiency of all their Soldiers,” Donvito said, who the U.S. Martial Arts Association rates as a 10th degree black belt.

From jujitsu to kickboxing, the students learn the basic fighting concepts and tactics to disable or even kill their enemy. The course also teaches cuffing and knife fighting techniques, measures that could prove to be useful when dealing with combatants during military operations.

“When encountering an enemy in close quarters combat, it’s important to be able to defend yourself,” Stowe said. “You never know what situation you may wind up in.”

If a Soldier has a weapons malfunction and doesn’t have enough time to apply an immediate functions check, training like this will give the Soldier an advantage to overcome the enemy in close-quarters combat, Stowe said.

According to a memorandum put out by 172nd SBCT, all 172nd leaders will ensure that their Soldiers are trained in either LINEs techniques or will be Skill Level 1 qualified.

Stowe said his main focus is to get his Soldiers Skill Level 1 and 2 certified, but said LINEs is a good foundation for teaching his Soldiers to learn basic combatives.

This course helps provide leaders with basic fighting tactics, techniques, philosophies and methodologies to better teach their Soldiers to earn their Skill Level 1 certification.

Skill Level 2 teaches Soldiers how to teach Level 1 students.

Skill Level 3 Soldiers teach the Level 2 course and serve as master trainers.

Skill Level 4 provides Unit of Action and higher level master training.


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