RSSB Soldiers Train to Fight During Combatives Course

Photo By Sgt. Elizabeth Clark | Spc. Alexandria Gonzales, an intelligence analyst, wraps her arms around Capt. Victoria Cashio, the behavioral health officer for Special Troops Battalion, both with the 3rd Infantry Division Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade, during clench drills in a combatives level one certification class on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May. 27. Gonzales, a student in the course, was training to restrain an opponent during these drills. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Elizabeth White/Released)  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

05.27.2018

Story by Sgt. Elizabeth Clark 

3rd Division Sustainment Brigade

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Division Resolute Support Sustainment Brigade participated in a four-day combatives level one certification course on May 27.

Ten Soldiers from various military occupational specialities and ranks attended the class. For about eight hours every day, they learned and practiced all of the level one drills to earn their certifications.

“The course consists of four days of strenuous activity, such as jiu jitsu, a lot of pummeling, wrestling and how to finish a fight during a hostile environment,” said Sgt. Corey Sones, a network operations noncommissioned officer with the 3rd Inf. Div. RSSB. “Combatives, when it was first created, took a lot of the different fighting styles, such as muay thai, jiu jitsu and judo, combined them and took the best of everything, making it what we know now as the Modern Army Combatives Program.”

Sones, certified level two in combatives, instructed the group of students with the help of other level one certified Soldiers.

“This class in particular is four days, usually it is a bit longer but, due to Soldiers being needed elsewhere in this deployed environment, we’ve been able to shorten it down,” said Pfc. Juventino Bella, a geospatial engineer with the 3rd Inf. Div. RSSB, and one of the assistant instructors during the course. “It’s been tough, mind boggling and very hard on the body physically and mentally. This is something you have to be prepared for going into.”

The combatives program prepares Soldiers for hand-to-hand combat with an enemy. Once they are certified in level one, these Soldiers can then teach other service members in their unit the level one drills.

“It’s important to learn, not only to instill discipline, but at the same time, regardless of your MOS, you’ll never know when you may need to use it or when you need to train up another unit,” said Spc. Dominique Goldsborough, an intelligence analyst with the 3rd Inf. Div. RSSB, and one of the students in the course.

“Combatives is to instill the knowledge base for Soldiers so if they go out to an area and they have to do hand-to-hand combat they know how to survive, protect themselves, finish the fight and dominate the enemy,” Sones said.

The unit will be heading home in the near future and Sones hopes to continue teaching combatives to Soldiers back in Georgia.

“This is the first class that I’ve been able to get for the RSSB, I hope to do more,” said Sones. “When we get back home I do hope to be able to train more Soldiers so we can get level one certified Soldiers across the entire brigade.”

• Date Taken: 05.27.2018
• Date Posted: 06.05.2018 08:53
• Story ID: 279580
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF
• Hometown: FORT STEWART, GA, US