{"id":105,"date":"2016-06-04T21:27:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T21:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=105"},"modified":"2017-07-19T14:54:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T14:54:26","slug":"105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2016\/06\/04\/105\/","title":{"rendered":"MD soldiers tackle Tactical Combatives Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Spc. Brianna Kearney, 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment\u2014<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/strong>
\nREISTERSTOWN, Md. (May 25, 2016) \u2014 After every fall to the mats, the students stood up, caught their breath and shook themselves off for the next round. Five soldiers practiced combat techniques and maneuvers in the Tactical Combatives Course on May 16-25 at Camp Fretterd Military Reservation in Reisterstown.<\/p>\n

The rigorous 10-day course teaches fighting techniques that include chokeholds, blocks, strikes, takedowns, escapes and alternate uses for a rifle.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first half of the TCC focuses on learning new techniques every day. The second half consists of practicing those techniques at a real-time speed and working them into scenarios soldiers might come across. In order to pass the course, students must demonstrate seven out of 10 techniques correctly and pass a written exam.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, it\u2019s like drinking from a fire hose,\u201d said 1st Lt. Jonathan Woodworth, a student in the course and a medical-surgical nurse with the 104th Area Support Medical Company, Maryland Army National Guard. \u201cThere are a lot of different techniques and maneuvers getting thrown at you, but as you move forward in the course, you realize it\u2019s all compounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TCC is the Army\u2019s Level II Combatives qualification. The training is meant to teach movements and techniques that soldiers may have to use in violent or unsafe situations when they cannot use or fire a weapon.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every soldier should at least know the basics [in case] we happen to need to defend ourselves against someone trying to attack us,\u201d said 1st Sgt. Guillermo Aviles, the TCC instructor and an infantryman from C Co., 1st Battalion, 296th Infantry Regiment, Puerto Rico Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

He said that soldiers may think they\u2019re invincible because they\u2019re issued a pistol or a rifle, but that\u2019s not the case. Learning combatives helps soldiers feel more comfortable with themselves and confident in their abilities even without a weapon.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

Becoming certified in Modern Army Combatives allows soldiers to bring that experience to their units. Graduates from courses such as the TCC can teach soldiers from their units the basics about close-quarter combat to prepare them for possible future conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding the different variations and techniques that we can use for hand-to-hand combat has made me think of the way we fight when we have to enter into a situation where we\u2019re in close quarters with the enemy,\u201d said Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Edwards, a student in the course and a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 29th Combat Aviation Brigade, MDARNG. \u201cI feel more comfortable understanding what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Spc. Brianna Kearney, 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment\u2014 REISTERSTOWN, Md. (May 25, 2016) \u2014 After every fall to the mats, the students stood up, caught their breath and shook themselves off for the next round. Five soldiers practiced combat techniques and maneuvers in the Tactical Combatives Course on May 16-25 at Camp Fretterd Military  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":94,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[211,350,86,349,90,351,348],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-104th-area-support-medical-company","tag-296th-infantry-regiment","tag-29th-combat-aviation-brigade","tag-armys-level-ii-combatives","tag-camp-fretterd-military-reservation","tag-puerto-rico-army-national-guard","tag-tactical-combatives-course"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}