Lessons Learned from the Battlefield: Close with the Enemy
Most hand-to-hand fighting is over who controls the weapons.
The Irrigation Ditch
The Rangers had been on the ground for less than a minute when small-arms fire cracked from close range. After evacuating two wounded—one with a life-threatening gunshot wound—they began clearing a large grassy field near the landing zone. Chest-high grass, irrigation ditches, broken sightlines.
Spc. Joseph Gibson, on his fourth three-month tour in Iraq, felt his boot come down on something odd.
“He was kneeled down in one of the irrigation ditches. I actually stepped on him and just because of how the terrain was I really didn’t even think anything of it. I took about two more steps before I thought, ‘I’d better see what that was.’”
He turned and saw an armed man bringing his weapon to bear. Gibson, looking back over his shoulder and pushing through the grass, didn’t have his own rifle in a shooting position.
“He was fixin’ to shoot me and there’s no way I could have shot him first, so I just got in front of his weapon,” he said—getting past the muzzle.
“And he fired it off right next to my face. I tackled him to the ground and grabbed hold of his weapon … and I started hollering for help. While I was doing that he ripped my helmet off.”
The Rangers were moving in an open formation; help would take a moment. In the cramped ditch, Gibson fought alone. He worked to the top position and controlled the enemy’s rifle. The enemy then grabbed Gibson’s rifle, which was slung around his head and lead arm on an assault sling.
“He got my weapon, so I start to hit him in the face,” Gibson said. “He wasn’t trying to aim my weapon at me, he was in no position to do something like that.”
Then another turn:
“I felt him reaching his hand down to grab a knife or something … and then he told me in English he said ‘bomb’ and I realized he had a bomb on him and he was trying to clack himself off.”
Pinned in the ditch, kit pressing into his throat:
“He used his foot to push my chest plate up into my throat and it was beginning to choke me so I let all my weight down on him and I hit him in the face as hard as I could and knocked him out for just a second.”
Gibson seized the moment, created space, and brought his rifle to bear.
“I buried my weapon into his gut and fired one off and he hollered and then that’s when I got off of him and neutralized him.”
The fight with that enemy ended there; the Rangers fought on for about another hour. Later, Gibson reflected:
“As long as I got out of his weapon’s reach, he didn’t have a chance.”
Lessons Learned — Tactical Framework
Infantry analogy. In small-unit tactics, leaders seek to make contact with the smallest element so the rest of the formation retains freedom of maneuver. Immediate actions follow—return fire, take cover, report—and then leaders decide to attack, flank, or break contact.
Combatives principle. By analogy, in close combat the guiding idea is: gain control at the farthest possible range. Your immediate action is to stop the enemy at your lines of defense—post, frame, or hook-and-head control—so he can’t deliver power or access weapons.
Then make a tactical decision:
Option #1- Regain projectile weapons. Create space/angle to bring the primary weapon back on line.
Option #2 - Go to a secondary (after securing retention). First gain enough positional control to ensure any weapon you introduce cannot be taken from you—posts/frames/head control denying the enemy’s hands and line—then draw the pistol or combat knife under resistance if the entanglement and backdrop permit.
Option #3 - Close, dominate, and finish. If the enemy is attempting to bring their weapon to bear, Crash the line, smother the muzzle, deny space/angle, control access to weapons, establish dominant position, and end the fight.
Secondary access reality. At the time, Rangers generally didn’t carry pistols and didn’t train integrating a knife as a secondary. Without reps acquiring a secondary under duress, it rarely appears in the fight. And when Soldiers rush to introduce a secondary before establishing positional control, the enemy often gains control of that weapon.
Why this is an evolution. The classic BJJ plan—close, gain dominant position, finish—evolved to beat the universal striking plan (box/kick until the opponent can’t fight back) in a tactical vacuum (challenge match). Real fights are never in a vacuum: there’s always a tactical situation (teammates, civilians, angles/backstops, radios, time). Combatives needs a flexible framework so Soldiers can shift between weapons access and control positions based on that situation.
Carry + access matter. If you expect a pistol or blade to matter in the real fight, train drawing and employing it while entangled, on the same kit you wear.
Train It So It Shows Up
Option 3 reps: Start “late,” at the lines of defense, post, frame, and hook and head control, with the opponent trying to access their weapon; crash past the muzzle into clinch and work to dominant positions.
Confined-space training: Ditches, doorways, stairwells, vehicle interiors—simulate limited space where pressure, control and weapon-line management are everything.
Secondary access under resistance: If you expect a pistol or blade to appear in the real fight, train drawing it while entangled, on the same kit you wear.
Next in this series: Tactical Combatives — a Special Forces raid where a weapon grab in a doorway proved why CQB and Combatives must be seamless, not stovepiped.
Certainly! Post is a straight arm, similar to what a running back would do to keep a defender off of him of he was running around the end of the line in football. It is useful in two ways. The first is when someone comes at you when you are moving in a building. Like when you are going after a bad guy his wife or mother usually attacks you so you stiff arm her and keep moving. Frame is blocking them with your fire arm instead of your hand. So now instead of having them at full arms length they are just at elbow length. Similar to clinch range in Must Thai. Hook and head control is either an under hook or an overlook like in wrestling. Imagine your shoulder up under their armpit. And your forehead controlling their chin. Does that explain it well enough?
Some of your terminology is unfamiliar to me. Would you please explain post, frame, hook-and-head control, crash the line, and stovepiped? I’m interested in your content, but I’m having a hard time getting past the “inside” jargon. Thanks!