The three disciplines of the program are mental strength, character and physical skill. Joined together, these create a properly trained, disciplined, ethical and highly motivated Marine. Such warriors are an integral part of the historical time line of the warrior-citizens who both protect and set an example for their society.

War has always been a hard, harsh and terribly brutal job, whether in the narrow crowded pass at Thermopylae, or in the soaked, freezing cold and shell-churned trenches of the Western Front during World War I. To paraphrase George Orwell, good people sleep safe in their beds at night, only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. This remains a cold reality even today.

MCMAP not only builds better warriors and warfighters but also works to develop the most moral Marines possible, Marines who can differentiate between right and wrong. Recognizing the right road to take, they will then follow it with all the force and strength of their continually developing character and leadership. Combined with their advanced military skills, all objectives should seem achievable to them.

In today's world of blurred lines between friends and foes, civilians and insurgents, the clear-cut picture of a precise dividing line -- beyond which is a free fire zone -- no longer exists. Leathernecks are now faced with a frequently hazy and smoke-filled battlefield with moral and mental landmines just a few missteps away. MCMAP teaches not only the skills to win but also the mind-set to find the right way to win.

Today's Marine must be a warfighter, a diplomat, a winner of hearts and minds, and a protector of the weak, the innocent, and the fellow humans caught in the confusing and terrifying maelstrom of modern war. Getting down to the grit of the program, each Marine learns how to fight better, when that fighting is appropriate and what degree of force is appropriate (the continuum of force). Every martial-arts technique includes an ethical tie-in. These range from conduct on liberty and cultural courtesy in foreign countries, to the avoidance of sexual harassment of fellow Marines and civilians.

MCMAP is not a sports-based martial-arts program; it is a warfighting system based on the use of the rifle and bayonet, followed by the bayonet/knife as a combat knife and then followed by weapons of opportunity (e.g., helmets, shovels, tree limbs, bricks). The training is rounded out by the harsh school of unarmed combat (hand-to-hand) in its most literal and personal sense. This practical training is supported by the study of other warrior cultures, including the Marine Raiders of WW II, the Spartans, the Zulus and the Apaches, among others. The goal is to produce ethical warriors who are winners and better Marines.

MCMAP's first belt level, the tan belt, creates the individual Marine's foundation, providing all the basic information needed to enhance his or her success and survival on the battlefield. After that, each colored belt builds on and enhances this basic knowledge. This allows a Marine of any military occupational specialty at any age and any rank to continue training and learning up to the 6th degree of the black belt. All Marines can spend their entire careers learning more advanced skills and better ways to use and control those skills.

The seeds of the current MCMAP reach back into the Vietnam War.

The belt colors ascend in order of skill level from tan to gray, green, brown and black. These are complimented by the Martial Arts Instructor (MAI) belts in green, brown and black and by the extremely difficult to attain Martial Arts Instructor Trainer (MAIT) belts in black, rising to the 6th degree. Belts, however, are only a visible indication of the depth and skill of a Marine's training. MCMAP is not centered around earning belts.

Leathernecks purposely wear the belts under the camouflage uniform blouse. A Marine is expected to show his or her leadership and skill by example and personal conduct, not by a cloth belt. Each Marine and each MAI and MAIT is expected to continually earn a belt by teaching, doing volunteer work and by giving back to fellow Marines and to the Corps. One does not just have a belt; one is continually earning the right to wear it.

An example of the kind of Marine MCMAP intends to build, one of many Marines who exemplify this quality of character, is Sergeant James “Eddie” Wright. In 2004, then-Corporal Wright's humvee was hit by an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade, wounding him and his fellow Marines. Despite losing both hands and having an open and bleeding thigh wound he could not seal off, Wright stayed conscious and tactically alert. By force of character and training, he directed return fire at the enemy while helping to guide his fellow Marines out of the ambush.

Returning to the United States for rehabilitation and recuperation, Wright wanted to do more than sit in the hospital. At his own request, he was transferred to the Martial Arts Center of Excellence (MACE) as an instructor. Still choosing to continue as a Marine, Sgt Wright has kept working on his belts, now striving toward the rank of brown belt instructor. Like all MACE instructors, he gets down and fights it out on the mats, and those who have wrestled with him have learned to have great respect for his sharp elbows and his very agile arms. Wright competes by exactly the same rules and meets exactly the same belt requirements as any other Marine.

The seeds of the current MCMAP reach back into the Vietnam War. The 32nd Commandant, General James L. Jones, while serving next to South Korean units in Vietnam, experienced firsthand that the Viet Cong (VC) preferred to fight against the American Army troops and Marines, but regularly avoided any close-in fighting with the Republic of Korea (ROK) troops. The ROKs were all highly trained in close combat techniques. They drilled in the techniques daily and happily welcomed the opportunity to use them.

Many U.S. units preferred relying on their supporting fires and avoiding close-in fighting (with many notable exceptions). Captured VC and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) documents regularly instructed their troops to move in as close as they could to the Americans, thus avoiding U.S. supporting fires and air support. This view of American military personnel in general was even found in North Korean military documents captured during the Korean War.

As a second lieutenant at The Basic School (TBS), Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Va., in 1970, the author asked for additional hand-to-hand training, but was told that the class had already had pugil stick bouts and judo throws, so there wasn't any more time in the schedule. At most, the class received an hour or two of this training before its members were expected to be sent to Vietnam. Even TBS instructors, all recently back from that war, admitted this was definitely not enough hand-to-hand experience. However, nothing could be done, as all the course instructors were asking for extra training time in the very compact 21 weeks of the wartime TBS.

Gen Jones also realized that Marines actively sought challenges and liked to be tested, both physically and mentally. By combining a program of martial-arts training with the character-building aspects of mental and ethical instruction, a stronger center of core values could be created. This would serve to reinforce the Marine traditions of honor, courage and commitment.

Carrying this knowledge and experience to his appointment as Commandant, Gen Jones, with a strong sense of what he wanted to create, selected the highly qualified and motivated Lieutenant Colonel George H. Bristol and Master Gunnery Sergeant Cardo Urso to build the new program from the ground up -- a martial-arts program by Marines, for Marines.

All the previous Marine combatives' programs were restudied, and any and all of the world's traditional and more modern fighting styles and arts were considered in constructing MCMAP. A very dedicated group of fighting specialists and martial artists, who were noted experts in their areas of knowledge, joined together to support this effort. Many later became the program's Subject Matter Experts.

From these first meetings, the framework for the program, including the ethical and moral mind-sets, as well as the belt system, was organized and purposely constructed in such a way that all Marines can continually participate. The program's supporters aimed to take the Marine motto “every Marine a rifleman” and eventually add the phrase “every Marine a martial artist.”

As the enemy have unexpectedly appeared in the past, they will appear without warning again in the future, coming in the back doors, out of the cellars, or down out of the trees at their own time and place of choosing. Every Marine clerk, driver, cook or airman must be psychologically as well as physically ready to “repel boarders” and fight alongside fellow Marines. After the shocking events of Sept. 11, 2001, followed by Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, it is unlikely that there are any Marines left who don't realize everyone is now on the front line, and the front line is now everywhere Marines are.

The beating heart of MCMAP is the MACE, located in Raider Hall, across the training field from TBS in Quantico. At the MACE, all training is regularly reviewed to seek improvements, to enhance the safety of the training and to keep it constantly Marine-oriented, even as Marine missions change and adapt. For this very reason, combat handcuffing techniques were added two years ago.

The MACE follows and supervises MCMAP throughout the Corps, ensuring that instruction is up-to-date, correct, thorough and properly standardized. The MACE keeps in regular contact with its satellite schools, the MAIs and the MAITs via its Web site and monthly newsletter.

Every two years the MACE holds a Course Content Review Board. The Board includes MACE staff members, MAITs, former MACE staff and Subject Matter Experts. At these meetings everything is open to discussion, from new training and safety equipment, to modifying and adapting training to make it more real world, more practical and always safer. Any character or ethical training issues that need to be addressed, modified or added also are offered at that time. MCMAP is absolutely grounded in the belief that Marines should train the same way they are taught to fight and that the training equipment should be as close in design to the existing combat equipment as safety and cost considerations permit.

In the equipment arena, the MACE and its staff were a key part of the team that developed and field-tested the new Marine bayonet/combat knife. The Ontario Knife Company OKC3S blade is the first truly Marine-created bayonet in the Corps' history. It is now fielded throughout the Corps and was a cooperative effort between the MACE, Marine Corps Systems Command and private industry.

Every Marine needs the psychological and moral maturity, as well as the physical skills and abilities to manage in the very tight, very personal and very violent corners of the world.

The director of the MCMAP is LtCol Joseph C. Shusko (of the famous Shusko family whose parents have shared seven of their sons with the Corps in this generation, Leatherneck , February 1986). Today LtCol Shusko's son also serves with MCMAP. The staff noncommissioned officer in charge is MGySgt Shane T. Franklin, a student of the bayonet and a former pupil of Colonel George Bristol. Col Bristol was, himself, a longtime friend and student of Col Anthony “Cold Steel” Walker, who trained and fought with the WW II Marine Raiders.

In 2005 the MACE ran four, seven-week MAIT black belt courses and six three-week MAI courses. It also sent personnel to assist the program throughout the Marine Corps, provided assistance to our brother services in a time of war, and even provided training to foreign military units allied to the United States. In 2006 four more MAIT black belt courses will be run, as well as a number of MAI courses. The MACE also teaches and tests the lieutenants at TBS and officers at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College to bring each of them to the tan belt status.

The recently completed MACE building houses offices, a training room, the Cold Steel Walker classroom, and the restored Marine Raider artifacts once displayed in the now closed Richmond, Va., Raider Museum. These artifacts were placed into MACE's care by the members of the Marine Raiders Association for the preservation of their spirit and history, and to serve as motivation for the Marines who train and visit the MACE.

The Raiders, who the MACE building is named after, are very real point men who started much of what should be called modern martial-arts training in the Marine Corps. After WW II, this training faded in and out, and often straggled along. During the intervening years a number of martial-arts programs were tried, including LINE (Linear Infighting Neural Override Engagement) and the later close combat program, but gradually these faded, due to lack of sufficient Marine Corps-wide support and the many other distractions of the peacetime military.

Just six years ago, some military experts said aircraft and standoff weapons could do anything and ground troops might, at most, be needed for mopping up missions. Clearing cities, towns and villages, however, will remain in the Corps' future, and every Marine needs the psychological and moral maturity, as well as the physical skills and abilities to manage in the very tight, very personal and very violent corners of the world.

In Iraq in 2003, an ally from El Salvador, with only his folding knife, fought off a band of insurgents that tried to capture him and his wounded comrades. He successfully did so and thereby saved every one of his fellow warriors. Leathernecks in Iraq have, on two documented occasions, fought and won against individual insurgents using their new bayonets as combat knives. In both cases, these Marines could have lost their lives if they had not had a disciplined and focused presence of mind. This is what MCMAP teaches.

To learn more about MCMAP and the MACE, visit www.tbs.usmc.mil and click on the link marked “Martial Arts.”

Editor's note: Homer Brett is a Marine veteran and the Subject Matter Expert on edged weapons for the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. He authored the book “The Military Knife & Bayonet.”