LoneRider

Sorry about the late response.
I don't know about Fort Irwin, I've been there a lot of times(8 as a matter of fact) but I've always been stuck out in the Box at NTC so I didn't get to see much of Barstow, not that there is much to see.
Fort Polk, OTOH, I was stationed at for a couple of years. There is a Juko Ryu Jujutsu Class both on post and in Leesville but they are into the whole"I can use my chi to create a forcefield that lets me take shots to the junk". There was , at least two years ago, a kenpo school in Leesville that taught a cutdown version of the Parker curriculum and they had a few guys that fought MMA.
Best of luck.
Mark

We have an American Major here on an exchange with our army who's last posting was there! He and his family enjoyed our wet weather for the first few months lol!

We've had a couple of Paras competing on the domestic scene, we nearly had a Para v RM on one of our shows which would have been great fun lol intense rivalvy but operational stuff got in the way. We have a Para lad training with us at the moment, hes MT originally but is learning the grappling side, he's an impressive size, he has an entire Bible text including book and verse written across his shoulders! when the Paras are trining on P company the recruits undergo .milling. not for the skill but to learn aggression etc. heres a clip of it, the 'ref' is Sandy Geddes a member of our club who has fought professionally as an MMA fighter, he's retired from fighting now reckons hes too old at 32 lol!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgoP37DVNSs&feature=PlayList&p=18CC7EF06136939C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=15

MMA here is viewed as a sport by the Army and they don't really have a combatives programme as such. We are the only MMA club in the forces at the moment and we are regarded as a sports club. There's no competitions that are for miliarty personel yet though w are trying to get something going here. The Forces ahave TKD, Judo and karate competiotns again as sports though. We do have several service personnnel who compete in MMA, Martin Stapleton being probably the most well known, to Americans as well as here as he was in the TUF competition. Stapes is a Royal Marine PTI, I will see if he has an email address he doesn't mind me giving you as I think you will have a lot in common and he can give you more information than i can about the way Royal Marine Commandos train unarmed combat and CQF etc. Take care!

http://www.defenseinstitute.com/kickboxingprogram.html

These guys have a great program overall, not just mma. They teach Vee Arnis Jutsu as the base art and John and Eric are both outstanding. Completely unrelated to MMA but if you've ever had an interest in Kenpo the American Kenpo Karate Schoo up the road from these guys is outstanding as well, the head instructor is a guy named Dave Coppock and its where I trainied during the four years I was at Carson. Its a great place, you'll love it there. Later, Mark

The school where I learned Kali and Silat also taught Wing Chun. I never had a chance to learn it (schedule didn't permit me to attend on those nights) but several students of my school learned it. They flow together very well.

Hey!

That's awesome that you have family with FMA experience. I've studied some Kali, Silat, and Sikaran. American Kenpo too..but that's not a Filipino art :lol: There's so much good stuff out there. Hope you come home safely! I'll be praying for you and your counterparts.

I'm home at the moment. Although next trip, I'll be more of a fobbit type.
I'm a former 19D, former 96R that is now a 35T. I fix electronics for MI. Kinda looking forward to a quieter deployment next time.

Stay Safe
Mark

No problem!