Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego -- Recruits of Bravo Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, learned how to employ their bayonets during a Marine Corps Martial Arts Program class at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Calif., Dec. 9.
The purpose of MCMAP is to teach recruits hand-to-hand combat techniques and instill in them the warrior ethos. Part of this training focuses on how to fix bayonets to the M16-A4 Service Rifle and utilize it in close quarters combat.
“The bayonet techniques teach recruits close quarter combat, such as inside a small house, where the bayonet would be effective to engage the enemy with,” said Sgt. Jordan G. Kinal, drill instructor, Platoon 1026. “The class shows the recruits how to use the entire M16-A4 Serve Rifle as a weapon.”
Recruits begin learning the basic MCMAP moves and then build off of skills they will learn throughout the rest of recruit training, explained 27-year-old Kinal.
During the class, recruits were taught how to hone their skills of horizontal and vertical butt strokes, vertical and horizontal slashes, disrupt and offensive and defensive weapon maneuvers.
The MCMAP instructor ensured the recruits knew how to conduct each individual skill and that they understood the proper form and how to implement the move before moving on to the next one.
Drill instructors monitored the company and if a recruit was unsure of a particular technique, he stood up to attention and asked the MCMAP instructor for an additional demonstration.
“Every Marine is a rifleman, and every Marine is taught how to fight if the weapon fails or in hand to hand combat,” said Recruit Merle D. Stout, Platoon 1026. “Marines deploy often and find themselves in close combat situations. That’s when the bayonet training could possibly become useful in life or death situations.”
Stout, an 18-year-old Bangor, Mich., native, explains if he should be in a hand-to-hand combat situation, and his fellow Marines’ lives were on the line, he wants to feel comfortable with his ability to stay in the fight and reach mission accomplishment without losing any lives.
Company B recruits will continue to learn more advanced MCMAP techniques during recruit training and in the Marine Fleet Force as well. The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program is one tool of many the United States Marines utilize to stay combat efficient and ready to fight.