DERMOT PAT O'NEILL'S FIGHTING METHOD: THE SEMINAR

DERMOT "PAT" O'NEILL TRAINING FSSF 

Most who have studied martial arts for years can tell you of their personal highlights in their training and martial arts careers. Indeed, the highlight of mine came in the form of Steve Brown on cool windy Saturday morning in Winter Haven Fl. on Nov.15 2019 at a seminar on O'Neill's methods of combat. For those that may not know, Steve Brown is one of the first to do an in-depth study and research of WWII combatives instructor Dermot "Pat" O'Neill which culminated in a very long article in 2003 in Journal of Asian Martial Arts entitled "Dermot M. O'Neill: One of the Twentieth Century's Most Overlooked Pioneers". He had put some great time and effort into his subject, corresponding and traveling to meet many people with firsthand information regarding O'Neill.  Even after the completion of his article Brown would later even garner some firsthand training from O'Neill's top instructor and right-hand man Frank Florence. Steve would also be the man who got me hooked on Dermot Pat O'Neill's fighting system. 

More than likely if you ask any judoka if they know who Pat O'Neill was you would probably get a blank stare. This is quite disheartening considering what O'Neill managed to accomplish in judo. In 1947 O'Neill was a 5th degree black belt (godan), at the time this was quite unheard of for a non-Japanese to get such a rank within the Kodakan. The mark O'Neill left in military combatives is unrivaled he was a man way ahead of his time and unfortunately to most he is often overlooked. O'Neill would also be known for training the very first Special Forces group in Hand to Hand combat. He would go on to teach hand to hand to different branches of the military as well as law enforcement and govt agencies.

In 1961, O'Neill became the combatives instructor at the Air force commando school at Hurlburt Air Force Base in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. It was here that O'Neill would come into contact with Frank Florence a brown belt in judo at the time, and who would eventually become O'Neill's assistant. After Hurlbert AFB, O'Neill took an instructor's position with the international Police academy and Florence was recruited to aid and assist in helping O'Neill train trainees and recruits in his methods from there on out. O'Neill was even instrumental in getting Florence a job training marines after Florence left the Air force. 

Sometime after his 2003 article in Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Steve had the opportunity to contact and get some  training from none other than Frank Florence himself. The duration of the training Steve had with Florence was short but then again this is what O'Neill's specialty was; to make every man a dangerous man in the amount of time allotted for training. 

As a way to keep it fresh in a trainees mind O'Neill advocated keeping it alive as part of PT. This would be would be one of the O'neill methodologies I would interject into my training.  

Some time ago I would come across Steve Browns 2003 article and thanks to social media was

FRANK FLORENCE

able to eventually get in communication with him. We quickly found out that we were both former Army MPs and that we had both went thru our basic and AIT at Ft. McClellan, Anniston, Alabama and we were both Judoka as well, something we both had in common with O'Neill and Florence. Interestingly enough Steve and I both trained judo in the same area, our clubs only twenty minutes from each other. 

THE DEVIL’S BRIGADE AND TARZAN WAS A GREEN BERET?

I had read in Steve Brown’s article how he had come to know and learn about Pat O’Neill, at first it was during his childhood when he had sat down with his dad to watch the movie "The Devil’s Brigade" though at the time Steve wrote that he didn’t realize the movie was actually based on a real unit. His interest about O’neill would later get sparked thru the book “Martial Musings” which contained a few pages about O’Neill. 

Ironically my interest in military combatives would start in a similar fashion but it would be thru the John Wayne movie, The Green Berets. In it a Green Beret, Kowalski, played by actor Mike Henry would have a very memorable hand to hand combat scene. Kowalski taking point was ambushed by a handful of the enemy and engaged them in hand to hand combat but was killed from wounds sustained in the brutal fight but not before taking them all with him.  As a kid I found this to be somewhat disconcerting as my first exposure to Mike Henry as an actor was thru his Tarzan movies and Tarzan couldn’t be taken out by just a handful of guys. To this day Henry's hand to hand combat scene stands out in my memory. 

After Steve and I had been communicating back and forth a bit Steve would send me some  information pertaining to the O'Neill system, at which point I would begin concentrating solely on O'Neill's methods in my combatives courses and formulate O'Neill H2H, based solely on O'Neill's system. Steve on several occasions has given his input on what I am teaching and for me he is a excellent point of reference as well as a measuring stick to keep things congruent with as well as expand on O'Neill's system, and it's principles and tactics.

There are two manuals out there that are 100 percent O'Neill method though neither source contains the entire O’Neill method. These manuals are:

1. The US Army Special Text on Basic Hand to Hand Combat October 1964 Ft. Benning, Georgia

2. The US Marine Core Proposed FMFM 1-4 1966

One of the things I found to be the most interesting out of these manuals is that there is only one fighting technique with a knife shown. This single knife technique out of all the other techniques in these manuals sparked my curiosity and I would begin to really study this technique even though there was very little written about it. Needless to say I was able to garner quite a bit of information. As I started looking at as a blue print to formulate other techniques and variations.

No sooner had I started looking into O'Neill's knife technique than I got a phone call from my daughter she told me she was about to be deployed overseas. As you can imagine as a parent I was taken aback, floored, worried, fearful but also proud. It was a mixture of feelings. I made arrangement to spend some time with her before she left. I had a feeling that even though she had combatives training in the Army that a little extra wouldn't hurt. She and I spent several days doing just that.  A father teaching his oldest daughter old school combatives to say this was an highlight in my life is an understatement. Never was there a greater need to teach something that had zero bullshit in it or would take a long time to learn something simple brutal and violently effective.

I had gotten back home and the knife stuff I had been working on had been put on the back burner and was kind of passed off as something that I would get to eventually. A month later my daughter messaged me from over seas. She had not been in country for 12 hours yet and I got the message; "Dad, I need a knife. Send me a knife." It seems the female soldiers on base had to be careful even going to restrooms and hitting the showers. There were a number of incidents where the female soldiers getting attacked. While most soldiers were writing back home asking their folks to send care packages with cookies and all kinds of homemade stateside goodies my daughter was asking me for a knife to use for protection. I was floored. A knife was indeed sent along with very simple instructions and a easy to follow methodology. 

I was back to work with O'Neill's one and only knife technique. A simple effective easily learned system giving its practitioner a realistic effective way to dispatch a attacker with O'Neill's knife technique serving as the core. As an instructor I always looked at what I taught very objectively..... can what I teach in a single class be used effectively the second they walk out my door and into the parking lot that same night.

THE ONEILL H2H SEMINAR

I was fortunate enough to have Steve Brown at at the O'Neill H2H seminar. I had expressed an interest to Steve to show him what I had put together with O'Neill's system...again as I had in the past I wanted Steve's input and why not, the man had gotten some first hand training in the O'Neill system. It is my opinion that there is just no one around anymore who can actually say that. There is just no denying Frank Florence's involvement with O'Neill nor the extent of it.

I am not going to make the seminar out to be more than what it was.... No one makes a killing off teaching combative courses. You teach a class for 8, 12, or 16 hours and then those folks are gone and you never see them again. I never thought for a second that droves or dozens of folks were going to show up for a seminar on something based on old school combatives.  

 Steve showed up first we had a chance to talk for about 30 minutes and then Ed Berger from Georgia showed up. We chatted for another few minutes and then went into the Hand to Hand stuff starting with the On-Guard, the O'Neill lead finger jab and the mechanics of delivering it from the On-guard. From there we covered footwork moving forward backward and left and right while executing the finger jab. We went into the On-Guard in the clinch using the head twist take down to defend against the clinch. The Finger jab was also demonstrated as an entry more commonly called or referred to as wedging in. It's objective to move forward and takeover and disrupt the attacker's centerline forcing him backwards. Everything from using the wedge or "Blade" entry for different attacks to defending waist tackles and a double leg take down were covered.

Different applications and variations of the O'Neill cover were explored with same objective as mentioned before kept in mind. Moving from the Blade entry into the O'Neill Cover  and back into the blade while moving forward opened up a lot of techniques to be utilized and drills were done for several defenses against the most common attacks."Murphy moments" were addressed, what to do when something went wrong or an attacker got past a certain technique.

We took a break for lunch and we all three shared certain experiences and got to know each other better and Steve shared some information with myself and Ed about his experience with Florence and other tidbits concerning the O'Neill system.  The lunch turned out to be very enjoyable as well as tremendously informative.

After the break we came back and Ed had informed Steve and myself that he had to leave. I then asked Ed for a bit more of his time so we could cover the knife system I had been working on. Both men agreed so I got started, I showed the first technique of my interpretation of O'Neill's system. Then Steve shared what Florence had shown him about O'Neill's knife method. Like Steve had done a few times before and with his impromptu demonstration, his input was invaluable and served as a reference point as well as an affirmation that I was on track with what I had come up with and shared with my daughter. 

I had started the hour long knife instruction with four basic knife techniques but after what Steve shared I had quite a bit more to still add, though not the time, as he had filled in some vital information that I was not privy of.

 

MYSELF AND STEVE BROWN

As an instructor, I can honestly say that the folks I have taught have influenced and taught me just as much if not more than I ever taught them. It wouldn't be until we had all said our goodbyes that I would realize the significance of what had just taken place. As I mentioned briefly before there is no denying Frank Florence's involvement and expertise under "Pat" O'Neill. Steve Brown had picked up some valuable training and insight directly from Florence first hand and then Steve passed it along and shared it with me. 

I have met several well-known people in the martial arts world but the moment Steve shared what Florence had shared with him regarding O'Neill's knife technique, that moment topped everything else anyone had ever offered or taught me in my martial arts career. I was getting direct information from an undeniable source. That meant the world to an old school combatives buff like me. Steve later followed with more sage advice;

 "Barron take O'Neill's stuff and run with it."

FOR MORE ON THE O'NEILL METHOD VISIT  COMBATJUDO.NET