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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
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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.
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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."
5 comments:
I follow this and believe in the method....Ari of Don,t be a victim-.
Wonderful! Awesome!
Wonderful!and totally awesome! Thanks Barron.
I believe this is the scene in the 'Green Berets' you're talking about;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWkjrDVg_kE
Mr. O'Neill was a friend of my Dad's (I believe they met during pop's military service in WWII).
He would come to visit our family occasionally in the mid to late sixties.
Mr. O'Neill taught me to play chess, and we went to see the original Planet Of The Apes in the theater in 1968.
He would challenge us to try and knock him over (it was impossible) to demonstrate that the mind was more powerful than physical force. He would "plant his feet in China" and become immovable. It was not until years later that I understood the significance of China in his technique.
I remember Mr. O'Neill as a kind, patient & gentle man who enjoyed spending time with the children of his adult friend. We looked forward to his visits and thoroughly enjoyed them.
RIP Mr. O'Neill
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