Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

“Break his neck!” one soldier cried. “Squeeze the life out of him!” another shouted.

“Do like they do on Pay Per View!” another said, a group of soldiers chuckling at the reference to the bloody “Ultimate Fighting” programs in which athletes beat each other into submission using their fists and feet.

But this tournament last Saturday wasn’t quite so gruesome — no matter how painful it might have looked to an outsider.

Dozens of soldiers in separate weight classes dueled one another in five-minute matches under the blazing afternoon sun, grappling on a raised wooden platform flanked by flatbed trailers. Rows of troops cheered and jeered as their buddies thrashed it out in the gladiator pit.

The technique for combatives is much like wrestling, with points won as each contestant gains superior positioning on his opponent.

But unlike traditional wrestling, grapplers in combatives try to twist or choke their fellow soldiers into submission — a situation called “tapping out.” All the gasping soldier needs to do is slap his hand three times on the platform or on his opponent and the referees call the match.

And the competition can turn on you. Just ask Spc. Donald Gum, an engineer with Engineering Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.

In his first match in the 162-lbs.-and-below weight class, the former wrestler from Palmer, Alaska, dispatched his opponent in less than one minute, forcing a tap-out after gaining position with a quick chokehold.

But in his second match-up, the semifinal, it didn’t go so quickly.

Gum faced Spc. John Jansen, a Squad Automatic Weapon gunner with 1st Platoon, Comanche Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment.

The attackers went after each other almost immediately. Clutching at jacket collars, the two fighters hit the wooden platform with a bone-rattling thump — and Jansen was on top. After a fierce fight with Gum squirming to gain the upper hand, Jansen locked onto the engineer’s neck. A little more than one minute later, it was over — a tap-out in Jansen’s favor.

“I just left my head open to him,” an exhausted Gum said, catching some rays in the bright sun as spectators watched the final matches. “It’s not a big thing.”