Benning gets refurbished gym for combatives - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Benning gets refurbished gym for combatives

Starting Monday, soldiers training in hand-to-hand combat at Fort Benning, Ga., will be doing so in the newly refurbished Briant Wells Gym.

With the dedication in June of the new Smith Fitness Center, named after Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, the Briant Wells gym was vacated and re-equipped for combatives training.

The Army Combatives School, which has been housed for the better part of the last decade at Building 69, a bare-bones, warehouse-style structure with few creature comforts, will now enjoy modern amenities and more than double the amount of space.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. and school director Matt Larsen will be the keynote speaker, according to a Fort Benning press release.

Following the ceremony, the school’s cadre of instructors will conduct several demonstrations showcasing the various types of training and instruction that nearly 500 soldiers receive each year, the release said.

“For the Modern Army Combatives Program to be successful, the training must be grounded in reality,” 1st Lt. Dan Swintek of 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry, said in the release. “The training goal is fully resistant opponents.”

The $500,000 renovation to the gym included several upgrades and additions such as a curtain partition system, padded walls, new classrooms, improved office space, a medical screening room, a dedicated heavy bag room, a caged equipment storage room, a fully equipped gym for the instructors, and the removal and replacement of the antiquated facility heating and air conditioning system.

Working previously with only 5,000 square feet at Building 69, the new facility spans more than 11,000 square feet.

This allows the school to train more students than ever before, including incorporating other unit’s Level I and II instructors into our facility to better facilitate their program, the release said.