Officials want every Marine to wear at least a tan belt beneath their camouflage uniforms by next year. However, the other services are thinking about following the Marines' lead in making the training mandatory for everyone, Bristol says. The Army, for example, has started to teach jujitsu to soldiers who are part of a Fort Lewis, Wash., brigade heading the Army's effort to convert itself into a more mobile and flexible force. Martial arts will be incorporated into physical conditioning throughout a Marine's career. A motivated leatherneck can work up from a tan belt to gray, green, brown and black.
Black belts can have up to six red stripes that denote degrees of expertise.
But this will be no Kung Fu Corps. Jones got the idea 34 years ago when he was a platoon commander in Vietnam. He watched South Korean marines perform tae kwon do and noticed that they intimidated his own men. He also heard rumors that the Viet Cong made sure to avoid areas controlled by the South Koreans. Calif. The results, he says, were startling.