Senior Airman Abraham Mercado, 47th Security Forces Squadron combat arms instructor, submits to an "arm bar" in Losano Fitness Center on Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, July 10, 2015. The United States Air Force has at times in its history been at the forefront of combatives training. In 1951, Gen. Curtis Lemay appointed Emilio "Mel" Bruno, his Judo teacher and a former national American Athletic Union Wrestling champion and fifth degree black belt in Judo, to direct a command-wide Judo and combative measures program.