Army Capt. Rebecca Jones and 1st Lt. Dondeigo Florencio grapple during a Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives Championship bout at Fort Benning, Ga., on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers fight Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in a bout during the annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives Championship bout at Fort Benning, Ga. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
Soldiers fight Tuesday, April 11, 2023 in a bout during the annual Lacerda Cup All-Army Combatives Championship bout at Fort Benning, Ga. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
The Lacerda All-Army Combatives Championship tests the Army’s top hand-to-hand fighters in their skills learned in the service’s Combatives Program, which is meant to improve soldiers’ combat readiness in fighting without a weapon.
Nineteen teams of soldiers from units all across the Army are competing this year in eight weight classes to earn both team and individual titles in combatives skills. The three-day tournament’s rules grow more demanding as the event advances. On the first day the bouts are mostly grappling fights, competitors can hit with open hands on day two, but by the third day fights essentially become mixed martial arts bouts with closed hand punches allowed.
The competition — which in 2010 was named for a combatives tournament champion and Army Ranger, Staff Sgt. Pedro Lacerda, after his death of a brain aneurysm — is a chance to prove soldiers’ commitment to hand-to-hand combat and, ultimately, determine who is the toughest fighter, Larsen said.
A mortar team from the Army National Guard sets up their 60mm mortar during the second day of the U.S. Army’s Best Mortar Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A mortar team from the 101st Airborne Division loads a 60mm mortar during the second day of the U.S. Army’s Best Mortar Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
A soldier fires a pistol during the International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
“So, shooting at a distance and making sure we have the fundamentals down, demonstrating you know how to operate the weapons system is obviously a big part of it,” Koch said. “But it’s more than just that — there’s stalking, remaining undetected and gathering intel, and pushing that intel to a higher [echelon] so commanders can make decisions on battlefields. We’re testing all of that.”
