Posted by Lieutenant Elizabeth Prescott (Security) in Final Countdown… MACO or bust (MACO) Training Room 0800 hours

Posted by Lieutenant Colonel Melissa Barber-Tafoya (MACO) in Final Countdown… MACO or bust (MACO) Training Room 0800 hours

Posted by Lieutenant Elizabeth Prescott (Security) in Final Countdown… MACO or bust (MACO) Training Room 0800 hours

SNIP

Elizabeth caught the water bottle and was slugging down the refreshment as the other Marine entered. After their exchange she looked at the MACO. “I guess I hold my left arm too high?” She was guessing. Unfortunately, she had thought both sides equally protected, but the bruises to her ribs, shallow from pulled punches, was proof she was wrong.

As the woman mentioned the video, Liz nodded. “I understand. That makes sense. Cause apparently I’m missing something more than merely my judgement.” She tried to laugh, but it was forced and certainly not genuine. Setting the water bottle down and wiping her face off with her own towel, she stood up once more and looked to Melissa. “Ok, I’m ready.” She was certainly determined. And to her credit, was taking this lesson very seriously.

Elizabeth
Sec/Intel (relieved)

Melissa nodded and stood up “Okay, let’s go.” She said “Remember, protect your left side as much as you do the right.” Melissa thought for a moment “Are you right or left handed?” She asked as they stepped back onto the sparring mat. Melissa wasn’t pulling any punches, she wanted Liz to be ready for her next match and she planned to be there to watch.

MACO

Elizabeth got up and nodded. “I’m ready. And I’m right handed.”

For the next several minutes, they went back and forth. Elizabeth got in one or two decent shots, but her left remained vulnerable and one of Melissa’s shots almost knocked her to her knees. Her left hand went up as her right arm covered over her ribs, half doubled over trying to catch her breath. “HALT!” She called to the match as she backed to the wall to keep from going to her knees. A laugh, somewhat unstable sounding, came from her lips as she looked up. “Now I know why he said to see you.” She shook her head and focused hard on not losing the water she had drank a few moments ago.

Elizabeth
Sec/Intel(relieved)

Melissa looked at Elizabeth “I think that’s enough for today.” She said “I don’t want to break your ribs again.” She said as she walked over and handed her a towel “Come on.” She said and offered a hand and helped her over to one of the benches “You have got to protect the left side.” Melissa said “Tomorrow, I want to show you some different things that might be able to help you keep him off balance.” She said as she took the tablet from the private that had videoed it “Watch this and we’ll talk about it in the morning.” She said “What I want you to do is tell me where you see you need to increase your defenses.” Melissa said “Then we’ll work on your defenses.”

MACO

It was horribly embarrassing to actually not wave off the help. But Baumann wanted to face off with her in a couple weeks and it wasn’t like her to take things easy. Trouble was, she was taking too much too soon. “Thanks. I will watch the vis and let you know in the morning.” She sat down and lifted her water bottle, contemplating the need for water and the fear it wouldn’t stay down. It was only a split second and she took a small drink, quenching her dry throat and mouth.

“I didn’t realize how badly I was doing. I feel so stupid now.” She glanced down at the bottle, the sipper top suddenly having great fascinating properties all of a sudden. “And for more than my inability to fight.”

Prescott
Sec/Intel (relieved)

Melissa sat down next to Elizabeth “Look, you’re not doing horrible.” She said taking a drink of her own water “Tell me, how many fights have you been in. I mean knock down drag out fights?” She asked “They can teach you all the moves and tricks in basic training, but until you are actually back against the wall, you don’t know what your capable of.” She said as she looked at the opposite wall for a moment and then motioned for Elizabeth to follow her for a moment “Let me show you how I got a bunch of these scars.”

Melissa led the way to her office and pulled up a video for Elizabeth to watch “This was the first time I found myself in hand to hand combat. We wore body vids at the time.” She said “I was twenty two at the time.” Melissa played the video that showed her getting her backside handed to her. “It was after this fight that I quickly learned that I needed to better handle myself in hand to hand combat and I also made it a point to learn different kinds of hand to hand combat so that I could keep my opponents off balance.”

MACO

Elizabeth followed Melissa and watched the vid. As the woman explained, she felt a sense of guilt because she had been that ‘victim’ on more than one occasion and it had cost her her Intel position. The worst of it was, she hadn’t considered herself that and it had almost cost her her life.

Nodding at the woman’s personal realization she needed to get better, Liz agreed. “I think I’m at that point as well. If I don’t learn, it’s gonna cost me more than my Intel position. Next time there may not be someone around to keep it from costing me far more.” She sighed and shook her head. “I honestly thought I was helping. How did it change so fast?” The question was half whispered and she wasn’t even aware she’d said it out loud.

Melissa looked at Elizabeth “It changed, when you made it change. You have relied on your training from when you were in the academy.” She said

Straightening up, she then spoke to the MACO. “Ok, so I need to learn. But where do I begin?”

Elizabeth
Sec/Intel(relieved)

Melissa smiled again “This is where you begin.” She said “You make a committement to yourself that you are going to work on hand to hand combat once or twice a week from here on out. You have to keep honing your skills, learning new ones and staying one step ahead of the opponent.” She said

Melissa leaned back in her chair “So, tomorrow, we are going to start with Suus Mahna.” She said “It takes years to master, but there are some things that I can teach you quickly. We’ll also look at Mok’bara, the Klingon Martial arts. These are two of the most common martial arts that are taught. It will give you a balliwick to choose from and with practice, you will be able to move from one to the other without hesitation.” She said “We’ll also look at using tae kwan do and and jujutsu.” She said.

Melissa looked at Elizabeth “You are going to get knocked on your butt again. It’s how you get back up that is going to make the difference.” She said “And we’re going to work on that left side protection.” She said with a grin.

MACO