Boxing injury kills warrant officerSustained head injury during combat training
BY DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMESStaff writer
A chief warrant officer with advanced hand-to-hand combat training died Saturday from a boxing injury suffered earlier in the week at Fort Benning's U.S. Army Combatives School.
CW2 Shawn Benjamin, of the 1st Aviation Brigade, Fort Rucker, sustained a head injury Thursday when he took a punch from his sparring partner and fell backward and hit his head, post spokeswoman Monica Manganaro said Sunday.
Immediate first aid was applied, Manganaro said, and Benjamin was evacuated by ambulance to The Medical Center in Columbus, where he underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. He was put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit.
She said both students were wearing protective headgear and boxing gloves.
The boxing was part of Level 3, a 160-hour advanced training course conducted by Fort Benning's 11th Infantry Regiment. It is the highest level of combatives training, though a fourth level is in the pilot stage. Students are trained to teach hand-to-hand fighting skills to the members of their own units.
Retired Sgt. 1st Class Matt Larsen, who helped develop the 5-year-old program, told the Ledger-Enquirer in October that the school has certified more than 10,000 soldiers to become combatives trainers with "maybe six significant injuries."
"It's tough," he said. "But our injury level is very small."
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker issued a memo in September 2005 calling for every soldier -- active duty, Reserves and National Guard -- to "experience the physical and emotional demands of hand-to-hand fighting prior to engaging in combat."
Larsen said soldiers need those skills in today's Army.
"It's frequent in urban combat and that's what's going on in Iraq," he said in October. "Guys trained in our system are proving themselves over there every day."
