LINE System (Linear In-Fighting)
The US Marine Corps close-combat system of 1989. Built on gross motor skills and a lethal finish; discontinued in 1998 and replaced by MCMAP.
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About LINE System (Linear In-Fighting)
LINE is a close-combat system created for the United States Marine Corps by Sergeant Ron Donvito and introduced in 1989 as official training across the whole Corps. The acronym is spelled out as Linear Infighting Neural-override Engagement, and it is a phrase assembled after the fact rather than the method's original name. The system was designed for battlefield conditions, not for the gym. It rested on three requirements: the technique had to work in darkness, had to be executable in full equipment including a chemical protective suit, and had to function reliably for an exhausted and injured soldier. It therefore relies on gross motor movement, short straight-line actions and a small number of repeatedly drilled sequences. Every technique is built to end in a lethal finish, most often an attack on the cervical spine. That eventually proved to be its main weakness. Through the 1990s the Marine Corps increasingly carried out peacekeeping and humanitarian tasks that called for a graduated use of force, and a system offering only one level of engagement did not fit such situations. LINE training was therefore discontinued in 1998, and after a transitional period it was formally replaced in 2002 by the MCMAP programme, established by Marine Corps Order 1500.54. Elements of LINE still appear in commercial self-defence training in the United States. The record naming Rex Applegate as founder is incorrect; Applegate served as a close-combat instructor in the Second World War and has no connection to LINE.
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