On Friday February 23, 2007, a 70-year-old man exemplified the motto of the Marine Corp League, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine." When three thugs boarded a tourist bus in the Costa Rican city of Limon armed with a gun and knives they must have thought the twelve senior citizens onboard were easy prey. They were dead wrong. And I mean D-E-A-D.



After witnessing a 20 year old terrorist put a gun to a female passenger's head, Allen Clady, a former Marine made his move. The senior citizen grabbed a hold of the thug and strangled the much younger thug with such force that he broke his collarbone and killed the man. This prompted the other senior citizens on the bus to begin fighting back and the other two assailants run off the bus.

So, how could a 70-year-old man could take on, and kill, a much younger armed opponent? The answer lies in his old-school Marine Corp training.

The Marines recently introduced a new system for close quarters combat called the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). This new sissy system is supposedly for peacekeeping operations in urban areas and theoretically allows for a wide variety of situations where a Marine needs to use non-lethal force.

Prior to the development of this new crap that will undoubtedly get more than one leather neck sent home in a body bag, the Marines used more lethal techniques originally developed by Major Anthony Biddle.

His techniques standardized close combat techniques for the Marines and were based on boxing, wrestling and fencing. In addition, Captains W.M. Greene and Samuel B. Griffith shared what they learned about martial arts from William Fairbairn while stationed in China.

Being a former Marine, Allen Clady learned the Corp's old (and real) style of close combat that emphasizes taking down an opponent hard, fast, and permanently. It is most likely that Clady over took the thug from behind with a "Japanese strangle". The forefather of the sporting "rear naked choke" as seen in MMA competition today, this simplistic and deadly old-school strangle was very popular among military trained martial artists and pre-WWII Judo and Jujutsu practitioners.

In seconds of his arms locking around the thug's esophagus and throat, the would be terrorist began to choke on his own spit and drop unconscious. This technique is even more devastating if the person employing the technique is taller then their opponent, because it takes little effort to take someone off their feet, thus making the strangle work that much quicker.

Another good reason to strangle the thug from the rear like this was because the punk was armed. While the thug did fire two shots off into the air before the gun jammed, the moment Clady had his hands on the thug's throat he immediately had control of the situation. When the bus driver drove to a local Red Cross clinic, the gun wielding maniac was declared dead. Thanks to Clady's swift action, only the gunman was injured and the tour group returned to their cruise ship and safety.

When asked if anyone on the bus would be charged with a crime. Local Police Chief Luis Hernandez said, "They were in their right to defend themselves." It is clear that the chief understand that the police cannot be everywhere, and that stopping a criminal is not a crime.

It takes an example like Allen Clady to remind everyone that with the right training anyone can fight back. What happened on that tour bus was clearly a life and death situation and Allen Clady chose life. Those animals did not care who they had to hurt to get what they wanted and Mr. Clady attacked to prevent people from being hurt. This just goes to show you that swift decisive action combined with good solid training can save the day...regardless of age or physical fitness.

While Allen Clady has not spoken publicly about this incident at the time of this article I can almost guarantee that he was not trying to be a "hero". He was simply protecting people who needed help, and is a credit to both his generation and to the Marine Corp. Too many people willingly would have become victims, but he stood up and went into battle mode. He was not acting like hero he was acting like a man.