Combatives instructors, local business owner build Fort Sill combatives team

FORT SILL, Okla. – Staff Sgt. Noelmar Almeron, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Michael Ruffin, and Retired U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Virgil Allen are building a Fort Sill combatives team with aspirations for the team to compete in the Lacerda Cup at Fort Moore, Georgia.

Combatives is a form of hand-to-hand combat primarily used by members of the military and law enforcement which incorporates elements of Jiu Jitsu.

The Instructors Behind the Program

Almeron is assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 434th Field Artillery Brigade, where he serves as an instructor cadre for Soldiers in Basic Combat Training. He has been training and competing in various martial arts since he was 7 years old, and he certified as a combatives instructor in 2018.

Almeron remembers when mixed martial first piqued his interest. “Like any other Asian kid back in the day, we saw Bruce Lee doing mixed martial arts. There was always something really cool, like guys jumping and doing crazy acrobatic moves,” he said. Specifically, it was Bruce Lee’s performance in Enter the Dragon that sparked Almeron’s mixed martial arts journey.

Almeron credits martial arts with his personal growth and development. “I was kind of an aggressive kid. Martial arts helped me control my anger, my aggressiveness, and established my core concept of being disciplined,” he said.

Almeron enlisted in the Army in 2007 as an Infantryman (11B) and immediately involved himself in a combatives training program. He has since competed in competitions at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Carson, Colorado; and Fort Stewart, Georgia. He has been a combatives instructor at Fort Sill for two years.

Ruffin is also championing the rejuvenated post combatives program. He too is a certified combatives instructor with a long history of various mixed martial arts.

Ruffin is currently assigned to the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, where he serves as a Field Artillery Technician (131A). He took up boxing at 13 years old and started practicing Jiu Jitsu in 2022. He has since competed in nine Jiu Jitsu tournaments.

“I like competition,” he said.

Ruffin enjoys the physical and mental challenge posed by combat sports. “They push you to a level where you didn’t know what you had. It puts you in uncomfortable positions where your fight or flight kicks in and you figure out what type of person you really are,” he said.

Ruffin originally wanted to compete in boxing when he arrived at Fort Sill, but he couldn’t find a local boxing gym that was right for him. A friend told him about Dreadnought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, located in Lawton, Oklahoma.

“I went to Dreadnought and on my first day I signed up for a tournament,” said Ruffin. “I just liked the way it felt. I was uncomfortable, and I know that to become better at something you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Virgil Allen owns and operates Dreadnought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He opened Dreadnought in January 2015 while he was still on active duty. He retired out of Fort Sill in October 2018.

For Allen, combatives and Jiu Jitsu are not just about self-defense or being a combat sport – it’s a holistic community. “A lot of people think Jiu Jitsu is all about the fight,” he said. “Use Jiu Jitsu for what you’re seeking help for. If you’re looking for a social place where everybody is accepted no matter what your body size is or what you look like, Jiu Jitsu. If you feel like you’re not a lifter but still want to be active, come try Jiu Jitsu. If you feel like you work in a place where you may need to protect yourself, but you don’t want to carry a gun or anything, come try Jiu Jitsu.”

Allen’s oldest student is 63 years old – the youngest is 3.

Allen regularly teaches combatives and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the Fort Sill Combatives Center at 6 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays. He also holds open mats every afternoon at Dreadnought for Soldiers to come and freely practice combatives and/or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

The Former Heights of Fort Sill Combatives

Almeron, Ruffin, and Allen are attempting to reinvigorate the Fort Sill combatives program to when it was at its height. Before 2020, the Fort Sill combatives program was thriving, according to Allen and retired U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyler Roundtree.

Roundtree was active in the Fort Sill combatives program from 2015 to 2019. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 75th Field Artillery Brigade as the Operations Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge.

“We had 50 to 100 students across the installation,” said Roundtree. “We started doing classes on Saturdays to accommodate [the Soldiers’] schedules and maintain their training progression.”

In 2017, Roundtree and his assistant, Sgt. 1st Class Renado Capistrano, were tasked to lead the transformation of the combatives program to adhere to new Army combatives standards.

“The whole Army combatives program was reforming itself,” said Roundtree.

He explained that the original program was more aligned with mixed martial arts, utilizing hard hitting strikes that were prone to cause injuries.

“You’d just get the crap beat out of you,” Allen said on the Mr. Bean podcast.