Kill or Get Killed-Marine FM

Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-80, This reference publication was written in 1976 by Lieutenant Colonel Rex
Applegate, USA (Ret), with the help of the Combat Section, Military Intelligence Training
Center, Camp Ritchie, Maryland

RIOT CONTROL. “TECHNIQUES,
MANHANDLING, AND CLOSE COMBAT,
FOR POLICE AND THE MILITARY"

Personal combat conforms to no set rules of conduct, as
the fighting in Korea so plainly proved. Were we, the United
States, the choosers, it would not be thus; the decencies of
human conduct would be observed. But we must be ready to
fight against an utterly ruthless communist enemy, one who
feels he must win at any cost, even at the cost of human
decency.
The American soldier who meets such an enemy is forced
to adapt himself to a pattern of behavior that is foreign to his
education and his religious beliefs. If he would win the fight—
indeed, if he himself would survive—he must know all the
dirty tricks of close combat, even as the enemy knows them.
He must match them trick for trick. Further, he must be able
to take the initiative and attack an enemy soldier as ruthlessly
as he, in turn, would be attacked if he waited. It is a split

second business. There is no time allowed for moral debate.
In close combat, it is now or never.