Michael Echanis - Books

Books

Echanis wrote three books about hand-to-hand combat:

• Knife Self-Defense for Combat, Ohara Press, (1977) ISBN 978-0-89750-022-7
• Basic Stick Fighting for Combat, Ohara Press, (1979) ISBN 978-0-89750-059-3
• Knife Fighting, Knife Throwing for Combat, Ohara Press, (1979) ISBN 978-0-89750-058-6

The text and techniques content of this series were former Hwa Rang Do black belt Randy Wanner's composition with Echanis and Chuck Sanders posing for the pictures. Echanis was given authorial credit. Wanner described the photo shoot taking place during the day at O'Hara's studio and the three men staying at a cheap hotel nearby at night. Wanner recalled the film shoot as being a great deal of fun. Filming during the day and partying hard at night. The initial 3-book series was meant to give Echanis publishing credits as he had no previous training credentials and was, to include developing a relationship with Soldier of Fortune, seeking to establish himself as a subject matter authority in the private and military sectors. Echanis, through Joo Bang Lee, developed a swift and successful relationship with Black Belt Magazine which featured him (Echanis) on its covers and in stories.

The book series stemmed from Echanis losing a hoped for Saudi Arabian training contract due precisely to his lack of both a written program of instruction (POI) and his unknown status as a para military instructor. He was also motivated to author the series in 1976 by the Army's Special Forces Command for which he was training H2H instructors. According to Randy Wanner there are over 3000 additional photos still in the archives at Black Belt. There were meant to be 9 books in the series. Wanner described himself as the only person who could put the photos with the text for the remaining books. While in Nicaragua Echanis finished the manuscripts for the remaining 6 books per the Echanis Estate. Titles were to be "Throwing and Choking for Combat", "Joint Breaks, Arm Bars, Come Alongs for Combat", 'Punches and Kicks for Combat", "Ninja Techniques, 3-part series, for Combat", "Medical Procedures for Combat, 2-part, (author, Chuck Sanders), "Mind Control and Hypnosis for Combat,2 part series". However the manuscripts disappeared along with many of Echanis' personal items but not before their existence was confirmed by Paul Glasser, one of the contractors on the training team. Glasser informed the Echanis Family of the manuscripts being with their son's personal effects during a phone conversation on September 8, 1978, the day Echanis died.

The Echanis Family were advised in late September 1978, after Mike Echanis' death, that someone had attempted to sell the missing manuscripts to Black Belt Magazine. The magazine's senior staff, recognizing the papers for what they were, declined. Roughly a week later Soldier of Fortune Magazine was approached with the same offer during its convention in Missouri. The magazine also declined.

The importance of the book series for Echanis' career was reinforced in a formal letter from Major Juan A Montes, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Mike Echanis sent a copy home for his records. It was written on Department of the Army - John F Kennedy Center for Military Assistance, Fort Bragg, NC, letterhead and addressed to Mr. Han Kim, then publisher of Rainbow Publications dated February 1, 1977. "We anticipate more than substantial marketing potential for Mr. Echanis' programs of instruction because this is a virtually untouched market, due to the fact that the military has yet to develop a new program since the O'Neal System was enacted in 1945," he wrote. "Mr. Echanis' training programs exceed any close-quarter combatives manuals, books or training programs that I have viewed up to this time."

Major Montes went on to offer the following. "The possibility of marketing the foreign militaries is potentially high, due to the fact that these underdeveloped countries are usually in the process of developing strong defense programs. With the availability of translation, the prospect of a foreign market is again very substantial...We are sincerely looking forward to the opportunity of advancement made possible by your publishing of this unique HAND TO HAND COMBAT SPECIAL WEAPONS SERIES. In the meantime, if I can be of any assistance to you in any way please do not hesitate to call."

Han Kim would likewise visit with Echanis at EEBI in Managua where he received a tour of the training area used by Echanis. He would meet with President Aanastasio Somoza in February 1978. During the short meeting Echanis gave the president a copy of his now legendary "black book", dedicated to General Somoza and his son, Major Somoza and "to their endless cause and struggle of combating the spread of communism through the utilization of terrorism and subversion in this free world" (Black Belt Magazine, September 1978, "Rainbow Publisher Visits Nicaragua", Page 13).

Han Kim would die on September 9, 1979, - nearly one year after Echanis to the day - of a massive brain hemorrhage (Black Belt Magazine, January 1980, Page 10, "In Memoriam - Han Kim 1936-1979). President Somoza would die a year later, on September 17, 1980, by assassination in Paraguay.

In the recent release of Black Belt Books' Echanis Collection, Henry Taejoon Lee offers in one of three forwards introducing the book that Echanis was unable to instruct civilian students in the art of HWD despite being given the opportunity to by Joo Bang Lee. "My father tried to give Echanis some training in teaching the art by placing him in charge of our school in La Habra, California. The students were constantly getting injured and sent to the hospitals...this type of behavior clearly demonstrated to my father that Echanis could not exist in the civilian sector, so he encouraged him to re-enlist."

Randy Wanner was part of the Echanis training team as well as his Hwa Rang Do link. He was the stateside logistics coordinator for Echanis when Echanis went to Nicaragua and sometimes co-author of articles and books published in Echanis' name. After Echanis' death, Wanner and business partner Robert "Bob" Taylor collaborated on a video instructional program pertaining to gun disarming which received mixed reviews in the martial arts community. However, Colonel Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune and another former Special Forces NCO and editor of Fighting Knives magazine, Greg Walker, both endorsed the training. Echanis had prepared a series of articles on firearms disarming techniques for Soldier of Fortune shortly before his death.