Michael Echanis - Martial Arts

Martial Arts

After his medical discharge in December 1970, Echanis returned home to Ontario where he discussed plans to attend the University of Oregon the following fall. He began his study of Ninjitsu under Toshiro Nagato. According to a family member Echanis trained for a short time as a boxer during this period. This was under Al Barros, who lived and trained fighters in Boise, Idaho (Michael L Echanis/Greg Walker 2012). Echanis took up weight lifting going from roughly 150 pounds to 210 over the course of a summer. Echanis fought several times as a boxer in the heavyweight class but left boxing to continue his study of the Eastern martial arts.

Echanis had become known as a colorful hand-to-hand combat instructor for the Special Forces, SEALs, and other military groups. He and Chuck Sanders were childhood friends and Sanders was a qualified "Green Beret" and assigned to the 5th SFG(A). Echanis was given a high-ranking black sash in Hwa Rang Do and was the ascribed author of three military-oriented hand-to-hand combat books based on this Korean martial art. Echanis' rank as a "Sulsa", or the Hwa Rang Do equivalent of a Ninja, was given to him by Hwa Rang Do founder Joo Bang Lee. Echanis' involvement with Lee and Hwa Rang Do was less than three weeks in duration training wise, with most of his instruction provided by Lee's then senior Black Belt, Randy Wanner. According to Wanner Joo Bang Lee allowed that he (Wanner) could teach anything Echanis wished whenever he came through southern California. Wanner has stated Echanis was only interested in killing techniques when he trained with Randy. Bob Duggan, president of ESI in Colorado, has said he was present when Joo Bang Lee treated Echanis' injured leg in a holistic manner. However the association was primarily one of business between Echanis and Joo Bang Lee.

An interview with Joo Bang Lee in Fighting Knives Magazine, conducted by Erik Remmen and Henry Taejoon Lee offered the following regarding both Echanis and the title of Sulsa - "...came to me looking for the wrong things. He was all pride and ambition, wanting to learn how to become invincible. I saw that he had the burning desire necessary to overcome any obstacle to obtain his goal. So I first cured his leg which could not be used to full potential because of his gun shot wound, received from his tour in Vietnam. After he was healed, he learned the power of healing and became more appreciative of life which instilled in him the humility necessary to be a warrior with character, for humanity and not against it. I realized at that time he would be the best candidate to spread this art in the U.S. military which I have always wanted to do since I came to the United States...so I trained him specifically in the ways of Amja (Art of the Shadows) and Un Shin Bop (Method of Invisibility) which was all in the training of becoming Sulsa (Korean counterpart to the Japanese Ninja which was created over a thousand years before the emergence of Ninjitsu)'(Greg Walker, Editor in Chief, Fighting Knives Magazine).

"When he had reached a proficient level, he contacted his friend in the Green Berets (Chuck Sanders) and I gave him permission to develop the Special Forces/Ranger Hand-to-Hand Combat/Special Weapons School for instructors...I had hoped Michael could have maintained Hwa Rang Do in the military where it would serve the greatest benefit, but unfortunately he died in 1978 and I have lost a good student and a good son."

Not being able to remain in southern California with the Hwa Rang Do organization he left to join his friend, Sergeant Chuck Sanders, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Echanis could not re-enlist due to his medical discharge from the Army in December 1970. Echanis developed a two week hand-to-hand Instructor combat course sponsored by the United States Army John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The program was authorized in December 1975 and Echanis was formally appointed the "Senior Instructor and Advisor to the USAJFCENMA Hand to Hand Combat/Special Weapons School for Instructors" in a Memorandum For Record signed by Major Jerry C. Williams, then Chief, PSD, at the JFK Center. Six courses were presented in 1976. Echanis' combatives program was titled the "Hwarangdo Hand to Hand and Special Weapons Program".

The USAJFKMA, then commanded by Major General Robert C. Kingston, issued formal Certificates of Particiption in the "Hwarang Do/Hand to Hand Combat School" to include the Instructor Course the participant attended. Both MG Kingston and Colonel Timothy G Cannon, Chief of Staff, signed the certificates. Grandmaster Joo Bang Lee, founder and then leader of the International Hwarang Do Federation affixed his personal seal to each certificate which conferred Black Belt ranking on the participant.

Echanis then moved on to Little Creek, Virginia and A.P. Hill where, courtesy of Richard Marcinko, then the commanding officer of SEAL Team 2, he taught three 2-week H2H courses for the SEALs. These courses, titled NAVY SEAL H2H Combat School, were attested to in a memorandum provided to Echanis by LT Ira B Stevens, USNR. The coursework reflected the same subjects Echanis taught at Fort Bragg but in a condensed version. Chuck Sanders assisted in the course instruction.

Grand Master Joo Bang Lee would attend Echanis' funeral services in Ontario, Oregon, as an honorary pall bearer. One week later he would host a traditional Buddhist memorial ceremony for Michael Echanis in Downey, California, which the family attended.