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Oct 2008
In Memory Of
Robert C. Kasper
A Combative Journey
By Fred Bauer
Robert C. Kasper served his country during 1969-1973 as a Marine in the military police and later as a reservist in the Army as a cavalry scout ,1981-1983. While Bob was in the Marine Corp serving in Japan he began his combative career by studying traditional martial arts. After leaving the Marine Corp Bob continued to study in traditional martial arts with Yoshisada Yonezuka. For almost a decade Bob trained with “ Yone “ until one day a light bulb went off in his head. Bob tells this story about being at a black belt competition, watching what was happening on the mats and turned to his training partner stating “ this shit isn’t going to work on the streets“. With that comment came months and months of searching different martial arts schools to find something that was going to work on the streets. That search ended one day in New York when Bob was walking on West 72nd St. and located a small little sign. The sign read “Charles Nelson School of Self Defense“. Bob tells his classic story about meeting “Charlie “. After walking up a flight of stairs he enters a room with newspaper clipping covering the walls, stuffed mail bags hanging from the ceiling and a mat on the school’s floor that was probably from WW-II . Once in the room he saw a frail, little old man behind a desk. After some conversation about what he was looking for Charlie hands Bob a tissue and tells him to place it into his pocket. Bob was then given a training knife and was instructed to attack Charlie. The first time Bob gave the old man a half hearted attack. Charlie yells at Bob to really attack him. Bob gets all pumped up for the attack and then all of a sudden Charlie spits in Bob’s face , Bob feels a knee to his groin, then his legs go out from underneath him. Suddenly he is on that mat face down catching every human odor since WW-II and the little old frail man had disarmed his attacker. Charlie helps Bob up and tells him to use the tissue to clean himself up. Bob had found what he was looking for WW-II Combatives.
In late 1992 Bob founded and became director of the Gung Ho Chuan Association (GHCA). For over a decade and a half this WW-II Marine Corp based combative association became internationally known under his direction. The GHCA began with Bob and only two other Marines, Joe Kanabrocki and John Watson. This small group of Marines trained in their living rooms and researched the principles and tactics used by U.S. and Allied Forces during WW-II. As his passion grew for this type of fighting, Bob’s research lead him to the U.S. Marines Raider Association. After numerous letters and meetings, the Raiders granted Bob written permission to use the Raiders "Gung Ho" ideograph for the GHCA and then made him an honorary Raider. During this time Bob made contact with and had lengthy correspondences with other true WW-II combative greats. Charles Nelson was named Patriarch of the GHCA , WW-II combative forefathers Col. Rex Applegate and Dr. Gordon Perrigard assisted Bob with his continued research. Bob also met Peter Robins from England. Peter, author and combative expert, before his untimely death was the worlds foremost expert on William Fairbairn.
The GHCA’s membership continued to grow over the years. The main goal of the organization was to train WW-II combatives and keep " our kind of fighting alive. " Bob successfully met that goal by training the Marines and other branches of the military , special operation groups, Law Enforcement here in the States and abroad, government personnel, executive protection teams, the U.S. Air Marshals and the Dept. of Defense In the late 90's Bob became the subject matter expert for the Marine Corp and soon after that the Corp adopted the GHCA's combative curriculum as their own.
WW-II combative consists of four elements - unarmed, club, knife and handgun. Bob was extremely knowledgeable in all four , but his true expertise was the knife. He developed the Kni-Com ( Knife Combat ) fighting system which was based on Euro-American techniques which favors thrusting over slashing. Bob and knife maker Al Polkowski developed the "Kasper Fighting Knives" series. Bob also designed the" Grande " for knife maker and trainer Rob Patton. He and knife maker Pat Crawford then created the " Kasper Fighting Folder " which was later put into production by Columbia River Knife & Tool. This was followed by Bob's last design, the " Dragon ". This knife design and function was based on years of research into Dr. Gordon Perrigard's fighting system ARWROLOGY.
During Bob’s combative career he became an internationally known writer and columnist for several magazines including " Gung-Ho, " Fighting Knives " , “ Combat Knives “, " Snapping In " he was also the contributor to Tactical Knives and Editor of the Street Smart column.
In the late 90’s Bob made a career move to further his combative journey. Over the years Bob felt one of the unique qualities of the GHCA was it’s membership . At times close to a quarter of the instructor cadre were being deployed somewhere on real world missions ,training operators for real world missions ,working the streets in one of the United States most violent cities or training civilians to protect themselves from today’s criminal. This added to the credibility of the organization. The GHCA instructors were taking what they learned and putting it to task. Bob was a welder for about twenty years when he made the decision to leave Merck in Rahway N.J. and started to work for DynCorp. While employed with DynCorp Bob was deployed in Sarajevo , Bosnia as part of two different executive protection teams. He was attached to “Team Jevo “ protecting American Ambassador J. Klein and later American banker T. Robinson. After his time in Bosnia, he became DynCorp's program manager for diplomatic security. Leaving DynCorp a few years later, Bob then joined Blackwater as the recruiting manager for the high threat protection mission of the company. Bob was also deployed to Mexico City , Bogotá, Israel and Afghanistan in his work for these companies.
Bob's greatest combative accomplishment took place in December of 2001. The Canadian Society of Arwrologist, ( CSA ) was looking for someone to keep Dr. Perrigard's Arwrology fighting system alive. Their choice, after several years of looking for a trusted candidate was Robert Kasper. The CSA granted Bob permission to start an American Society of Arwrologists and then made him 1st Regent ( Founder ) of the ASA. Over the next few years Bob began to add the principles and techniques of Dr. Perrigard’s Arwrology into the GHCA curriculum. Bob was in the middle of researching and starting a book called American Arwoloogy : The Science of ALL-OUT Hand to Hand FIGHTING.
In mid July 2006 Bob was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer. Throughout Bob’s life he had been diagnosed with cancer three times and had beaten the disease each time. We all had incredibly high hopes of Bob defeating this disease again but on October 6th 2006 at approximately 2300hrs. Robert C. Kasper at the age of 55 died peacefully in his sleep.
Bob will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. He will always be remembered for years to come, just like all the true great combative forefather's of the past. This article is a small start to a large effort to make sure his combative legacy continues.
DO RIGHT , FEAR NO MAN
- UNKNOWN
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