By the Swallow
Mahone, “My relationship with Echanis”. You provoked some very old menories that have been stirring around in my little head, since I fell on to this Thread. It has taken me a few days to sort them out, and I had to dig out my old notebooks. I confess to ambivalence. As Donnelly posted on the his thread, there is the Myth and there is the Reality.
It is never simple to figure out what part is myth and what part is reality. Echanis is more than an enigma, he is a phenomenon. Here we are discussing a man nearly twenty-five years after his rather messy assassination, and it is as if it occurred last month. People collect his books as priceless jems while others consider them the flotsam and jetsam of martial arts detritus. I am afraid that I am to be counted among the latter.
But let me tell you about the phenomenon. I will start with last night. I had dinner last night with Pete Dordal, a 1984 ESI graduate and a very bright and successful Protection Specialist. When he came to ESI, he was a Force Recon Marine; for four years, Dortal was Marine Sniper and special tactics Instructor in all manor of stealth. He was an admirer of Echanis; used his material in instruction, especially in regards to Sentry Takeout (unfortunately, Randy Wanner should have received the credit here, but that is part of the puzzle). During our dinner, the subject of Echanis came up, and I mentioned the discussion going on in this Thread. I, of course, expressed my distain for the phenomenon and the man, and made reference to his “Love of Death” pointing out that he may have acquired it while he served in Vietnam as a Sniper with “29 Confirmed Kills” Ref. Echanis. Dordal looked puzzled, and said, “there is no reference to Echanis being a Sniper.” Dordal would know because he made a careful study of Vietnam Snipers both Marine and Army as part of his instuctional syllabus. Then he said, “Was he in Vietnam?” and I said, “well ****, he said he was in Vietnam and that he was a Sniper with 29 confirmed kills.” I believed it because it confirmed the reasons that I didn’t like him. Then I had to laugh at myself. I never investigated because the myth fit my pre-conceived notions of the man and his persona.
It also fit that he hired out to work for Somosa; I didn’t like him for that either, but that is not the point. As for his anti-communism, he would have just as happily worked for the Sandinistas, if the money was better. He was assassinated because he decided to attach his star to a conspiracy by the top Field Commader of the Army, Jose Alegrett to over throw Somosa…the person who paid Echanis’ salary. The conspiracy was uncovered, and Somosa had the problem snuffed out…but Somosa got his a few years later in Uruguay when some revolutionaries hit him with a rocket that ripped his armoured limosine to shreds, and the occupant’s heads with it.
Well, what does all this prove? Nothing I suppose; nothing has ever been proven much less investigated, but I choose to believe it. It fit the myth of Echanis.
In my opinion, he was not a skilled martial artists, but the myth says he was phenomenonal. The myth says he was a warrior, a Vietnam Vet with a career of 29 kills; the vets say, they never heard of him. The myths say that he was the first Ninja; others think that he was a good publicists. He knew how to get published. Even when he took all the money left in the La Habra school, and disappeared into the night, ending up in Fort Bragg to teach classes in hand to hand combat, stealth and other fun things, Joo Bang Lee welcomed hiim back when he saw the opportunity to reach elite military forces with little known art of Hwa Rang Do. So, with approval from Black Belt in hand, Mike posed with the Grand Master to prove his lineage. Those of us around the Headquarters scatched our collective heads, and shrugged, “it is the same ol’, same ol’”. Its business.
During this period, I was spending more and more time in Colorado, and the Aspen Academy of Martial Arts. In 1980, I started ESI and never returned to California.
By 1986, my relations with Hwa Rang Do and the Lee Family had deteriorated to point of no return. Coincidentally, it started over an article in Black Belt by Henry Lee, Joo Bang Lee’s eldest son, who wrote that Mike Echanis was the first American student of Hwa Rang Do. Now, I took umbrage at this obvious mis-statement of Hwa Rang Do history, and I wrote an open letter to Henry and all the other instructors. Henry responded in typical Little Master form, and I engaged him. It is one of my favorite blood sports. It was probably motivated by ego, jealousy and other cheap shot base human emotions, but it was also a lie.
After Henry suggested that I prove my loyalty to Hwa Rang Do, by appointting his father, Joo Bang Lee, President of ESI, and I suggested that Henry Lee was “a vain glorious pimp” and in the same letter, I wrote uncautiously, “You presumptous ass!” I was no longer held in high esteem in Downey. It was another decade before I became a criminal, and my dastardly acts posted on the Web. I note with irony that after ten years or more of being blacklisted by Black Belt, Joo Bang Lee is on the cover of current issue of Black Belt, and Henry Lee is demonstrating technique on a willing opponent…always the best kind.
So, all the little threads come together here. Odd, I think, but you never know what comes across the path, or which way you will turn until you are faced with a choice. I have made a number of them, and many of them very bad ones. Mahone, I am not going to re-tell my colorful revolutionary days because I published those in Gung Ho in 1984, and left those ideas in their grave more than a quarter century ago. But I just want to make one last comment about Myth and Reality regarding Echanis.
In the case of Echanis, the Myth is great, and the Reality quite another story. Yet, I must admit that the myth of Echanis has inspired a lot of martial artists to pursue their own dream. One cannot deny it, and it is a good thing. So, I understand the feeling of some who see stripping the Myth as cheap and rank.
Myth has driven many of us towards some unattainable dream. I personally participated in it as did others. I fomented other myths regarding my art, Hwa Rang Do. When I wrote the introduction to Joo Bang Lee’s “The Ancient Art of Hwa Rang Do”, I fostered the myth of the direct lineage descent of the ancient warrior art and the modern creation of Joo Bang Lee. I wanted to believe that myth; it sustained me in a way that no other could. To believe that this ancient knowledge was preserved by hermit monks for hundreds of years gives the art a completeness, a historic connection to something of value, almost holy. But alas, it is a myth, like a lot of other things I have believed in. Should I make fun of it? Cheapen it by pointing out the historic impossibility? Discourage others from believing? Well my friends, I need a little help on that question.
Mahone, thanks for the provocation. Farang
Bob Duggan
[This message has been edited by The Swallow (edited
[i]
Rogue, you’re an @ss!! Watchman
Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble. It sounds swell when you write about it, but it’s hell when you meet it face to face in a dark and lonely place.
Louis L’Amour
BTW, did I mention that Rogue was an @ss? Watchman[/i]
