Richard Machowicz

Here comes ex-Navy SEAL Richard "Mack" Machowicz. Roaring, handsome face turned homicidal, black eyes now merciless, Mack rushes me with preternatural speed and grabs my throat in a crushing grip. A glass necklace pops off my neck and sprays beads over the polished wood floor of the Santa Monica Zen Center. Then I'm gone, body still thrashing and flailing, but brain checked out. There but not there. I know, because later I watch the footage of the choking demo.

Here comes ex-Navy SEAL Richard "Mack" Machowicz. Roaring, handsome face turned homicidal, black eyes now merciless, Mack rushes me with preternatural speed and grabs my throat in a crushing grip. A glass necklace pops off my neck and sprays beads over the polished wood floor of the Santa Monica Zen Center. Then I'm gone, body still thrashing and flailing, but brain checked out. There but not there. I know, because later I watch the footage of the choking demo.

Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed Rachel Resnick's article about Richard Machowicz and Bukido ("Zen and the Art of Self-Defense," Nov. 11). I actually met Richard in 2000 and was in one of the first F.I.S.T. classes he instructed. My experiences mirrored Resnick's almost to the letter. I came to Richard after 10 years and two black belts, studying conventional martial arts. I was the person in my class that he choked.

Richard "Mack" Machowicz speaks softly and carries a big laser-guided, over-the-horizon, armor-penetrating stick. Machowicz is the host of Discovery Channel's "Future Weapons," a breathless hour of gun love in which Mack--former Navy SEAL and a keen advocate of peace through superior firepower--pulls the trigger on some of the most fearsome hardware ever procured by the Pentagon. In one episode, he ventilates the night with the fire-spitting 40mm cannon aboard an AC-130 Spectre gunship.