Kajukenbo

Vern was a warrior through and through.

Vern was EXTREMELY good at martial arts. He had been a student of Adriano Emperado studying the art of Kaju Kembo. This is a hard style of martial arts and is known perhaps for it's "overkill" technique. Rapid, repeated punching is a part of this style.

Once in Hawaii, Vern went out drinking with a friend, Denise H. Denise was also a black belt in martial arts. The bar was full of men, and one of the men tried to take Denise's purse. She, of course, fought back. Before Vern and Denise knew it, they had taken on the entire bar in a fight. Vern and Denise defeated the entire bar.

Vern's favorite hit was using two hands against a man's head. One hand hit the upper jaw and one hand hit the bottom jaw. The result was that the top and bottom jaw would spit, breaking the man's jaw in two.

One time a man saw Vern, and without knowing Vern, pulled his car into OOB, and actually hit Vern with his car because he did not like the look of a Hawaiian. He knocked Vern to the ground with the car, but Vern got back up. The man did not apologize. The man proceeded to laugh thinking that his attack was funny. Vern proceeded to hit the man and put the attacker in the hospital. Vern left the scene, but later the police called Vern and asked him to come down to the station. The attacker wanted to sue Vern. Vern told the policeman that if the police had been attacked with a car, they would have pulled out a gun and shot the attacker. The police said, "Yes, that is true. Thank you for coming downtown." That was that.

Vern was 5'5". I asked him what he did if his attacker was taller than him. This was not that unusual for Vern. He said that you just took out his knees/ legs, then the attacker would be the same height. No problem.

One time a crazy man came into a local restaurant / bar. He proceeded back to the kitchen where Vern and the cooks were discussing sauces and gravies. The man grabbed a meat cleaver and began to threaten the cooks with it. All the cooks backed up against the wall, but Vern stood his ground. Soon the crazy man left the kitchen without killing anyone and headed for the bar area. Vern could "stalk" like no man I have ever seen before. He followed the man out of the kitchen and into the bar. Soon the man grabbed a waitress by the neck. Vern really had to be pushed very hard before he would attack anyone. He knew the ability that he had and only used it if the circumstances were unusually requiring. When this man grabbed the waitress by the neck, it was just too much for Vern. In his lightening speed, he knocked the man out, and then physically threw him out the door of the restaurant. The police were then called. People would later laugh. The did not see Vern move because he was so extremely very fast. All that anyone saw was that the man was standing and then he was not.

Vern and I were visiting the bar / restaurant owned by a friend of ours. We were heading out to Hawaii the next day and had a few personal items to wrap up before leaving. It was in May during the season of the Indy 500 race. I was relaxing and leafing through a magazine while Vern was talking to people. Six men from out of town came into the establishment, and for some odd reason began to pick a fight with me. I sluffed them off, and then they went into a huddle to talk about all six of them ganging up on Vern and me. One man then came over and proceeded to call me all sorts of names. I did not know this man nor had I given him a moments notice. But still he persisted in trying to pick a fight with me. After some time of this man abusing me, Vern finally gave in and closed the distance between him and the attacker. I decided to give the man a break from suffering from Vern's expertise. I hit the man myself. The attacker and Vern both looked at me shocked. Then the attacker moved out of my arm's length and stood out of range calling me names. His friends left and went to get their vehicle so they could make a quick get-away. After being called a few more choice names by the one remaining attacker, I threw a drink over my shoulder straight into his face. When he told the bartender that I should be thrown out because I threw the drink on him, the bartender told him he knew what was going on and asked the jerk to leave. The attacker finished his drink and headed for the door. I am not at all a slow person, but in the time that it took me to stand up off my chair, Vern had gotten out of his chair, crossed the room to the attacker standing by the door, and had shoved him out the door. Since we were scheduled to go to Hawaii early in the morning, Vern did not injure the man. He did not want to deal with the police. The attacker made a comment to Vern as he was preparing to get in his get-away vehicle. He told Vern that he was not very good since he had to bring so many people with him to their fight. Vern could easily fight an entire bar of men just by himself, so when the jerk made this comment Vern was shocked. There were many men inside the bar (many of them Vietnam Vets) who had been watching the whole scene. Everyone of them wanted a piece of the jerks themselves and had followed Vern out of the bar to fight with these men themselves. When Vern turned around and saw the amount of support that he had from everyone, he just burst out laughing. I threw a side kick into the van of the six men placing a nice dent in the side of their vehicle as they drove away.

What is even more funny is that they drove down the road to the next pub. Our friend Cody was in that pub, and when he heard the men talking about me, he knew exactly who they were talking about. Then Cody told them quite physically that they were required to leave that bar as well. They wisely did as he told them. Later Cody told me to stop causing trouble because it got him in trouble as well.

Oh the stories about fights can go on and on. If a person was to grab Vern from behind, Vern's favorite defense was to backfist the attacker and with the same fluid motion then elbow the person in the stomach followed by a grab of the groin. With the control of a man's groin, Vern could control him anyway he wanted to.

If a man were to grab Vern from the front, Vern's favorite tactic was to ram his two fists up between the attacker's arms, and then rack his fists down the man's face and his body.

And if a man was so very foolish as to make a running rush towards Vern, he would merely sidestep and push the man on past. One time a man rushed Vern and ended up with his head stuck in a stain glass door of an establishment. The fire department had to be called to remove the attacker from the glass door.

Vern was an incredible fighter. He did not have a dominant side - his left was just as stong as his right side. He could change the side of dominance, change his rythm, and change his pattern to any 360 degree angle. His style was a combat style however. I once asked him if he thought he was as good as some of the top martial art movie stars. He was a humble man, so he said no. I believe he was as fast or faster. The one difference is that he had the combat style. He did not have a kick or hit that was to be filmed for an audience to view. He had the kick and hit that was the most effective for a true fight.

Vern was completely awsome.

Aloha Vern,
Chris G. Mock