In 1951, General Lemay appointed Emilio "Mel" Bruno, his judo teacher, a former national American Athletic Union wrestling champion and fifth degree black belt in judo, to direct a command wide judo and combative measures program. Bruno devised a program combining techniques from aikido, judo, and karate. In 1952 the Air Training Command took over the program. The Commanding General was General Thomas Power. Because of the deficiency in qualified instructors, Power sent two classes of twenty four airmen to train at the Kodokan Judo Institute for several weeks. Based upon the success of this trial and after an official delegation from the Kodokan toured SAC bases in the United States, Bruno set up an eight-week training course at the Kodokan. Students trained eight hours a day, five days a week, and upon return to the United States were assigned throughout SAC. The course was a Japanese designed mix of judo, aikido, karate, and taihojutsu.