Michael M. Foley graduated from a junior college in 1976 and immediately joined the U.S. Army to train and become a Military Policeman. During his first assignment in Hawaii, he pursued his real passion: the Martial Arts. He was fortunate to have such a “melting pot” of Martial Arts in one place. He was able to learn four different styles of Japanese Karate, Danzan-Ryu Jiujitsu, Aikido, Kickboxing, Japanese and Chinese weapons, and Filipino stick fighting. He was also given the opportunity for practical application of his Martial Arts by working for CID (Criminal Investigation Division) of the Military Police.
Mr. Foley received an Associate of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts; later, a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications; then a Master’s Degree also in communications; and finally a PhD in Multi-Cultural Communications. He attended the Defense Language Institute for Japanese and Korean. He also picked up some language skills in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, Italian, and German.
Mr. Foley joined the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command when he left Hawaii and was trained and assigned to units in every aspect of that command. He attended Ranger school, PSYOP schools, Civil Affairs schools, Special Forces training, as well as many specialty schools he needed to complete these unique missions all around the world.
During a few years of Army Reserve Duty, Mr. Foley was able to pursue a career in the movie industry, and he acted in several full-length movies, four television programs, and a handful of commercials for foreign clients, utilizing his language skills. During this time in his life, he began to write screenplays for motion pictures and also to sing professionally.
No matter what he was doing or where he was assigned, Michael Foley always found a way to teach Martial Arts and to learn from anybody with superior abilities in one form of Martial Arts or another. He has taught in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Germany, Japan, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, Africa. Teaching became the life skill he embraced the most in many subjects, with major emphasis being on Martial Arts, culminating in the development of his own system of personal combat known as Koden Kan Combined Martial Arts. This is the style he teaches still to this day to his many students at the Hand to Hand Combat Training Center in the beautiful Northwest of the United States of America.
The James McLain Series 