"Monsters are real and they walk among us.
Plan Accordingly" -Ed Carver

Combat, Faith, Heritage - A legacy reborn from the battlefields of Eastern Europe during World War I & II.

144 Combat is an Arizona-based Warrior Flow Combatives affiliated self-defense training outfit serving the Phoenix area. We provide hands-on, reality-based self-defense training rooted in Warrior Flow Combatives, designed for men and women seeking to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Our Philosophy
If you've made it here, chances are you're looking
for something more than the traditional mass-marketed "self-defense" systems that treat an attack on you or your loved ones like something to be handled with sportive techniques. Unfortunately for them: 

"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie"
-Miyamoto Musashi

At 144 Combat we subscribe to the paradigm of Martial Arts as War. There is war/combat and there is sport. The two are wholly separate. We understand that defending yourself, whether man or woman, from predators is not subject to sportive rules. It is nothing short of war in a microcosm. We train you to overcome fear and find the warrior within. Join us.

Mindset matters and at 144 Combat it's personal...


Our Roots
First and foremost: “Blessed be the Lord my Rock who trains my hand for war and my fingers for battle.”
-Psalm 144:1The Warsaw Uprising began on August 1, 1944. A moment in which men, women, and even children rose up in defiance of their occupiers and fought with extraordinary courage for 63 days despite abandonment and betrayal from their supposed allies. 144 Combat is also a roundabout nod to this date, encompassing their bravery and sacrifice.
Cześć i chwała bohaterom!! Pamiętamy

Our Legacy
My great-grandfather was a member of Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (POW). A secret Polish military group founded in 1914 by Józef Piłsudski to fight for Poland’s independence from Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian occupation. It conducted sabotage, gathered intelligence, and trained soldiers, playing a key role in Poland’s regained statehood in 1918.

He fought in the battles against the Bolsheviks in 1920, was wounded three times, and was awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military decoration. After the war, he became a founding settler of Osada Kurhany, a Polish Military Settlement in Ukraine. There, he built a farm with three large lakes, raising fish and wheat. The barn was actually a concrete bunker—and it was in that bunker, during a night of heavy gunfire, that my great-grandmother gave birth to a son. Gun battles were not uncommon on the settlements; life and death were neighbors.

The family lived in a basic wooden house with a dirt floor until they built a modern home for the time, moving in just in September 1939. The timing was tragic. Within weeks, my great-grandfather was captured by the Soviets. Great-grandmother found him at a stop on a prisoner transport train and bribed a guard to see him. Face-to-face, he told her: "I cannot abandon my men. They are my responsibility." That was the last she ever saw of him. He was taken to Starobelsk and became one of the tens of thousands of victims of the Katyn Massacre. He would be posthumously promoted to Major in 2007.

Great-grandmother, her daughter (my grandmother), and her two sons were forced to escape back through enemy lines to Poland. There, they all took part in the Warsaw Uprising.

My grandmother served in the Armia Krajowa (AK). She was a liaison officer for the "Anna" Company (1st Platoon) of the "Gustaw" Battalion. She carried reports and intelligence sewn into her clothing, traversing the Warsaw sewer system because movement above ground meant facing bombers, artillery, snipers, and tanks. She survived the Wola Massacre, fought in the ruins of the Old Town, and escaped through the canals. After the capitulation, she was sent to forced labor on a farm in Germany. At war's end, she returned to Poland to search for her fallen comrades. It was during this journey that she met my grandfather.

My grandfather was a man forged in exile, born in Siberia due to his grandfather's involvement in the January 22, 1863 uprising against the Czar. A newly commissioned lieutenant when the Nazis invaded, he fought bravely in defense of Poland before being captured on September 27, 1939. He spent 5.5 years as a Prisoner of War. Towards the end of the war, as German forces retreated, he chose a 500km forced march rather than be left for the Soviets—a wise choice that saved his life. He survived the war and lived out his days in peace, my grandmother by his side.

The Brothers:
While my grandmother and their mother fought in the Old Town (Mother as a cook for "Gustaw" Battalion, Grandmother and her older brother in the same company), the younger brother served in the elite "Baszta" Regiment in the City Center. Scattered across Wola, the Old Town, and Mokotów, they faced execution, starvation, and the systematic destruction of their home. Yet, all four survived.

It is from this lineage of warriors forged in fire, unbroken in spirit, choosing death before dishonor, that 144 Combat was born.

Ed Carver holds the rank of Senior Instructor in Warrior Flow Combatives and member of the International Warrior Arts Association (IWAA). He is a former Army Officer, AH-64D Apache pilot, and combat veteran. He is currently working as a Criminal Intelligence Analyst and certified Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Remote Pilot, and a Subject Matter Expert to various government agencies. He is a contributor to the
Warrior Scholar Ideal Blog and the Warrior Flow Combatives guide A Mind for Danger.

Join Us

Find the warrior within at 144 Combat. Contact us to start your journey.

Combat 144 Privacy PolicyWhat We Collect: Combat 144 collects information you provide via the contact form (e.g., name, email, message) to respond to inquiries about in-person training.How We Use It: Your information is sent directly to our email and used solely to contact you regarding your training inquiry. We do not store your data on our website.Third Parties: Your data is not shared with third parties, except as required to process emails (e.g., our email provider).Data Security: We take reasonable steps to protect your information. However, email transmission is not fully secure, and we are not liable for unauthorized access to data sent via email.Your Rights: You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your data by using the contact form on our website.Contact: For questions or data requests, please use the contact form on our websiteLast updated: July 6, 2025