When was Randy Couture in the army? Service history explored amid UFC legend’s accident

UFC legend Randy Couture, who previously served in the army from 1982 to 1988, was injured in a car crash while practicing for an upcoming event at a race track earlier this week.

According to USA Today, not many details of the accident have been released. According to reports, Couture was airlifted to a nearby burn centre in Kansas after he suffered first and second-degree burns. He is expected to make a complete recovery following the accident on Tuesday.

According to the New York Post, Randy Couture's accident comes just months before his debut race under the National Hot Rod Association. After retiring from UFC in 2011, Couture, who had long shown an interest in sports car racing, is currently looking forward to making a career in the sport at an NHRA event later this year.

More about Randy Couture and his military career

Randy Couture has had numerous careers before making his UFC debut in 1997. According to the US Department of Defense, Couture served in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army, which he joined at the age of nineteen, soon after graduating from high school. During an interview with Bloody Elbow, the famed mixed martial artist recalled how joining the army helped him support his family. He said:

"I joined the army in 1982, I had gotten married very young, had a kid on the way, and needed to find a way to support a family. The army allowed me to do that.I thought wrestling was done for me at that time, with all of those responsibilities. Little did I know my first duty station would be in Hanau, West Germany, and I ended up back on a wrestling mat."

Randy Couture further added that he was stationed in West Germany at the height of the Cold War in 1982, when one of the main sports that soldiers engaged in was wrestling. That experience would help him prepare for the next step of his journey, which would eventually lead to his participation in the Olympics. He said:

"There were five million soldiers stationed in central Europe at that time at the peak of the Cold War. Wrestling and boxing were two huge sports for the army. I ended up making the all-army wrestling team. I won a couple of US Army Europe championships and an inner-service championship or two, and then ultimately qualified for the 1988 Olympic trials, as a soldier, wrestling Grecko."

Randy Couture, who achieved the rank of a Sergeant during his six years in the army, was honorably discharged, after which he attended college at Oklahoma State University. He said:

"It was a pretty formative time in my life, and I think I developed a particular discipline and mindset while wearing Army green. It was there that I learned I could compete at an international level and really developed the mindset and the confidence to go out and win. That got me through three or four years of college at Oklahoma State and on into mixed martial arts and winning world championships as a fighter. It all started with the Army uniform."

During his interview with Bloody Elbow, Randy Couture further shared how wrestling for various teams in the army helped him catch the attention of coaches from various colleges. He said:

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“That got the attention of a lot of college coaches. I never got any love really out of high school. I was a one-time state champion from Washington; I grew up in Seattle. So, I didn’t really get any scholarship offers.Now, here I am, I’m an alternate on the 1988 Olympic team as a soldier, wearing the uniform. All these college coaches started calling; they found out I had four years of eligibility.

Randy Couture, who later studied foreign language and literature in college, is currently recuperating at the Kansas burn center.

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