I train with a dude who won the combatives tournament last year, so he is one of the BEST in the army at his weight and he is a good blue belt.
What your leaving out is the fact that an "all army tournament" is a few rounds of grappling, (not in a gi similar but yet not a gi) then pankration, then very very close to MMA rules. So...
then add in some guys at a BJJ gym spend 100% on BJJ and no striking no stand up no takedowns. And attend 6 classes a week or more...
Your damn skippy that guy is going to be better on the ground than army combatives. I dont condone that it is the best all out program out there for "MMA". But I will say it is the best program to take average army Soldiers and make them into someone that can easily defeat an "untrained" opponent in unarmed combat. (which is unlikely in the first place but important). Then take into consideration the mere size of the army, trainers and training the whole population and dont forget this is a new program still changing and evolving to the needs of Soldiers.
So basically to put it into perspective we have to train our job IE: MOS (most important) Shoot our weapon and train to kill with it (2nd important) be physically fit for any environment (not 5 minutes in an octagon), wearing in excess of 50 pounds of restrictive gear... You get my drift the basics and the slight chance your weapon does not work and you end up on the ground, it is a great program for the military. and again I mention a blue belt who spends 100% of their time on the ground, in a gi, and trains for nothing else is going to win on the ground but how many Iraqis or Afghanis are doing that... I doubt any at all.
now if we go to war with brazil then we had better change our hand to hand game plan right.
If your worried about my credentials and opinion on this I am a 3 stripe white belt who has not been tapped by a blue belt for as long as i can remember (blah blah blah its only training..I can hear you already) and tap blues on a regular basis so you cant talk shit about the program all you want but is just like the difference between gi and no gi.. it is different, some may say slightly some may say greatly, but from my experience it looks as though it is slight but you add in the small little details (which anyone with experience in bjj knows) then it is way way different. Different grips, different objectives and different rules! Life or death is way bigger than tapout or no tapout.