[3] Echanis received the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), Purple Heart and Bronze Star with "V" device for actions during a company size NVA ambush in which he is credited with saving the lives of six of his comrades.
The closing paragraph of the Army's award narrative states: Spec 4 Echanis' aggressive spirit and undaunted courage were decisive in preventing the anhilation [sic] of the truck and its personnel.
Echanis fought several times as a boxer in the heavyweight class but left boxing to continue his study of the Eastern martial arts.
Echanis developed a two-week hand-to-hand Instructor combat course sponsored by the United States Army John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance (USAJFKCENMA) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Joo Bang Lee, founder and then leader of the World Hwa Rang Do Association affixed his personal seal to each certificate which conferred Black Belt ranking on the participant.
[9][10] Echanis' name is listed as the author of three books about hand-to-hand combat: Much of the text material is verbatim duplicated in Hwarang-do founder Joo Bang Lee's book Hwarangdo also published by Ohara Press, supporting the claim that Echanis was a public front man for the Lee brothers in their attempt to promote Hwarang-do as the official US Special forces close-quarters fighting method.
Echanis was historically a free style fighter and after his wounding and recovery he traveled around the US challenging and successfully fighting a number of black belt ranked studio owners/operators.
This was at the request of SOF publisher and editor Robert K. Brown, well before the 1978 printing of the SOF-paid-for book series ("Si Gung Art Gitlin – Haak Lung Chuan", by Michael DeAlba, Fighting Knives Magazine, January 1996, p. 71).
[11][12] In an article published in SOF written after Echanis' death by Randy Wanner, the author, playing the role of the attacker, is seen using one of the prototype Warriors he had made for himself.