MAJ Thomas Bourne, MSG Kris Beerman, and SFC Joshua Rosendorn made the President’s Hundred. MSG Beerman was in the top 20 and this was SFC Rosendorn’s first.
1SG Sonny Pearman earned the Bronze EIC in CMP 22 Rimfire Pistol Distinguished and SFC Bradford Griffith had a top five finish in the Stock Glock GSSF match.
Two new shooters, SFC Kyle Smith (104th Training) and SSG Trevor Treml (95th Training), atteneded as their first Nationals and EIC events.
Other team shooters were LTC Patrick Sleem, LTC Luis Garcia, CSM Slee, MSG Lance Espinosa, 1SG Brenn Combs, SFC Richard Willis, SFC Larry Utt, SFC Romeo Santos, and SSG Robert Farrell.
The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) hosted the 61st Annual Interservice Pistol Championship, June 12th-18th, on Phillips Range at Fort Benning, GA. The Interservice Championship competition is an outdoor tournament open to U.S. military members’ only. Eligible participants include individuals and teams of the Armed Forces, Active, Guard, Reserve and Military Academy, along with ROTC cadets and Officer Candidate Course (OCS) students. This is a high-level event where most services from across the Department of Defense send their best teams to compete against each other to see who is the “best in the Department of Defense.”
This year the USAR team took 3rd Place in the Overall Team Aggregate. This means that our team performed better than most other competitors within the Department of Defense. The Active Duty US Army Marksmanship unit took 1st place and a team from the National Guard took 2nd place in the team championship. We maintained a commanding lead all week over the Marine Corps Reserve pistol team. Despite finishing slightly ahead of us during the last team match of the week, we were able to maintain our lead and defeat them in the overall team aggregate. This year the AMU and the National Guard had very strong teams.
Performance this year was good considering that we have not been able to practice as normal due to COVID-19 mitigation policies in place during 2020. When we receive ammunition re-supply in July we should be able to issue that out and return to practicing in the hopes of defeating the National Guard teams next year. We are scheduled to receive the correct 185-grain .45 caliber ammunition that the team needs. We also need to continue to pursue requisition of 9mm match ammunition. The ammunition that we have used in the past was match-grade Atlanta Arms ammunition. The M1152 ammunition that we have tried out recently seems to work for competition at the 25 yard line. At some point we still need to procure more match grade 9mm for use at 50 yards. We have enough 9mm match grade ammunition to last for the rest of this season and into next year.
MSG Espinosa was indispensable in helping account for all our team items and update property records. He was hard at work on this all week in addition to shooting.
Overall, this was a successful event with a significant number of “new” shooters in attendance. We look forward to Nationals and continuing to train the next generation of marksmen for the Army Reserve.
COMMENTS: Thank you for the continued support. We definitely appreciate getting some 185-grain match ammunition for .45 caliber matches. We hope to be able to draw some more match grade 22 caliber ammunition soon, as well as some match grade 9mm ammunition at some point.
Soldiers of the 412 Theater Engineer Commandconducted their Table I-VI training as prescribed in TC 3-22.9. As a part of the training and qualification, Maj. Jesse Campbell (PMP, Current Operations Integrating Cell (COIC) Chief / Knowledge Management Officer) led these Soldiers in Preliminary Marksmanship Instruction and conduct of the William James Sutton and Table V (Fast Run) Postal Matches.
The William Sutton Postal Match, named after former Chief, Army Reserve instrumental in establishing Army Reserve marksmanship programs, is conducted on a standard Army 25 meter range available to all Soldiers during Table IV Zeroing.
The Table V (Fast Run) Postal Match uses the Table V practice table with time limits faster than the standard Table VI qualification but run on the same range.
“I’m a competitive shooter and bring that knowledge to my Soldiers,” said Maj. Campbell. “We conducted a PMI and Table I using the PDF slide decks from the USAR Marksman’s website. Having the barricades on hand to conduct PLFS, table II, under night and CBRN conditions at home station was a huge benefit to prepare Soldiers for tables IV-VI the following Battle Assembly.”
The Soldiers found the training valuable. “That’s the most detailed PMI I have ever received in my entire Army career,” said Col. Rudy Santacroce. “The William James Sutton Postal match was easily integrated into a final check of zero and functional elements (SACM) at the 25 meter range before Soldiers moved to the pop-up range to conduct table V and VI and increased Soldier confidence considerably. The twelve rounds allocation is negligible considering.”
In addition to the 25 meter Sutton match, Soliders found the the Fast Run course useful. “That practice (Table V) is no joke,” Staff Sgt. James Wittman said.
