2014 All Army

With the championship comprising 213 competitors from all walks of the Active, National Guard and Reserve components, ARMP team shooters dominated every aggregate of the entire competition.

Starting with the combat rifle event, a NATO-style combat match fired on silhouetted targets from 25 to 500 yards, ARMP Service Rifle shooter Cpt. Samuel K. Freeman won the individual Rifle Championship aggregate. Freeman, a champion Across The Course and Long Range competitor with a string of legendary wins commented, “I’m just here to shoot X’s and deliver the news.” All Army was Cpt. Freeman’s first big combat-type match.

Sgt. 1st Class John Buol, assigned to the ARMP Service Pistol and Combat rosters and former Service Pistol NCOIC, took both the Pistol and Combined Arms Championship aggregates. Buol, a USPSA competitor recruited to the ARMP, found that his new experience with Service Pistol greatly enhanced his accuracy and helped secure his wins.

The overall Championship, a grand aggregate of the three individual aggregates, was won by ARMP Combat Team shooter Master Sgt. Russell Moore. Master Sgt. Moore has displayed an uncanny level of consistent skill that championship-level shooting requires. At the 2014 All Army, Moore was in the top three of individual aggregates. Even in those events he didn’t win, he was very close to the top.

Master Sgt. Moore received a Secretary of the Army Trophy Rifle, a picture plaque of the US Army Small Army Championship Trophy, which will be displayed at the USMAU Headquarters and a Secretary of the Army coin.

ARMP Team shooter Sgt. Major James Mauer, 3rd Battalion Army Reserve Careers Division, earned his last needed “leg” points and was awarded the Distinguished Rifleman Badge through Excellence in Competition (EIC). The Excellence In Competition program was created in 1894 and a total of 3,304 Soldiers have received the Distinguished Rifleman badge since. “Going Distinguished” is a rite of passage for all ARMP Team shooters and Sgt. Major Mauer is warmly welcomed to the club.

2014 World Cup

Members of the Army Reserve Competitive Marksmanship Program took medals at the 2014 International Shooting Sport Federation Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, Ga. March 26 through April 3.

Of the three shooters from Team USA who took medals at the ISSF event, hosted at the Army Marksmanship Team home range, two of them are Reservists.

Sgt. 1st Class Keith Sanderson, of Honolulu, Hawaii and assigned to the 4960th Multi-Functional Training Brigade, took Gold in the International Rapid Fire match. To take first, Sanderson had to beat Christian Reitz of Germany, who holds the World Record and is currently ranked number one in the event. Sanderson said, “Before my injury in 2009, I was trading places with him. He always makes the final and is very good.”

Rapid Fire consists of strings of five shots fired at 25 meters in decreasing time limits on electronically-scored targets. “I’ve been busy training and qualifying Marines in Hawaii and haven’t had time to train the way I like. I focused on the four second stage. It seemed to work out,” Sanderson said. “Entering into the final, it was mathematically impossible for me to lose at that point but that last string was still difficult. The pressure was still high, just to prove I truly earned the win. I ended up with a 50 out of 50 on that last string.”

Pfc. Nick Mowrer, of Fort Carson, Colo. and assigned to the 420th Engineer Brigade, competed in Free Pistol and Prone Rifle, taking Bronze in the rifle event. In addition to the medal, Mowrer’s performance earned an International Distinguished badge, making him the 38th American in United States history to go Triple Distinguished, having already earned Distinguished Rifleman and Distinguished Pistol Shot ratings. Sanderson and Mowrer are the only two currently-serving servicemen in the entire United States Department of Defense to hold the Triple Distinguished rating.

Mowrer overcame a recent ISSF rule change scoring the entire Prone Rifle event, including qualification, by decimals and not just integers. “In the past, qualifications were scored as whole integers and only the finals were by decimals,” the shooter explained. “Now, every shot for record in Prone and Air Rifle events are scored to a tenth of a point. It basically takes the target from ten scoring rings to one hundred.”

With their wins at this World Cup, Sanderson and Mowrer have advanced and are on track for the 2016 Olympics.