Army dominates marksmanship competition at Fort Benning

Soldiers with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit on Fort Benning dominated the 51st Interservice Pistol Championship held June 14-18 on post.

Winning the overall individual championship for the first time was USAMU shooter Staff Sgt. Robert Park II. Park defeated the USAMU’s Sgt. 1st Class James Henderson, who was the two-time defending champion, by one point. He defeated fellow USAMU soldier Staff Sgt. Patrick Franks by two points to clinch the win.

Park also was among the members of first-place winning team, U.S. Army Blue, giving the Army and the USAMU a clean sweep.

“This is a big deal for me,” Park said in a release. “This is one of the ones I really wanted to win. I’ve come in second twice and third a few times, and it’s a lot of prestige for a military guy to be the best shooter there is in the military. It gives me something to stand on when I teach my marksmanship to soldiers.”

Park, a marksmanship instructor at Fort Benning, is slated to deploy this fall to Afghanistan as part of a team of USAMU soldiers training Afghanistan National Army Soldiers on the fundamentals of marksmanship.

More than 100 marksmen representing all services competed in the 2010 Interservice Pistol Championship. The competition is designed to allow service members to share techniques, develop new ideas and enhance the overall combat readiness of the military.

Shooters compete with four different calibers of pistol, shooting one gun a day in individual and team matches.

“As we are part of a joint force that has been engaged in combat operations for the past nearly nine years, and a joint force that will remain engaged in combat operations for the foreseeable future, the training provided to all of our fellow service members will help shape the course of future battles and propel our nation to future victories,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Hodne, USAMU commander, in a release.

In addition to winning the overall championship, Park also won seven other individual titles, including the 2700 aggregate and .22-caliber individual aggregate championship. Staff Sgt. Timothy Barber (centerfire), Franks (.45-cal) and Staff Sgt. Lyman Grover (service pistol), all with the USAMU, won the other individual aggregate titles. The USAMU’s Sgt. Lawrence Cleveland won the Excellence-in-Competition match.

The high shooters from each service were recognized as champions and won a pistol for their accomplishment. Park won for the Army. The other winners were: Marine Cpl. Luis Esparza; Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matt Bartel; Airmen Col. Mark Hays; and high guardsman/reservist went to Army Reservist Master Sgt. Robert Mango.

Members of the first-place U.S. Army Blue team were Park, Grover, Henderson, Cleveland, Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Wilson and Staff Sgt. Jason Sargent. U.S. Army Grey team took second place and U.S. Army Reserve Team Black earned third place. The South Carolina National Guard team won the post/station championship for smaller teams.

This story was originally published June 23, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Army dominates marksmanship competition at Fort Benning."