Eight U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit members competing for Olympic berths

Sergeant First Class Eric Uptagrafft, who hails from Phenix City, will join seven other United States Army Marksmanship Unit soldiers on Friday at the 2016 USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol Smallbore Olympic Trials at Fort Benning.

Pre-event training begins Friday with the competition set to begin on Saturday.

“(Friday) is our official practice day,” Uptagrafft said. “They’re going to run everything (like the competition), but it’s just practice. We start at 9 (a.m.). I probably won’t shoot a full match; I really don’t want to mess with the squirrely wind too long, so I’ll just shoot a little bit, confirm things are going good, and call it a day.

“Saturday is the first day of competition, so we’ll go out there, shoot one course fire, which is 50 shots for prone, and then the top eight people from that will shoot the final. The final is between eight and 20 shots, depending on how you do. That sequence will be the same for all three days of the competition.”

The scoring system for this week’s tournament is based on the results of the competition and the finals, where the Olympic rounds are based solely on the finals, Uptagrafft said.

“Whoever has the most points after the three rounds makes it on the (Olympic) team, and there’s only one spot,” said Uptagrafft.

Three marksmen have already punched their ticket to Rio de Janeiro this summer: Michael McPhail, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Matt Emmons, and two-time Olympian Keith Sanderson.

Uptagrafft is also no stranger to the world stage, having qualified as an Olympian twice.

“The next four days will tell the whole story,” Uptagrafft said. “Obviously, I’d love to go again. I learned a lot the last two times going, and hopefully I can put that knowledge to good use.”

Preparation is key for the competition as well, said Uptagrafft.

“I shoot only one event, but I shoot it a lot,” he said. “Obviously, I have to do Army PT, so that keeps me in good overall fitness, but my endurance comes from shooting a lot.”

Uptagrafft’s wife, Sandra, is also competing in the women’s sport pistol portion of this week’s competition. She and Eric met at a shooting match in Turkey back in 2000.

Competing in these kind of competitions hones Uptagrafft’s skills in the Army as well and helps him give back to soldiers and civilians alike.

“We spend 85 percent of our time training and competing in competitions,” Uptagrafft said. “That gives us the technical expertise to teach others how to shoot or teach the (Army instructors) how to shoot, so the Army is taking our expertise gained through competition and passing it down the line to our warfighters to be more effective.

“The rest of the time, I’m either teaching, doing clinics — part of our mission is connecting America’s Army to America’s people — so we spend a lot of time teaching juniors and collegiates so they’re more effective at their kind of shooting. That helps recruit for shooting and the Army in general.”

Uptagrafft has the home team advantage this week, having been in the area for the better part of three decades.

“I’ve been in this area on and off since 1987, and I like it here. It kind of grows on you. Fort Benning is a great post. It’s got everything you need, and it’s welcoming and helpful,” he said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Eight U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit members competing for Olympic berths."