FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Five Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division (LI) competed March 12-18 at the 2017 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships at Fort Benning, Ga., and finished 10th among 35 teams.
The competition is an advanced combat live-fire training event sponsored by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit that assesses Soldiers' ability to employ both primary and secondary weapon systems while thinking critically under the stresses designed by event organizers.
The 10th Mountain Division Marksmanship Team tested its skills against 12 other active-duty teams and 22 National Guard and Reserve teams and recorded the second-highest score among U.S. Army Forces Command teams.
Overall, the team placed 12th in both the U.S. Army Service Pistol Team Championship and the U.S. Army Service Rifle Team Championship. They ranked eighth overall in the Multi-Gun Match, where shooters were required to demonstrate weapons proficiency with both the M9 pistol and the M16 rife in timed, scenario-driven stages.
The Fort Drum Soldiers also placed 11th in the Infantry Team Match, which is one of the most-prized awards in the competition. This is a simulated combat assault match where each team member fires simultaneously from the prone position at 400 and then 300 yard targets, with the team advancing to their target lines in the standing alert position.
Staff Sgt. Marc Carman, rife squad leader with 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, earned a silver medal in Rifle Match 7, where he placed 13th out of 169 shooters, and he was named top active-duty rifle shooter at the competition.
Sgt. Arthur Brown, 2nd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, earned a bronze medal in Pistol Match 5, and he was awarded the Excellence in Competition Badge (National Match Rifle).
Brown placed seventh out of 157 competitors in the Multi-Gun Match and finished 36th out of 198 shooters overall in the U.S. Army Small Arms Individual Championship Match.
Also competing on the team were Spc. Ben White, Spc. Hunter Barrett and Pfc. Colton Crist.
The annual training event is open to active-duty Soldiers, members of the Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Reserve Officers Training Corps, U.S. Military Academy teams and individuals enrolled in Officer Candidate School.
The overall U.S. Army Small Arms Championship title was awarded to the Illinois National Guard Small Arms Readiness and Training Team. Second place went to the Iowa National Guard team.
To learn more about the competition, visit www.usamu.com.
Social Sharing