Inter-Service International
Pistol Championships

All-Service Marksmanship Competitions
To Be Conducted Annually

Interservice small-arms competitions between all U. S. Armed Services, including the Coast Guard, Reserve forces, National Guard and ROTC units, are to be conducted on an annual basis, if practicable, beginning with Calendar Year 1961.

In support of the new service-wide competitions, the memorandum noted that "small-arms are the basic, personal weapons of every military man and skill in their use increases his confidence, professional capability and versatility."

The military chiefs further agreed that a "growing awareness of these facts has resulted in several interservice small-arms competitions which have aroused enthusiasm and a healthy interservice rivalry.

"The importance of fostering continued interest in marksmanship training, thereby increasing the effectiveness of all segments of our Armed Forces, is evident and warrants the continuance of interservice small-arms competitions."

The agreement calls for the Air Force to conduct the interservice pistol match; the Navy and Marine Corps to sponsor the rifle competition; and the Army to be responsible for international-type matches.

Leatherneck magazine, February, 1961

McMillan Leads Marines In Military Pistol Tourney

LACKLAND AFB, Tex. - Marine Capt. W. W. McMillan, the Corps' shooting ace who captured a gold medal for the U.S. in the summer Olympics in Rome, will lead a Marine team against the all-stars of the Army, Navy and Air Force in the third annual Inter-Service Pistol Tournament here this month.

McMillan holds the .45 caliber slow fire inter-service record won in 1959. He will be pitted against Navy man Gasper DeFino, the 1960 inter-service champ; Army's William Blankenship, winner of many national and international matches, and Air Force's Franklin C. Green, who has been recording scores close to the championship mark of 2640 in recent events.

The Leatherneck Olympic title holder is reportedly the first American to break a world record in international competition.

Navy Times, February 11, 1961

Ranges Receive 'Face-Lifting' For International Matches

Registrations are already being received for the 1st Annual Armed Forces International Shooting Competition scheduled for March 26 to April 2, according to Lt. Col. Burton C. Boatright, match executive at The Infantry Center.

The entries, from the Air Force, are the first of over 150 expected from crack marksmen from all branches of the Armed Forces. The competition is the first of its type and scale to be held in this country, Col. Boatright said.

All six of The Infantry Center's international - type ranges will be used during the competition sponsored by the Continetal Army Command and conducted under International Shooting Union rules.

Operating the huge event will be personnel of the Army Match Headquarters staff under the direction of Col. Boatright.

Preparations are already under way for the Armed Forces event and the Third U.S. Army Rifle and Pistol Championships scheduled to open at Fort Benning April 3.

Easley and McAndrew Ranges, sites of the latter competition are receiving a "face-lifting" by a platoon of engineers.

The 2nd Platoon of Company B, 577th Battalion; 151st Engineer Group, under the command of 2nd Lt. Mann G. Davis, expects to have completed by March 1 work on over a quarter mile of target pits. Protective shorings and sandbags are being strengthened or replaced, metal work sandblasted and painted, and target storage houses repaired. Sfc. Frank L. Johnson is assisting Lt. Davis with the project.

The Third Army championships are slated to continue until April 13.

The Bayonet, Friday, February 17, 1961

Olympic Type Shooting

New Armed Forces Matches Launched Here This Month

The First Annual Armed Forced International Shooting Competition slated at The Infantry Center March 26 to April 3 will be the first of its type and size ever held on post.

Some 150 of the most accomplished marksmen the Armed Forces can produce are expected to participate in the meet which will be sponsored by the Continental Army Command. Sanctioned by the chiefs of staff of the respective Armed Forces and the National Rifle Association, the competition will be on World Championships and Olympic levels.

"Competition on International-type ranges among marksmen of the several active Services has been designed to further this top-level brand of marksmanship through concerted effort of the Armed Forces," said Lt. Col. Burton C. Boatright, Infantry Center match executive who will direct the shoot.

According to Col. Boatright, the program will see eight ranges and courses of fire used who comprise the greater part of America's hopes in future world competition.

Before 1955, he said, the United States evinced but little interest in so-called world marksmanship competition which called for a type of shooting far removed from that which America considered to be in the best interests of her national defense. Shooter representation in such competition was largely on an individual or personal basis, he said.

In answer to the Soviet challenge flung about that time. However, America decided that her marksmen and armorers could and would meet that challenge if the opportunity was provided, the match executive explained.

Firing strange weapons over strange courses under unfamiliar rules, a U.S. team with but little preparation went to Moscow in 1958 and succeeded in snatching several world championships and gold medals from under Soviet noses, he said.

Since that time, the Army Advanced Marksmanship Unit at Benning has the military program to provide skilled competitors and Army marksmen have won the lion's share of U.S. team slots.

Major world shoots toward which military marksmen are working are the Cairo meet in 1962, the 1963 Pan-American Games in Brazil and the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Col. Boatright said.

Events programmed for the coming post meet include International Trapshooting, International Skeet Shooting, 300-meter and 50-meter Rifle, 50-meter Pistol, 25-meter Pistol, Running Deer and Running Roebuck Matches.

Competitors from other services who have already indicated they'll be on the firing lines are Marine Corps Capt. William W. McMillan, world and Olympic rapid fire pistol champion, and Navy Torpedoman First Class Casper P. DeFino, 50-meter pistol marksman.

The Bayonet, Friday, March 24, 1961

In International Matches

Records Surpassed By Army, Marines

New records and a perfect score were the tale of the closely contested First Annual Armed Forces Shooting Competition, held at Fort Benning last week, with the Army's marksman taking 20 of the 23 titles at stake.

Competing against top flight riflemen, pistolmen and shot-gunners from the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, the Army shooters, all of the Army Advanced Marksmanship Unit, accounted for 10 of the 13 individual matches and swept all 10 team events.

New Records

Four world's records were surpassed and one equaled during the matches which were of the style seen in world championships and in Olympic competition. All new marks set cannot be entered as world records since they were not fired in world competition but set as Armed Forces records.

The Army's Major Gene S. Stalcup was the only contestant to turn in a perfect score. In the Individual Skeet Match, Major Stalcup exceeded the world mark by one point when he broke 200 out of 200 clay targets for the perfect score. The standing world record for the match is 199x200 established in the Pan-American Games of 1959.

Major Stalcup earlier smashed 100 straight targets to lead the Army Skeet Team to victory in the matches.

A second world's record was surpassed when the Army's International Center Fire Pistol Team shot a score of 233x400. The score exceeds but does not replace the present world mark set by a Czech team in 1958.

Individual Honors

A Marine was the first non-Army competitor to break into the winners column. Gunnery Sgt. James E. Hill downed 22 competitors in the 50-meter International Free Rifle Match of 40 shots from the kneeling position. Sgt. Hill shot out 386 of 400 points to win.

The Army's 1st Lt. Tommy G. Pool, shooting in the three position International Free Rifle Match at 50 meters, fired 40 shots to tie the world record of 398 out of 400 points in the prone position and then went on to pass the kneeling position mark by shooting a 392 out of 400.

In the standing position he totaled 366 points for a record breaking total for the match of 1156x1200. His kneeling score topped the existing mark by one point while his three-position total surpassed the recognized record by seven points.

The Marine Corps Capt. William W. McMillan firing in the Rapid Fire Pistol Match posted a 593 out of 600 points to by-pass the world mark for this match by one point.

The Bayonet, Friday, April 7, 1961

McMillan Unofficially Breaks Another World Pistol Mark

Capt. William W. McMillan unofficially broke by one point the world record rapid fire silhouette pistol score last week in the first annual Armed Forces International Competition at Fort Benning, Ga.

The only MCS shooter to compete in the event, Capt. McMillan's win came in the same type match as the one in which he won the first United States Gold Medal awarded to a Marine for marksmanship during the 1960 Olympic Games.

It was also the first ever awarded to an American for this event since its inception in 1936. During this match, he bested a Russian and a Finn in a shoot off following a tie at the end of the regulation course.

Of the 23 trophies awarded in last week's international competition, the U.S. Army captured 2 with the remaining three going to Marine marksmen. They were the amazing win by McMillan and a dual victory by Marine GySgt. James B. Hill who won both the individual kneeling 50 meter rifle match with a 386x400 and the English Match with a total two-event score of 583x600.

The course in which McMillan took top honors consisted of firing at five different targets from a distance of 25 meters. This meant that during a four to eight-second interval, five rounds had to hit five targets.

When asked about the course, he said "The most difficult part of it was the fact that a shooter could not bring his arm up before the targets began their facing movement."

He went on by saying "I timed myself during practice runs and found that the maximum time I could allow for each shot was seven-tenths of a second. All this had to be done while my arm moved from one target to another."

Prior to entering the Marine Corps in 1948, the husky, dark-haired captain had never fired a pistol in his life.

As an example of the intense concentration needed by a shooter, he presented a breakdown on the Free Pistol Course. With no limitations on the size and weight of the pistol, a shooter is given a time limit of three hours in which to fire 60 rounds. The 1½ inch bulls eye 50 meters away makes this amount of time seem short even to the most expert of shooters.

When questioned on the type competition he thought best for incorporation into the present Marine Corps system, he stated that the "Running Deer" event could prove very beneficial.

The course consists of an artificial deer attached to a running track similar to that found of an artificial rabbit at a greyhound race track. According to the captain, this is one of the more difficult phases of competition.

When asked what he thought might assist the present system of qualification used by Marines, he mentioned more use of the battle sights.

"I would like to see more kneeling and off-hand shooting used during our re-qualification courses," he said, adding "I would also like to see the firing of combat courses done with battle sights and forward movements toward the targets instead of away from them. This would best simulate actual combat conditions."

McMillan's shooting prowess is not confined merely to the pistol, however, as can be noted by his all-time high score for the Marine Corps Match Course fired at Camp Matthews in 1959. A blazing 589x600 total was his score for that match.

Other awards he has won include the .38 caliber World Championship competition in Moscow in 1958, the .45 caliber National Individual Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio in 1956 and the three-gun National Aggregate Championship held at Camp Perry the following year.

At Caracas, Venezuela, in 1954, Capt. McMillan also walked away with the World Championship for both the .22 and .38 caliber competition.

He is currently acting in the production of an informational film entitled "Marksmanship Path to an Olympic Gold Medal." The film will cover the finer points of competitive shooting and demonstrate how the training system presently in use by the Marine Corps can benefit the shooter himself. It will also contain action shots of the Olympic shooting matches taken in Rome, Italy, last year.

Quantico Sentry, Friday, April 7, 1961

Five World Records Broken In Armed Forces Shooting

FT. BENNING, Ga. - An Army rifleman and a Marine Corps pistol marksman combined to surpass three world shooting records in the first annual Armed Forces shooting competition at the Army infantry center. And the world mark for skeet was also smashed.

Army 1st Lt. Tommy G. Pool, in the three-positioned international free rifle match at 50 meters, bettered the kneeling position mark by shooting a 392 out of 400, then in the standing position totaled 366. Previously he fired a 398 out of 400 in the prone position to tie the record. His overall total was 1156x1200.

Capt. William W. McMillan of the Marines posted a 593 out of a possible 600 to shatter the rapid-fire pistol record by a point.

Maj. Gene S. Stalcup, the Army trapshooting coach, exceeded the world record for the individual International skeet match by firing 200 clay targets for a perfect score. This wiped out the mark set by Maj. O. R. Davis, of the Marine Corps, which was established in the 1959 Pan American Games.

Highest Navy shooter was Comdr. Robert L. Livingston who hit 195.

The Army pistol team also broke a world standard, with 4572 out of 4800, which blotted out the 4569 of a Soviet team.

In the 50-meter match, Marine GySgt. James Hill shot 1131 to pace his team to a second place finish 4427.

High Navy rifleman was Jerome G. Harvey who fired a 1056.

Navy Times, April 8, 1961