U. S. International Shooting Championships
Phoenix, Arizona

Top Shooters Compete For U.S. Team Berths

WASHINGTON — More than 500 of the nation's top men and women marksmen have been invited to participate in the 10th annual U.S. International shooting championships at Phoenix, Ariz., July 13-26.

They will be competing for places in the 40th World Shooting championships, also at Phoenix October 17-26. Both events are sponsored by the National Rifle Association.

Nine rifle shooters, 11 pistolmen, four international skeet competitors, four clay pigeon member, four running boar shooters and two alternates will be selected for the U.S. team. Marine Col. Walter Walsh (Ret.) has been named captain of the American team, which will face some 520 of the world's finest shooters in the International.

Several Olympic medal winners are expected to compete, including Marine WO David Boyd of Quantico, who won the Olympic gold medal at Wiesbaden, German in the 60-shot small bore rifle prone match, and Marine Lt. Col. William McMillan of Quantico, who won the gold medal in Rome in 1960 in the rapid fire pistol event.

Navy Times, July 8, 1970

World Shoot Lists 1,500 Marksmen

More than 1,500 of the country's best men and women target shooters have been invited by the National Rifle Association to participate in the 10th Annual U.S. International Shooting Championships at Phoenix, July 13-26. The shooters will be competing for positions on the U.S. Team which will represent this country in the 40th World Shooting Championships next fall.

The World Championships, which will be conducted by the NRA on behalf of the U.S. and the International Shooting Union, will be held at Phoenix, October 17-26.

All rifle and pistol matches will be fired on the Maricopa County Black Canyon Ranges and all shotgun events will be held at the Phoenix Trap & Skeet Club.

Several Olympic and World medal winners are expected to accept the invitation to compete in the July matches.

Yuma Daily Sun, July 14, 1970

Under intense Arizona skies, American military shooters, both active and reserve, took firsts in all but a handful of matches in the 10th U.S. International Shooting Championships at Phoenix July 13-26.

Civilian shooters managed to beat out the military in only three matches - skeet, standard pistol and rapid-fire pistol - and the winner of the latter two was a recently retired Army SgtMaj. William B. Blankenship.

Three hundred and twenty-one shooters fired in the Championships. But, unlike the ninth U.S. Internationals at Phoenix last October, which were a major warm-up for the 40th World Shooting Championships next month, the competition was confined almost entirely too American shooters. Only five foreign nationals participated

Standard Pistol

Blankenship emerged the Standard Pistol winner with 1725 - thus capturing his second handgun championship for the Phoenix tryouts. Lt. Col. William McMillan of Turtle Creek, Pa., long-time Marine Corps standout and a gold-medal winner in the rapid-fire event in the 1960 Olympics was runner-up with 1724. Edwin Teague was third with 1722. M/Sgt. Charles Wheeler, Army Reserve contender from San Antonio, Tex., was fourth with a 1719 showing. He nudged John Smith, also 1719, on last-day scores.

Excerpt from the American Rifleman, Vol. 118, No. 9, September 1970