Two Washington Post Articles on our Army Marksmanship Unit Soldier-Olympians...
Here are two articles that appeared in today's Washington Post about our Army Marksmanship Unit Soldiers. They are actively preparing for their Olympic competitions in Beijing, and will be departing soon! The second article--about SSG Josh Olsen--tells the story of one of our returning warriors who was wounded in Iraq--and who is also one of our best shooters. At the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, I watched Josh Olsen shoot a perfect 600--a mainline Olympic qualifying score--in the prone service rifle category. He's an absolute inspiration... ______
July 9, 2008
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These Soldiers Are Olympic Hot Shots: Army Provides Core of Shooting Teams
By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer
FORT BENNING, Ga. -- U.S. Army sharpshooter Pfc. Vincent Hancock raises his shotgun and fluidly traces the arc of two clay targets hurtling across the range before him at 55 mph, breaking each one with flawless accuracy.
The 19-year-old skeet competitor, headed to his first Olympics next month, knows that he must sustain that perfection to clinch a gold medal. But after setting a world record at the World Cup Italy championship in Milan in June 2007, the young marksman is confident that target is within reach.
"I was just really zoned in, that's what it really takes to shoot a perfect round, to be in your zone," said Hancock, describing the record-breaking round in which he hit 150 out of 150 clay discs -- an accomplishment he says he will have to match to win the gold medal in Beijing.
After surprising himself by shooting the first 100 targets perfectly, Hancock said the last 50 seemed effortless. "It was just so easy, it felt like I didn't even have to try. I would just step on the station and my gun would automatically go to the right spot and break the target every time." The challenge now, he said between practice sessions at the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit ranges at Fort Benning, is to figure out "how to get to that point very easily."
Hancock is one of six marksmen the Army is sending to the Summer Olympics, and the soldiers are expected to prove a core strength of the U.S. teams. Since its creation in 1956, Army Marksmanship Unit members have won more than 40 world championships and 22 Olympic medals, more than half of the U.S. total in shooting in that time. Prospects are good for more medals this year; for example, the U.S. double-trap team boasts three soldiers in the top 12 rankings, including two in the top five.
Three of the Olympic marksmen are on the shotgun team: Hancock in skeet, where competitors fire at targets thrown from high and low houses, and Spec. Walton Glenn Eller III and Spec. Jeffrey G. Holguin in double trap, where marksmen shoot at two clay targets thrown simultaneously from an underground bunker.
Another two soldiers -- Sgt. 1st Class Jason A. Parker and Maj. Michael E. Anti -- are on the international rifle team, and Sgt. 1st Class Daryl L. Szarenski is on the international pistol team.
Hancock said he gains a big advantage by training with the Army team.
"We have the greatest shooters in the nation, and some of the best around the world. Getting to shoot with those guy and girls . . . helps a lot," he said, because on any given day any team member is capable of beating any other. "We are all fierce competitors, that definitely shows on the range."
The military provides ample resources for training that are harder obtain as a civilian, said Hancock, of Eatonton, Ga. He began competing when he was 11 years old, joined the Army in June 2006 and gained a position on the shotgun team last November.
A veteran Olympian, Eller, 26, says the Army team has also assigned a "mental coach" to train the competitors in the critical psychological skills of successful shooting. Eller, who took part in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, is working on ways to keep his mind from getting in the way of his performance.
"Your mind is the biggest part of it. We all know how to shoot," said Eller, of Katy, Tex., who started his marksmanship career in 1990 at the age 8. "I like to put a song in my head . . . it basically lets your subconscious take over," he said, noting that he uses specific songs for different situations.
At the same time, team members say it is important not to overtrain.
"You can actually shoot too much, we refer to it as burning out," said Holguin, 29, of Yorba Linda, Calif., a first-time Olympian. "You lose the motivation, the desire, so leading up to a big competition like . .
. . the Olympic games you want to avoid that."
Training time is already limited, because as members of the Army Marksmanship Unit the shooters have other responsibilities, such as attending promotional events for Army recruiting and teaching better marksmanship to Army drill instructors.
"Our number one mission is to enhance marksmanship skills throughout the Army," said Parker, as he prepared to shoot a round with his Anschutz
.22 caliber free rifle.
Last year, the unit trained more than 3,000 drill sergeants, who in turn teach new privates in boot camp. Skills they focus on range from how to align gun sites to "how to get in a good solid shooting position,"
Parker said, adding, "Lying down is better than standing up or kneeling."
Members of the unit also work closely with gunsmiths to make technological improvements that have been incorporated into rifles used by soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Parker, 34, is heading to his third Olympics this summer, and placed fifth in the air rifle competition during the 2000 Games. Like Parker, about half of the soldiers in the Army Marksmanship Unit were recruited for their proven shooting skills and compete mainly in international contests. Others joined the Army first and then learned to shoot, and participate most often in national competitions using guns issued by the Army such as the M-16 rifle or M-9 pistol.
Led by Lt. Col. Frank Muggeo, the marksmanship unit has six competitive shooting sections and a 260-acre world class facility for training and competition. Its gunsmiths make custom firearms and developed the M-21 and M- 24 sniper rifles for the Army.
Washington Post
July 9, 2008
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Wounded In Iraq, Olson Has Plenty To Shoot For
By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Olson pulls on his heavy canvas shooting jacket and lowers his body to the floor, carefully arranging his prosthetic leg to steady himself for a round of rifle practice.
The 28-year-old Iraq war veteran will compete on the 2008 U.S. Paralympics team in the 50-meter rifle prone event, the latest achievement in a shooting career that has led to a personal resurrection after he lost a leg and almost died in an ambush in Iraq.
On a night patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Tall Afar on Oct. 27, 2003, Olson and his infantry squad came under attack by insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades. The first grenade hit the back of the truck, wounding two soldiers. The second exploded near Olson, knocking the wind out of him, leaving his left leg limp and blasting his right thigh.
"I reached down and felt a big hole where my leg should be. That's when I kind of knew I was in a little bit of trouble," said Olson, of Spokane, Wash. Had he not been rescued so quickly, within 10 minutes, he said he likely would have bled to death.
Heavily medicated, he woke up a few days later and looked at himself in the mirror. "It sort of hit me. I was in a hospital full of amputees,"
he recalled, instantly realizing that his life aspiration to join the Army Special Forces or Rangers was an impossibility.
"It put a wrench in my plans," said Olson, who had wanted to serve in the military since he was a boy. Although deeply depressed, he gained solace in conversations with other veterans, at times telephoning them at 2 or 3 a.m. Gradually, he regained some hope that "my life isn't really over," he said.
In the fall of 2004, he joined an outdoors program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and one day impressed a physical therapist by hitting 48 out of 50 clay targets in a shooting match. The therapist asked whether Olson, who had been an expert rifleman in the infantry, was interested in meeting with the Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga. "I jumped at the chance" to stay in the Army and keep working with soldiers, let alone travel the world with world-class shooters, he said.
Olson joined the Army Marksmanship Unit in June 2005 as an international rifle shooter, and has since placed eighth at the 2006 world championships, 12th at the 2007 European championships and fifth at the 2007 Oceania championships.
In the 50-meter rifle prone event, Olson fires 60 shots with a bolt-action gun at a target smaller than a dime. A match lasts 75 minutes, with each shot worth 10 points for a best possible score of 600. Last year, Olson was scoring in the low 580s, but now regularly scores 593 or 594. His goal is to reach the high 590s.
"You almost have to be an obsessive-compulsive person because you have to do the same thing right every time," Olson said. For example, he noted that many marksmen meticulously clean their rifles the same way each time, tightening the screws in the same order and so on.
Wearing blinders to block distractions, shooting glasses, and a thick jacket and pants aimed at slowing his heartbeat and steadying his aim, Olson said staying still and relaxed is vital but sometimes challenging as an amputee.
"In the middle of a match, my leg kicked out," he recalled, saying he must frequently adjust his prosthetic to get the right fit. "If I move at all it looks like an earthquake."
Olson hopes to attain his best performance yet in the Paralympics, saying to do that he must above all calibrate his thinking. Typically he begins preparing mentally two hours before each match, visualizing each shot in his head and planning what to do if the wind picks up or if he takes a couple of bad shots. "I will think positive thoughts, not like, 'You are an idiot,' " he said.
As an Iraq veteran, Olson says he still struggles with nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder. "Its really easy to fall into a depression, you just sit in your room," he said. He also continues to mourn the loss of his leg. "Some days it is easy to get over and other days it is not," he said.
But as a soldier, Olson realizes that despite his injury, things could be worse. "On their second deployment [to Iraq] the guy who took my job in my squad was killed," he said. "That very well could have been me in that truck."
