JOHN FENZEL

Here They Come...

The following blog post is from LTC Frank Muggeo, the battalion commander for the Army Marksmanship Unit. Frank will be reporting live from Beijing on our Soldier-Olympians...so stay tuned!

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way on the first blog. Since this is my first post, I want to give you some background. There are 6 Soldiers from the US Army Marksmanship Unit at Ft Benning GA that will be competing in 7 Olympic shooting events. Over the next few weeks, I will be trying to give you a sense of what they are going through. If you want to find out about the AMU check out the web site at www.usamu.com

The Soldiers left about a week ago and met up with other Olympic shooters in California before they took the trip to a training camp in Korea. They will be there until tomorrow and then head out to China. Reports back from the training camp are pretty good. We mostly wanted them to get over the jet lag and reset their body clocks. I leave on the 6th and should be able to send out a blog shortly after that. There are Soldiers that don’t train at the AMU competing (West Point, Army Reserve..), and I will fill you in on them as well but the Soldiers I have competing are:

MAJ Mike Anti- International Rifle

SFC Jason Parker- International Rifle

SFC Daryl Szarenski- International Pistol

SPC Jeff Holguin- Shotgun

SPC Walton Eller- Shotgun

PFC Vincent Hancock- Shotgun

Now that background stuff is done, I will be giving you some more interesting stuff in the weeks ahead. Watch for these Soldiers and shoot them an email at www.usamu.com.

U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Soldiers Win National Pistol Title!

 

A pivotal victory at the U.S. National Competition for our Service Pistol Team...the first time our AMU has won the National Pistol Title in 23 years!

Here is an excerpt from the Army Marksmanship Unit Press Release:

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Army Wins National Pistol Title
July 24, 2008
by Paula J. Randall

CAMP PERRY, Ohio - Soldiers of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit of Fort Benning, Ga., brought home the top trophies from the annual National Pistol Matches July 10 to 13, besting about 700 pistol shooters from around the country.

USAMU'S Service Pistol Team beat 100 of the best pistol teams in the nation, repeatedly hitting a bull's eye the size of a silver dollar half a football field away, to win the National Pistol Team Championship.

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What it means, in short, is that our Soldiers are the best service pistol shooters in the nation. As it should be, but the competition from other civilian and military teams is more formidable than it's ever been.

We are very proud of them.

Stay tuned for results achieved by AMU's Service Rifle Team now being tabulated--that we expect will be equally spectacular!

Concurrently, 6 of our Army Marksmanship Unit Soldiers are now enroute to Beijing to compete in seven different Olympic shooting events....

Style and Accuracy World Meet: Golden Knights Women win SILVER!

 

Due to their high individual placings and consistency in team competitions, our US women's team, comprised of three U.S. Army Golden Knight Soldiers and two civilian women, have taken the SILVER for overall best country!

The women held off the Russians in style and had more higher placings in individual accuracy than the Chinese to take second place.

Overall country takes the highest four individual overall scores in order to compute overall country.

Final Medal count for the US Army in Women's Parachute Style and Accuracy is: 4 Silver Medals and 6 Bronze medals.

In the world of parachuting, this is the recognized equivalent of an Olympic Silver Medal.

On to France!

The Greatest Athlete...

On this Day in History:  July 15, 1912: Amassing 8,412 points—800 more than his nearest competitor—Jim Thorpe wins the Olympic decathlon.

Olympic Rejection of America's Greatest Pastimes....

Jennie Finch of the U.S. throws a pitch during a women's preliminary Olympic softball game against Italy at the Olympic Softball Stadium in Athens in this August 14, 2004 photo. Finch, the stand-out of the U.S. softball dream team that rolled to a third straight Olympic gold in Athens, will be on a different quest in Beijing -- striking a blow for a return of her sport to future Games. For want of one vote, International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates by a tied 52-52 count in 2005 dropped softball from the programme for the 2012 London Games amid concerns the U.S. were totally dominant in the sport and it lacked worldwide appeal.

 

For those who are following the very unfortunate story of the IOC's decision to ditch softball for the 2012 Olympics, it's revealing of something much more than a sport that does not have as great an international following than, say, soccer...the real reason for the decision may lie in the anti-American sentiment that has been steadily developing since Athens. Even the IOC Vice President, Dick Pound, said outright: "[Softball] is still perceived as an American sport and the U.S. flag has not been high internationally for a while." U.S. domination of the sport may admittedly have hurt softball's cause...noone else does it as well. In other words, if they can't beat us, don't try harder--just don't compete...in fact, why not eliminate the sport!

 

Another contributing factor was softball's connection to baseball...another American-invented sport. So, the irony in all of this is that we're now hearing that Cricket is making a persuasive bid to rejoin the Olympics in 2012...this, from the International Cricket Board: "The ICC have expressed initial interest and a willingness to explore the issue further if there is a clear desire to do so within the international cricket community."

Hopefully, the ICC will see the inconsistencies here and ultimately decide that what is good for the Goose (Cricket) is good for the Gander (Baseball and Softball). It seems that when Team USA loses (such as our basketball team did in Athens), we run no risk of an "American dominated" sport being cancelled from future Olympics....

What the Oakland A's Look for in Players....

In the book, Moneyball, Michael Lewis writes about how a small-market baseball team like the Oakland A's consistently forces its way into the playoffs by placing a premium on traits that most big-league teams overlook, like discipline at the plate. They want the player who's reliable at avoiding the out and getting to first base, not the star who's always batting for the far bleachers.

Is this a lesson that you can use in selecting your team?

What a Game!!!!

Wil Nieves is all smiles as he reaches home after his two-run homer to right gave Washington a victory.
Photo Credit: By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post Photo

I took my family to this Nationals game against the Chicago Cubs last night at the Nat's new stadium (which is BEAUTIFUL by the way!)...and all I can say is WHAT A GAME!!!! In a tied 3-3 game at the bottom of the 9th inning, Wil Nieves hit a two-run homer that won the game, 5-3. Needless to say, the crowd went absolutely wild. I'd recommend a visit to a Nationals game to anyone--it's a tremendous experience. Below are some photos of all of us in some rather incredible seats right above the Nationals' dugout....

Sean Avery's Unconventional Tactics Pay Off!

Breaking Boards...

awesome board break!

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