Arctic Wolves take 1st and 2nd at shooting competition

Courtesy Photo | Staff Sgt. Jean-Noel Howell, with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team "Arctic Wolves," stands with the award for top performer at the U.S. Army Alaska Small Arms Competition on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 20, 2014. The purpose of the event was to prepare teams to represent U.S. Army Alaska in the upcoming 2015 U.S. Army Small Arms Championships scheduled for the first week of February at Fort Benning, Ga. The 2014 USARAK competition invited units from across Alaska to JBER for the weeklong event, which challenged rifle and pistol competitors with various firing positions and distances. Physical fitness and marksmanship fundamentals were key factors to being successful as the competitors were tested on their abilities to undergo physical stress while still maintaining accuracy. Overall, 1st SBCT "Arctic Wolves" took first and second place in the competition. (Photo by 4/25 IBCT (ABN) Public Affairs)  

FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, UNITED STATES

12.03.2014

Story by Spc. Corey Confer 

1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - The 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, “Arctic Wolves” took first and second place in the 2014 U.S. Army Alaska Small Arms Competition held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Nov. 17-21, 2014.

Units from across Alaska competed in the weeklong event which challenged rifle and pistol competitors with varying firing positions and distances.

The purpose of the event was to prepare teams to represent U.S. Army Alaska in the upcoming U.S. Army Small Arms Championships scheduled in February at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Staff Sgt. Jean-Noel Howell, a Soldier with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment and originally from Stowe, Vermont, was a part of the team that won the competition and he also took home the award for top performer.

Howell’s team consisted of 1st Lt. Hunter White, Staff Sgt. Clinton Shahan, Sgt. Jonathan Harrell and Sgt. Samuel Bartlett, all hailing from HHC 1-5 IN.

Both teams exceeded their expectations and their standards that they had set before the competition, he said. Howell said that he was also proud of how both teams from Fort Wainwright performed.

The competition itself was a combined-arms competition that involved the M4 rifle only using iron sights, and the M9 pistol. Competitors engaged targets up to 500 yards away with the M4 while engagements with the M9 were up to 30 yards away.

Howell said the last day of the competition his team had to run a mile and a half up to the firing line, engage targets and then carry water cans to the next area for the pistol engagement.

Winning the 2014 USARAK Small Arms Competition gave the Fort Wainwright team a confidence boost and leaves them primed for a great showing at the U.S. Army Small Arms Championships.

• Date Taken: 12.03.2014
• Date Posted: 12.03.2014 18:28
• Story ID: 149322
• Location: FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, US
• Hometown: STOWE, VT, US