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A heavy equipment operator from the Texas National Guard’s 551st Multi-Role Bridge Company out of El Campo, Texas took top honors at the U.S. Army Small Arms Championship in mid-March, 2018 at Fort Benning.
Sgt. Justus Densmore, a Bay City, Texas native and resident, bested a field of shooters from across the Army that included active-duty soldiers, Guardsmen, Reservists, and West Point and ROTC cadets, shooting both rifles and pistols, to take the All Army Small Arms Championship home to the Texas Army National Guard.
Competitors shot in four individual rifle events, hitting targets at distances up to 500 yards. The competition tested shooters by varying shooting positions and the time allowed to engage targets. To replicate conditions often found in combat, participates had to run up to 100 yards before taking a shooting position and pulling the trigger.
Four pistol events rounded out the contest, challenging contestants with varying distances, times and shooting techniques.
“For this match, my strength was my rifle,” Densmore said. “I hadn’t been training with the M9 pistol in the last few months and that hindered my pistol scores some.”
Densmore, who joined the Texas National Guard in 2011, has been shooting competitively with the organization since 2012. In 2014 Densmore was selected for the All Guard Service Rifle Team and the All Guard Combat Team. Those teams draw the best shooters from across the United States to represent the National Guard at shooting matches.
His shooting accomplishment with those teams has made him one of the Texas shooting team’s “go-to guys”, Densmore said.
The competition in Georgia, hosted by the Maneuver Center of Excellence, left the high-dollar match-grade weapons behind and required the use of pistols and rifles that might be issued to any soldier headed into combat, something Densmore said he was a little rusty with.
“Going into the match, I had no idea I would win,” he said. “ I hadn’t been practicing with rack-grade weapons in the last several months, and was really just along for the ride.”
Before packing his bags for the match, though, Densmore did what he always does: pray and practice the fundamentals.
“I always focus on practicing the fundamentals prior to a match,” he said. “Once you have those down you can apply them to any match you might shoot.”
While the competition pits different components of the Army against each other for bragging rights as the Army’s best shot, Densmore said that it also brings the components closer.
“We are all just Soldiers,” Densmore said. “ We train the same. We fight the same. We wear the same uniform. At this competition, it doesn’t matter if you are active duty, Guard or Reserve.”
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2018 12:48 |
| Story ID: | 271509 |
| Location: | TX, US |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Texas Guardsman Captures All-Army Small Arms Championships, by Mark Otte, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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