Gloucester Alumni

By Douglas A. Moser , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

Four of the five members of the Gloucester High School Junior ROTC rifle team have qualified for a national competition at Fort Benning, Ga., in February.

Each of the four qualified for the Eastern Championship round last year and two have qualified several times in the past. Michael Thoma placed first in the First Marine District, Selina Clancy placed fifth, Melissa Strangman placed eighth and Christopher Lane placed 10th.

Clancy, who placed eighth last year during the Eastern Championship at Fort Benning, and the other cadets were confident in their accomplishments.

"It was expected because we put in our hard work and that usually pays off," Lane said.

Overall, the team placed first. The Junior ROTC has a varsity and junior varsity rifle team, said retired Marine Sgt. Maj. Rod Wilday, the program's instructor. The varsity team competed in what is called a postal competition. Civilian Marksmanship Program, the organization that runs the competition, sends certified targets to school districts.

The instructor calls a session a competition and the team shoots the targets, then mails them to the group's headquarters in Ohio for scoring.

"They score and rank for all ROTC programs, but right now we're just shooting against other Marine Corps (Junior ROTC) programs," Wilday said.

The championship round at Fort Benning will also be all-Marine Corps, he said. Out of all the competitors, the top two will be invited to join a pair from the Army Junior ROTC, the Navy Junior ROTC and the Air Force Junior ROTC, who will compete against a team from the Western Division in a national championship at Fort Benning in April.

Shooting air rifles is part of the Junior ROTC program, Wilday said, and all cadets learn how to shoot. Those who want to compete further can try out for the rifle teams. Five cadets make up each team and they practice Tuesdays and Thursdays. They compete in regional leagues against other schools with ROTC programs and against high school teams not affiliated with a branch of the military.

During their practices, they have five steps to follow that help improve their shooting: Finding the natural point of aim; breathing; sighting; sight alignment; trigger squeeze and follow-through.

The cadets like the ROTC program for various reasons - ranging from Lane saying he did not want to miss the experience to Clancy wanting to improve her college resume - and joined the rifle team for different reasons as well.

After the Eastern Championship in February, those who advance will compete April 12 to 14 at Fort Benning against the team that emerges from the Western Championship. ROTC programs west of the Mississippi River compete in Colorado Springs, Colo.