Engineers by day, snipers by night

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Mike Hyland
  • Space and Missile Systems Center Public Affairs
LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) --  Everyone has heard the old idiom, “like shooting fish in a barrel.” Two engineers here have revised it to, “like shooting a dime at 164 feet.”

Capts. Mark Gould and Robin Orth, assigned to the Space and Missile Systems Center, are on the Air Force International Rifle Team. The team competes against other military and civilian teams in matches at local, state, national and international levels.

The captains are very prominent in the Air Force rifle community, having set 11 Air Force records between them this year.

“We’ve taken the 300-meter records and just destroyed them,” said Captain Gould who works in the center’s space superiority system program office and serves as the team’s captain. “Between us and (a lieutenant), we now have all 300-meter records with the exception of one, and those were standing since (1987 and 1988).”

Just competing, let alone setting records, takes meticulous precision and accuracy.

“I don’t think there’s a sport out there that demands so much precision,” Captain Gould said. “Medals are won and lost in hundredths of a millimeter. It’s just very, very precise.”

In the three-position rifle event, competitors fire .22 caliber small-bore rifles from prone, standing and kneeling positions at targets 50 meters away. The bull’s-eye is 10.4 millimeters in diameter. Shooting at a dime-sized target 164 feet away might seem difficult enough, but throw in the hours of endurance it takes to compete in a match, and the task is even more daunting.

“A three-position match will run three and half to four hours of on-the-line, strapped-into-the-rifle shooting,” Captain Gould said. “That’s a long time to keep your concentration up, not get distracted.”

Throughout the four hours, competitors need to remain focused and exacting.

“Imagine at 50 meters, hitting a dime down there every time -- that’s what you need to do,” said Captain Orth who works with space-based radar at the center. “In 120 shots, close to 100 shots have to hit that dime. Matches are going to be won and lost if one of those shots is a hair off.”

After a shooter gains the endurance and precision skills required to compete, he or she will still face several obstacles.

“Keep in mind, this is done outside, in the weather,” Captain Gould said. “You’ve got to deal with wind and light changes affecting where the bullet is going to hit. It’s all done with iron sites, there’s no scope, there’s no magnification, there’s no telescopic aiming involved; it’s all done with just the eyeball lining up the sights; and it’s all unsupported, off the shoulder.”

Captain Gould said to be competitive it takes rigorous and constant practice. He trains several times a week, sometimes in six to seven hour spans. He said he is seriously considering the Air Force’s World Class Athlete Program in 2006, which will allow him to train fulltime for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

“Training for the Olympics is part of what our charter is, it’s part of why this team exists -- to put people on the national team, to put people on the Olympic team,” he said.

Captain Orth has not decided on his Olympic future yet, but remains active on the Air Force team.

He began his shooting career when he was 10, and was also a member of the Air Force Academy shooting team, while Captain Gould took interest in the sport more recently.

“I started at 22 when I was enlisted at Minot (Air Force Base, N.D.). I checked a book out from the library on position rifle shooting, because the picture on the cover was cool, and read it. I found out it’s a sport that appeals to me,” he said.

He said he enjoys the sport because it requires maintaining a high level of concentration for long periods of time and he has to pay attention to very small details.

“To succeed, every shot must be executed the same way, every time,” he said.

Captain Orth stressed the cognitive dexterity involved in the sport also.

“Once you get to a certain level, everything after that is all mental,” he said. “You can only go so far physically, but if you don’t have your head in the game, forget it. It’s more of a mental game than a physical game.”