(NewsNation) — Hundreds of service members from across the nation have arrived in Georgia for the annual U.S. Army Small Arms Championship.
Competitors are expected to fire hundreds of rounds in rural Georgia until the competition closes Saturday. The competition is open to active-duty service members, Army Reserve soldiers, Air National Guard members and ROTC cadets, among others.
While competitors are looking to walk away with bragging rights, the event is also a learning opportunity as many receive pointers from Olympians and international athletes.
There are 11 different live-fire events over a week’s time. Contestants tackle the events under strict time limits and pressure to mimic combat scenarios.
“Obviously, everybody loves to have a good competition. But at the same time, this is for training at the end of the day. You know, this is all about these guys being ready for combat,” Lt. Col. Christopher Thielenhaus told NewsNation.
Thielenhaus said the competition is an opportunity to raise enthusiasm for the military.
“I am absolutely optimistic. I’ve seen firsthand how these kind of events get people excited for the Army,” he said. “We love being able to tell the story of this kind of event and what we really do to the American people.”
Army recruitment saw encouraging numbers at the close of 2024, with December boasting the best monthly numbers in 15 years. It was a far cry from 2022, when the branch missed its enrollment goal by 15,000 service members.
Paden Howard, a U.S. Army cadet attending Brigham Young University, traveled from Utah to rural Georgia for the competition. He said the event helps make “everybody better” at marksmanship, whether they directly attend or not.
“This is a skill that we need to take back and teach the other cadets and the other leaders … It’s something that we might need to rely on to, you know, protect ourselves and others,” Howard said.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the Army Marksmanship Unit in the 1950s “almost exclusively to win shooting competitions that would raise the standards of marksmanship throughout the Army,” the branch’s recruitment page said.
Soldiers have earned a spot in international competitions — including on the Olympic shooting team — every year since.