JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
During this year's Charleston's Police Week celebration, Joint Base Charleston SFS Combat Arms Training and Maintenance Flight hosted an elementary level Excellence-in-Competition (EIC) Pistol Match on Weds, 18 May. The EIC Program is an awards program recognizing marksmanship and is open to all military members. Individuals earn awards (badges) by scoring points in marksmanship competitions hosted by the military services, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) or the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Participants in the competition were invited to fire M9 and 9MM handguns at targets, one handed and two handed with variations, to achieve the best overall score out of 300 total points.
The top 10 percent of the participants walked away with bragging rights and authorization to wear the distinguished Elementary Excellence in Competition Pistol Badge. AFI 36-2903 authorizes the wear of badges below their ribbon rack while in uniform.
The 2016 competition was held at the at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) pistol range at Joint Base Charleston, S.C. Approximately 50 service members faced off against one another. Five competitors took home award honors.
This was the first year the EIC was held at the FLETC shooting range but Technical Sgt. Brian Cooney, 628 SFS combat arms NCOIC and event organizer, believes it will continue.
"I've been part of numerous competitive shooting events and I think the EIC is a great venue for service members to come out and have fun in a friendly competition," he said.
Cooney said the competition also provides military members who don't often get to shoot an opportunity to hone their marksmanship skills.
"This is an opportunity for people to earn a rarely seen badge and practice their fundamental shooting skills," he said. "So even though you're competing you're also improving your combat skills as well."
This year's Elementary EIC Top Gun was 1st Lt Chris Melendez of the 628th SFS with an overall score of 262 points.
The four other award winners were:
TUSCANY, DAVID J TSgt USAF AMC 628 CONS/LGCB
HARBISON, WILLIAM R SrA USAF AMC 628 CONS/LGCB
BRADDOCK, ZACHARY J TSgt USAF AMC 437 MXG/QA
UPTMOR, DANIEL J 1st Lt USAF AMC 628 CS/SCO