Whipped Cream Difficulties

(This is also partially an Olympic watch.)

We’re the only ones professional enough…to shoot ourselves while cleaning our weapons.

The HouChron has a nice profile of Sergeant Glenn Eller, of the Army Marksmanship Unit. Sgt. Eller is competing in the shotgun double trap competition in the London Olympics. This is his fourth time at the rodeo; he won a gold medal in double trap in 2008. And he’s had an interesting time of it:

• In 2000, he got food poisoning from “an Australian ham salad sandwich” and finished 12th.
• In 2004, he finished 17th “after being informed before the competition of what proved to be a false positive drug test”.
• He won the gold medal in 2008, but the shotgun he used was stolen in 2011 while he was on his way to another competition. It took him a while to get used to the replacement gun, and he “…lost the automatic U.S. slot in double trap to his Army teammate, Staff Sgt. Josh Richmond, but won a place on the team when a second berth for the London Games opened up this spring.”

Worth noting:

Richmond, in turn, has picked up a few things that should contribute to a steady hand in London. After clinching the Olympic berth last year, he served three months in Afghanistan, instructing Afghan soldiers.
Eller said he requested to serve as well but was told it would interfere with his competition and training schedule; like the other members of the marksmanship unit, he spends about 200 nights each year on the road for exhibitions and instructional events.
“I would have loved to go over there and help train people how to defend themselves in their own country,” Eller said. “It gives you pride to be able to do that. Sgt. Richmond is going in the same year from a combat zone to an Olympic Games.”

You know, I like these AMU guys. It’d be fun to meet some of them and hang out. I wonder if the AMU will have a presence at next year’s NRA meeting?

(Joy! Also speaking of the AMU, Amazon says my copy of US Military Match and Marksmanship Automatic Pistols has been delivered!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 at 11:59 am and is filed under Books, Clippings, Guns, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.