February 2009 Match - It's Time To Shoot!

Its time to shoot this weekend! I am still dealing with newsletter issues due to my stolen computer so you will have to take one more month of no beautiful newsletter...sorry. But the stages are attached as a .pdf!

We have 4 great stages from Brian this month. Bring your extra mags, and borrow some too...three stages with 32 rounds each and a 12 round classifier. 108 rounds and lots of shooting. The weather looks to be great and these stages will be a lot of fun.

We will need every ones help with set-up, so if you can get there early please do as we will need the help.

Remember the Turkey shoot we didn't have in December? We are having it this month. Pretty simple, 2 steel targets down range, 2 shooting positions, just hit one steel from each position, no problem! Oh, and they are at 50 yards... No optics, but other than that you just have to use a handgun.

Three prizes based on order of finish. We will shoot this on the rifle range at the start of the match, so don't be late!

Club dues are $25 a year. We normally pay them in March, but if you want to get in early, now is the time.

Don't forget that we are also now a CMP affiliated club, that means your membership will allow you to purchase a rifle or ammo from CMP. There is a membership form I can provide to you if you decide to order a rifle, just let me know. I don't have to tell you that our rights are under attack so if you have ever considered a CMP rifle, you might want to get on with it...

We need to schedule a range work day in March. Any suggestions on dates? I'd like to do a Saturday morning or afternoon, half a day is all that is required.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday!

Best regards & shoot safe,

Kevin J.

A Man in Full - June 3, 2008 - Wall Street Journal Online

Next week on Flag Day, Army Private First Class Ross McGinnis would have turned 21 years old. Yesterday, President Bush presented his family with a posthumous Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for courage in combat. It was the fourth time the Medal has been awarded for those who have served in Iraq.

In the gunner's hatch of a Humvee driving through Baghdad on December 4, 2006, Private McGinnis saw a grenade fly through the hatch, rolling to where it could have injured the four other soldiers inside. In easy position to leap and save himself, McGinnis instead jumped to cover the grenade with his body to shield his comrades.

The four men he saved were all at the White House yesterday to pay their respects. They and his parents, Thomas and Romayne McGinnis, knew Ross as one who, at 137 pounds and six feet tall, had barely outgrown his boyhood when he joined the Army on his 17th birthday, the first day he was eligible to enlist. The Knox, Pennsylvania native was known not to take things too seriously, the soldiers said – and yet in an instant he displayed the self-sacrifice that defines heroism in battle across generations. Although he didn't grow while he was in the Army, "he seemed to stand a lot taller," his father said. "He was a man."

All of America's men and women in uniform today are volunteers, and they have answered the call knowing they may be put in harm's way. "Supporting the troops" has become a mantra in our politics, but the true heroism of our soldiers goes beyond the slogans and politics to countless individual acts of courage under fire. At the moment it mattered, in a war worth fighting, Ross McGinnis honored America's finest traditions and our own better natures.

"Hello Fellow Shooters" - a letter from Randy Ikerman

We were honored to have several shooters come from the San Antonio area to shoot with us last Sunday. Randy Ikerman was one of those shooters and he wrote the following letter to us all.....

"Please convey our thanks to your members for welcoming our group of open shooters from San Antonio yesterday. We had a great time shooting with you and appreciate your club's friendly welcome. It is obvious that you have a great club and enjoy shooting together. And thanks for the BBQ as well.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit any of our clubs in San Antonio. Specifically, I would like to invite you to visit and participate in the Alpha Mike matches which are held on the third Sunday of every month at the Cedar Ridge Range.

Thanks again and good shooting!

Randy Ikerman"

Randy - Thank you for the kind words. I'm sure that several of us will take you up on your invitation.

Match Directors!

We need some new volunteers! You don't have to know a thing about computers, you can even give me your stages on a bar napkin...if you will draw them and be MD for a day, I'll help you with the rest. I'd like to get everyone lined up through June...so how about it?? ---- Kevin J.

UPDATE ON MATCH DIRECTORS::
Below is a list of Match Directors for upcoming matches. It's a thankless job...if you do it right, you get lots of complaints...and that's from your friends! Duties are stage design, supervise match set-up, and serve as the arbiter of stage rules and procedures.

Thanks to those who have volunteered! If you would like to be added to the list below, please let me know.

May 2008: Brian Hagen
June 2008: Brian Hagen
July 2008: Tactical Shotgun Match, Kevin J.
August 2008: All Classifier Match