“We feel that it is extremely important to the national defense to hold the NRA Championships, although they must be conducted on a reduced basis. The more training and experience that can be given to our young marksmen, the more effective they will prove in military service.”
—NRA Executive Vice President Franklin Orth, December 1967
“The civilian marksmanship program in this country has suffered a cruel blow, all explained away as saving the country approximately the cost of one jet fighter.”
—Rep. Mendel Rivers in The American Rifleman, January 1968
After the Army withdrew financial and personnel support from the National Matches, critics of the 65-year-old government program counted on the NRA to retreat and admit defeat. But what transpired at Camp Perry during the month of August in 1968 proved to be a turning point in National Match history. In the absence of federal funding, NRA National Championships were conducted when hundreds of volunteers answered the organization’s call for help.
The 1968 program cover said it all: “Program of the NRA National Championships.” The booklet did not contain the familiar Department of Defense logo or accompanying “authorized by the Congress of the United States” statement. Instead, the following text appeared in the introduction:
“Due to reasons of economy and the requirements of the Vietnam War, the Department of the Army has withdrawn its support of the 1968 National Matches. For this reason, the Small Arms Firing Schools and the National Trophy Matches will not be held this year. However, the tradition of the National Matches founded in 1903 is being carried on by the NRA, who with the cooperation of the State of Ohio will conduct the NRA Rifle and Pistol Championships.”
In reality, the National Matches were not compromised for reasons of economy and war alone, although anti-gun legislators used this pretense to their advantage. As the issue of gun control topped many political agendas, lobbyists successfully implored government officials that “the taxpayers were footing the bill for a glorious and pointless picnic with firearm accompaniment.” These words appeared in the January 1968 issue of The American Rifleman, along with accurate participation figures that contradicted the ones produced by critics who argued that the National Matches did nothing to support military training.
“The expenditure involved in conducting the National Matches is not considered essential at this time … The withdrawal of Army financial and personnel support does not necessarily mean that no national rifle and pistol matches will be held in 1968. The National Rifle Association is exploring the possibility of conducting them at its own expense.”
—December 1, 1967, statement by Secretary of Army Stanley Resor
Preparations for the NRA National Championships began in December of 1967 when the NRA Executive Committee responded quickly to the Army’s withdrawal announcement with its own declaration that the Association would go it alone. NRA leaders then traveled to Columbus, Ohio, where they met with state officials and discussed arrangements that would allow the NRA to conduct a reduced match program with state support. Plans included portioning out high power team events (Herrick, Rumbold, Enlisted Men’s) to the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Association at its Black Canyon Range near Phoenix, long-range matches (Wimbledon, Leech, Crowell) to the Oak Ridge Sportsmen’s Association in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and smallbore team events to the Goodyear Zeppelin Rifle Club of Akron, Ohio.
While ads ran in The American Rifleman to solicit help from volunteers, a fund was established to finance the Camp Perry matches with a $5,000 start up from the NRA treasury. The $50,000 annual fee to lease Camp Perry from the state of Ohio was not an NRA responsibility this year since the Army broke the contract in late 1967, leaving the military under obligation for 1968. When the Army waived its use of the facility, it did so knowing that Ohio would grant the authorization for the NRA to conduct its championships at no cost.
Arrangements called for the NRA to handle all range operations and other match functions, which began with the implementation of a 600-entry limit per phase. More than 200 volunteers comprised the primary source of match operation personnel, while NRA employees assisted in key areas. This year also marked the start of when the Camp Perry competitor became more of a hands-on participant—pistol competitors handled their own targets and scoring, smallbore shooters handled their own targets with scoring done by other personnel, and high power rifle competitors not on the firing line were required to pull targets, score and work the telephones.
“When we lost support, I was responsible for communications equipment and setting up the ranges,” Don Ide of NRA Competitions said about the 1968 National Matches. “My involvement with the volunteers was during range changes in high power. We had no military support. It was strictly NRA. We drove around in trash trucks and emptied cans on the range. You name it, we did it. Of course we had volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without them. It was an all-hands operation.”
To compensate for the lack of National Trophy Matches at Camp Perry in 1968, the NRA introduced three special events: Individual Service Pistol, Team Service Pistol and Individual Service Rifle. The matches were fired under conditions similar to the Trophy matches, although participants furnished their own ammunition and arms. The National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice agreed to recognize the scores for Distinguished designations in the individual matches with the stipulation that National Match ammunition be purchased at Camp Perry at a cost of 8 and 10 cents per round, respectively, for pistol and rifle. And it was a few months later that the DCM’s Lt. Col. Joseph Smith traveled to the Black Canyon Range in Arizona to witness the firing of the Board-approved National Trophy Team Match. The event was conducted on November 11 that year and featured 25 teams, six of them civilian. Navy shooters finished atop the field with a 2877, followed by Air Force and Army squads at four and 10 points back, respectively. In a letter dated November 20, 1968, Smith reported to the Board that, “The National Trophies, furnished by this office, had been on display in a large downtown Phoenix department store for approximately two weeks before the tournament and was the subject of many favorable comments.”
At Camp Perry, NRA Executive Director Louis Lucas assumed the role of Match Director and looked out for the well-being of the almost 1,500 competitors on hand. Although no Small Arms Firing Schools were held, the NRA did conduct its Police Instructor and Instructor-Junior Schools. Overall attendance in 1968 was the lowest since 1955 and all training school and match participants were required to pay a special service charge that helped cover housing, meals and other necessary camp operating expenses. The service fees ranged from a low of $7 for smallbore position shooters to a high of $35 for pistol and high power rifle competitors. And with the exception of the Instructor-Junior School, no free ammunition was available.
“It is the competitor’s responsibility to provide his own pistols, rifles and ammunition for all matches at the 1968 National Championships.”
—1968 NRA Championship Program
The absence of Army shooters on the pistol range in 1968 opened the door for some breakthrough performances by members of the Air Force. The winner of the Harrison Trophy for the national pistol championship was Maj. Franklin Green, the first Air Force shooter to claim the title. In addition, Green won two of the three sub-aggregates and was awarded the Walker and Clarke Trophies, emblematic of the .22 and Center Fire Championships, respectively. Green’s win was a one-point victory over the Navy’s Donald Hamilton, who won the Orton Trophy for the .45 Caliber Championship in addition to the President’s Pistol Match, where he upped his own National Match record score by nine Xs to 876-45X. The Air Force dominated team competition as it swept all three NRA championships and the service team match. Staff Sgt. Arnold Vitarbo then added the finishing touch to the commanding Air Force presence when he won the service individual match. Additionally, Gertrude Schlernitzauer reclaimed the title of national women’s pistol champion, an honor she last held in 1965, while John Johnson successfully defended his civilian title.
Although the number of smallbore shooters on hand in 1968 was about one-third below the all-time high of 1,118 set in 1962, the level of competition was not diminished. In fact, the dynamic Air Force presence carried over from pistol when the first day of smallbore prone was singlehandedly dominated by Sgt. Tom Whitaker, the 1965 junior champion, who posted victories in the 50-yard and 100-yard matches. Capt. Donald Adams, the 1966 national prone champion just recently returned from a year’s tour of duty in Vietnam, won the Dewar and kept Whitaker from a clean sweep, though Whitaker could not be denied the metallic sight championship with his 3198-274X. The rest of the championship showed a wider distribution of victories and in the end, George Stidworthy, Jr., of Prescott, Arizona, known as the “1600 King,” lived up to the title when he posted a 3200-288X for the any sight championship and U.S. Cartridge Company Trophy.
While Whitaker won the metallic sight and service championship and Stidworthy won the any sight title, it was Adams who enjoyed a three-point lead over Presley Kendall and Joseph Barnes to regain the big prize. Marianne Jensen, the former women’s champ and two-time junior champion, returned to the winner’s circle to again pick up the Remington Trophy for high woman. William Summers made it three civilian titles in seven years while the junior honor went to Sue Lausten of Livonia, Michigan.
The position championship was a close one and Gary Anderson made a run at retaining his title with a win in the first any-sight match, while two-time prone champion Don Adams hope of adding a position title to his résumé took off with a triumph in the last match. When the smoke cleared, however, it seemed no one was looking at Lones Wigger, Jr., Presley Kendall and D.I. Boyd, who finished one, two and three with scores of 1560-84X, 1559-77X and 1557-77X. It was Wigger’s fourth title since 1963 and though the course was cut by half to deal with the realities of the reduced program, the excitement was not diminished. Other familiar faces on the awards podium included Capt. Margaret Thompson, who logged her fourth consecutive women’s championship and William Schweitzer, who defended his junior crown.
The high power program was compressed by way of one aggregate for M1s, M14s and bolt-action rifles versus the previous practice where bolt and service championships were conducted separately. The President’s and Nevada Trophy Matches were not fired events this year. Rather, they served as the two sub-aggregates, each comprising four matches with the high overall scorer receiving either the DuPont or Wright Trophy, depending on the firearm used. It was the Wright Trophy that was awarded to the 1968 national champion, Middleton Tompkins, who defended his match rifle title and notched his fifth championship overall, winning the revamped President’s Match aggregate in the process. The high service rifle honor went to Marine Capt. David Luke who fired an M14 and received a DuPont Trophy miniature for his performance. It was Luke who, six years earlier, posted the high overall score at the National Matches with a service arm. Capt. Margaret Thompson added women’s high power laurels to the smallbore position title she won earlier in the program to repeat a rare accomplishment she first achieved in 1965—that of being named national champion in different disciplines in the same year.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Davis Phelps won the NRA’s Individual Service Rifle Match, the last event fired prior to the Palma Trophy Team Match, which signaled the close of the historic 1968 program at Camp Perry and preceded the firing of three NRA contests during the National Long-Range Individual Matches in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at the end of August.
Despite oppressive heat that was reported to be 105 degrees on the Oak Ridge range, close to 250 shooters competed for national honors in the NRA’s Leech, Wimbledon and Crowell Trophy events. Whatever the conditions, they were right for Army Sgt. 1st Class Charles Davis, who won both the Leech and Wimbledon Cups with perfect scores at 1,000 yards. Davis, the 1961 national high power champion, edged teammate Herbert Duncan in a tie break to claim the Wimbledon, while his iron-sight Leech score bested the Army’s Carl Pritchett by two Vs. In the Crowell Trophy Match, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Robert Goller fired the only perfect score in the iron-sight match at 600 yards.
1968 National Matches Fact
In 1968, volunteers received a free billet in the Hough Grove area, meals and $5 per day out-of-pocket expenses for their services.
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