At the age of 71, Bill Fairless of Vienna, Illinois, finally earned his Distinguished Rifleman badge after decades of tracking it down.
For more than a century, claiming a Distinguished badge has been one of the most coveted marksmanship achievements in the competition shooting world. Badges are earned after reaching Excellence-in-Competition (EIC) points at designated events, which may take years to accumulate, if at all, with most individuals doing so with a modern AR-platform service rifle.
Remarkably, Bill Fairless secured his Distinguished Rifleman badge with a vintage M1 Garand rifle dating from World War II.
“It’s hard to describe,” he said about earning his Distinguished Badge. “I didn't know if I’d ever get it done because I’m getting older, and my eyes are getting worse. But it's an honor to get to do it, and I’m glad we could do it with those Garands. It gave me a chance.”
His final EIC points arrived during the CMP 2024 Talladega D-Day competition, held this past June at the Talladega Marksmanship Park in Talladega, Alabama.
Fairless’s points from June 2024 were the first he had earned since April 2017.
“It’s so hard to get, and all the people before who got it, you know, I really respect them that they can get it and how long it takes some people to get,” he said with his deep Southern drawl.
Fairless’s journey to a Distinguished Rifleman badge began in the mid-1980s when he heard it was possible to own an M1 Garand. In order to receive one, he had to shoot qualifying matches at a local club, which didn’t deter Fairless one bit.
“I wanted one just because I thought it’d be neat to have one—and then once I got to shooting—well, I love shooting it,” he said with a laugh. “It’s my favorite gun to shoot. I don't know why. I just like them.”
His father carried an M1 Garand during World War II and decided that he, too, wanted to get qualified. He earned a M1 Garand of his own alongside Fairless and though he didn’t continue competing, he always kept the rifle as well as a can of ammo in his home. The Garand became more than just a gun—it was a special bond between father and son.
“He got a kick out of me shooting these matches,” Fairless said. “I actually won a medal for him with a Japanese rifle he brought back at the end of the war. He was tickled to death with that. It was a bronze, but I gave it to him. [That] made his day.”
It wasn’t until 1990 that Fairless shot his first leg match—a competition where leading competitors have the chance to earn the EIC points needed to receive a Distinguished Rifleman badge.
“It was one of those things where I thought, ‘There’s no way in the world I’ll ever get any points or anything.’ And I didn’t for a long time,” he said.
Fairless eventually earned his introductory points before suffering a competitive drought that frustrated him for the next several years. It wasn’t until optics became legal in high power competition that he was again on his way to claiming points.
“I was one of the first people to do that because my eyes were getting bad. I had to do it, or I was going to quit,” he said. “Everybody caught up with me and passed me, so when they started shooting these Garand Matches again, I thought, ‘Oh hey, that’s my chance.’”
After retiring as a teacher in 2010, Fairless thought he’d take off to see the country by competing at the CMP Travel Games in Arizona, Alabama, North Carolina and other states along the way—with the goal of finally earning a badge.
“I shoot the Garand better, comparatively, than I do an AR,” he said. “At the Eastern Games in North Carolina, all I shot was the Garand. I didn’t shoot an AR—just to practice. All the 600-yard matches and 1,000-yard matches—I shot the Garand. They were all kind of laughing at me, and I said, ‘I’ve got a reason!’ It helped a lot. My best score at Talladega was 600 because I’d been shooting all that long stuff.”
Though he fared well in matches, as the years passed, competitions became less and less about goals and more about the memories.
“Shooting is fun, but I come see my buddies and shoot with them,” Fairless said. “You get together and, after we're done shooting, we’ll go get pizza together somewhere. That’s a big part of it.”
He found a particular kinship in Bill Ellis, who travels all the way from England to the United States to compete. By chance, the two were paired up for a match over a decade ago and have chosen to compete alongside one another at countless events ever since.
“We pair up together really well, whether it's pulling targets or whatever, shooting and coaching one another,” Fairless said. “It’s pretty neat to visit with somebody from another country.”
Outside of the social aspect of the sport, Fairless has found the longevity of it has added to his enjoyment.
“This is the only sport I know of that you can keep doing until you get a lot older. You can’t do basketball or baseball or any of that kind of stuff, and this—you can take somebody my age right next to somebody that’s a junior, and we sit there and compete together,” he said.
Using his experience with a M1 Garand, Fairless gained a Master Marksman Award for Distinguished Excellence (another competitive marksmanship title) through the Garand Collectors Association back in 2023—the 10th individual to do so. And now, through the help of others and his relentless spirit, Fairless’s name has been added to the list of competitors with a Distinguished Rifleman badge.
Though he improves his game a little each time he steps onto the firing line, his scores still ebb and flow. But he’s still trying and says he’ll keep going as long as he can.
“I’ve had a blast,” he said with a smile. “It’s been fun.”
Learn more about CMP at thecmp.org.
