“Camp Perry’s month-long run of the National Rifle and Pistol Matches will go on as scheduled next month. But the fate of the 1968 Matches hangs by a thread. Senator Edward Kennedy … one of the more severe critics of the Matches, may well see to that.”
—Port Clinton Herald, July 1967
There were challenges aplenty during preparations for the 1967 National Matches as anti-firearm legislators, headed by Sen. Edward Kennedy, formalized their efforts to disband the program.
The Defense Appropriation Bill came under fire, including the portion assigned to the National Board where the NRA had an obvious vested interest. But when the bill was put to a vote, Congress rebuffed the Sen. Kennedy-led motion to strike National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice funding by a count of 67-23. Thus, the Board’s approximate $500,000 apportionment and ammunition provision remained intact.
Support for the National Matches appeared sound, given the congressional nod and the tone of a letter from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to Sen. Kennedy that read in part: “Even in the case of the National Matches, and the NRA’s involvement in them, Congress has circumscribed the issues by statute, in 10 U.S.C., paragraphs 4312 and 4313. If Congress is dissatisfied with these statutes, then it clearly has the responsibility to change them.” But the issue was far from resolved and what transpired in the latter half of 1967 proved pivotal in the course of National Match history.
“As a member of the Defense Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriation Committee, I have had occasion to review … the annual appropriation for the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice … I do not at all share the views expressed by Sen. Kennedy and I applaud your Department’s position in support of the Program of the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and the National Matches at Camp Perry.”
—June 15, 1967, letter from Sen. Strom Thurmond to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Correspondence between Sec. McNamara and various congressmen led to the distribution of a memo in July from Sec. McNamara to the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The memo called for a review of all programs associated with the Civilian Marksmanship Program, including those related to the National Matches. Subsequently, the following occurred:
August 22. A Senate vote called for the Army’s elimination of National Match support.
November 1. The Secretary of the Army, Stanley Resor, announced that the Army would not provide support for the 1968 National Matches. A memo to National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice members from the Under Secretary of the Army read: “The Director of Civilian Marksmanship has already informed you that the Army has determined that it will not conduct the 1968 National Matches. This decision was based on the need to limit expenditures to only the most essential activities and to utilize manpower in the most efficient manner under current conditions; it was not based on any substantive conclusions with respect to the long-run nature and scope of the CMP.”
December 1. A letter from Resor to L. Mendel Rivers, the Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services read in part: “Let me assure you that this decision was reached on the basis of the Army’s independent assessment of the programs and costs involved, and not as a result of pressure from any outside source. Nor does it reflect a desire to ‘punish’ the National Rifle Association for its stand on firearms control legislation. It simply represents our best judgment as to the proper utilization of the Army’s financial and personnel resources at this time.” (Rivers had questioned the Army’s pull-out decision since he considered the cost savings nominal.)
December 2. During an NRA Executive Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., committee member James Whitney motioned for the NRA to carry on alone and conduct the national championships in 1968 and thereafter despite the military withdrawal. The motion passed unanimously.
December 5. The Army notified the State of Ohio that it wished to terminate its long-term lease on Camp Perry effective December 6, 1968.
“In remarks at opening ceremonies … NRA President Harold W. Glassen welcomed the nation’s shooters to the National Matches. He cited the incessant attacks on the National Match concept mounted by the advocates of more rigid gun controls.”
—The American Rifleman, October 1967
The August Senate vote to pull National Match support occurred while the Small Arms Firing School for rifle was in session under the supervision of Match Director Col. C.J. “Neal” Shaffer. But in the two and half weeks prior, pistol and smallbore competitors reveled in the competitive sights and sounds that only Camp Perry could provide. Army Master Sgt. Bill Blankenship shook the effects of two consecutive second-place finishes in the national pistol championship and returned to the winner’s podium for a record-tying sixth time. After firing a 2632-122X without a single sub-aggregate win, Blankenship joined the elite company of Joe Benner and Harry Reeves as the only handgunners to claim six national titles.
Capt. Sallie Carroll won her second consecutive women’s title while John Johnson of Fullerton, California, nabbed civilian honors in addition to the President’s Hundred Pistol Match title. Air Force Staff Sgt. Edwin Teague won the National Individual Pistol Match on Xs and became the first airman in the 64-year history of the National Matches to claim the title, while Army shooters dominated team competition by winning both the NRA team aggregate and National Trophy Team Match.
The statistical crew had a daunting task before it as it sharpened pencils and polished magnifying glasses prior to the start of the smallbore matches. Between prone and position, officials scored close to 600,000 record shots and the skill was well appreciated by Capt. Bruce Meredith, who went nip and tuck with Army Reserve Capt. Dave Ross and turned in a prone score of 6396-539X to trim Ross by two points and push the National Match record up by 29 Xs. Meredith lost his four points during the metallic sight aggregate and his any sight score of 3200-281X set a new standard of excellence. Oddly enough, his only fired-match win was at 100 yards with any sights, where his 400-33X score bested the field.
About one in six prone competitors were military, but they accounted for almost half of the individual victories. In addition to Meredith, Chief Warrant Officer David Boyd and Lt. Ray Green of the Marines, Airman Second Class George “Spike” Hadley, USAF, and Army Capts. John Foster, Lones Wigger, Jr., and Reservist Dave Ross accounted for the rest. Noted gunsmith Karl Kenyon, Kim Rickert, Robert Wempe, Douglas Knoop, senior champion Herb Hollister and metallic prone sight champ Kenneth Leasure held up the honor of the civilians. Hollister was the only competitor to shoot a perfect 400-40X in any match, and he did it twice—in the any-sight 50-yard and any-sight meter matches.
Women’s prone honors went to Inez Sargent, who accepted the Remington Trophy for the third time in four years. The collegiate title went to newcomer Mary Parris, 19, of Asheville, North Carolina, who edged Barbara Hampson by two and was the only woman on the Dewar Team in 1967.
With three-time national champion Lones Wigger in Vietnam, the position field was viewed as an open contest. However, Wigger’s commitment to shooting and winning might have been underestimated. He was about halfway through his tour and due for two weeks of leave when instead of heading to one of the popular destinations like Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia or even Hawaii, Wigger orchestrated a series of flights and ended up at Camp Perry in time to compete. You may take the Wigger out of the National Matches, but you can’t take the National Matches out of Wigger. Firing line rumors of his possible entry notwithstanding, the competition was truly surprised by his presence. And Wigger’s presence was surely felt despite his reduced training opportunities.
Wigger won a prone match, earned a spot on the Dewar Team and then fought it out with National Guard Capt. Gary Anderson, John Writer, John Foster and Dave Kimes for the position title. And while his effort was heroic, Wigger was not able to capture a fourth title. Anderson, 28, prevailed in the end with a tally of 3171-205X.
Army Lt. Margaret Thompson ran her string of women’s titles to three while Cliff Davis, the prone collegiate champion in 1966, garnered the 1967 position honors for the scholars and William Schweitzer succeeded his brother Jack as the junior champion.
While two newcomers joined the list of national champions in smallbore, a familiar name was called out at the 1967 high power award ceremony, when Middleton Tompkins walked across the stage to collect his fourth Wright Memorial Trophy. Tompkins’s last title came in 1964 and this year’s score of 1554-38X represented a National Match record as a new military target was employed that doubled the possible point value from 800 to 1600. Tompkins won a fired match in the process, the Scott Trophy, while Marine Lt. James Bowen won the service title with an M14 and a 1546 tally that included a victory in the Navy Cup Match.
Familiarity reigned supreme in women’s high power competition as both bolt and service winners were former champions many times over. Miralotte Ickes won her seventh bolt title (she also won in 1957-1960 and 1964-1965), while Army Staff Sgt. Barbara Hile proved to be the only defending national champion in 1967. Hile beat out Margaret Thompson, this year’s women’s smallbore position winner and former women’s service rifle champion, to claim her sixth service title in seven years, the only break coming when Thompson won the crown in 1965.
As was the case in 1966, the Infantry Trophy Team Match led off the high power program and this year the record score was upped by 15 points by one of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit teams. The NRA’s three most historic matches were then contested on the three days following the Board match and victory went to Army Staff Sgt. Arpail Gapol in the President’s, Theodore Fasy in the Leech Cup and Marine Gunnery Sgt. Paul Holcombe in the Wimbledon Cup. In addition, Marines dominated the last two days of shooting, when Staff Sgt. Robert Goller earned the Daniel Boone Trophy for his National Trophy Individual Match win and Corps shooters finished atop the National Trophy Team event.
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