Duty, Honor, Country – these values and commitment to excellence continue to guide cadets as the United States Military Academy, West Point, marches into its third century of service to the nation as the world’s premier leader development institution. During their four years at West Point, cadets undergo rigorous academic, military, physical and character development in preparation to lead American’s sons and daughters as officers in the U.S. Army.
For 80 years, the West Point Skeet and Trap team has played an important part of this development as one of several voluntary marksmanship teams at West Point. Founded in 1938 by Captain Charles King (USMA ’28), an avid wingshooter who foresaw the importance of firing at aerial targets in future warfare, the team began with a single field overlooking the Hudson River and a handful of well-used pump shotguns borrowed from the Ordinance Department. Armed with a love of the shooting sports and a welcoming personality, Captain King invited prominent, successful skeet shooters from the surrounding area clubs to visit the Academy and serve as volunteer coaches. He also enlisted the help of his wife, Karla, who was an excellent shot herself. Benefiting from the instruction of Captain King, his wife, and area shooters, the cadets quickly embraced the sport’s fundamentals, learned to coach each other, and soon developed into a competitive team. Matches with nearby skeet clubs and colleges, such as Yale, soon followed, with results featured in the New York Times for bragging rights. In 1941, the cadets began competing at the Intercollegiate Skeet Matches, winning the five-man skeet title that year.
The world war that Captain King anticipated suspended many of the shooting competitions across the country, to include intercollegiate championships during the war years. However, while many rival college and club teams shut down due to ammunition shortages, the West Point team shifted its focus from competing to coaching. From 1942-1944, the cadets of the skeet and trap team and their single field served as the primary trainers for aerial targets, with every graduate receiving training before graduation. While the war heightened the team’s position at the Academy, it also brought tragedy. Captain King, the founder of the team who had been promoted to colonel and reassigned to the European Theater, was killed on June 22, 1944, in Normandy, France.
Victory over Japan brought with it an end to ammunition rationing and the return of intercollegiate skeet shooting. Picking up where they had left off in 1941, the cadets won five-man team championships in 1948, 1949 and 1952. The cadets also enjoyed a resurgence of interclub competition and camaraderie in the New York area with clubs such as the Campfire Club of America, the Westchester Country Club, Winchester Club and others. Initially used to round out the cadet’s competitive schedule, these interclub matches and the relationships built on the fields of competition quickly became an integral part of the larger team mission: leveraging the shooting sports and the interactions created with other shooters to enhance the development of cadets as leaders.
Vietnam would test the graduates of the West Point Skeet and Trap Team, with nearly every member seeing service in the conflict. It would also demonstrate the importance of the team’s development model. As just one example, former team member Jack Price found himself in Vietnam shortly after the Army’s adoption of the M-16. Persistent fouling issues with the new weapon created a peninsula-wide shortage of .223 caliber cleaning rods that even the Pentagon could not fix. Frustrated, Jack reached out to a friend he had made at Colt while competing at an inter-club shoot as a cadet. Within weeks, he had cleaning rods for his entire battalion and the thanks of his soldiers.[1]
Throughout the second half of the 21st century, the cadets of the West Point team remained a steady fixture in collegiate skeet and trap shooting, especially in the Northeast. Its Academy presence also encouraged the creation of skeet and trap teams at its sister service academies, with teams competing for the inter-service academy trophy at ACUI Nationals. This rivalry has carried over to the inter-service teams that are fielded for the Armed Forces Skeet Championships, where former cadets and midshipmen compete as commissioned officers.
Today, the cadets of the West Point Skeet and Trap Team enjoy a modern, three-field facility complete with clubhouse and lights that support squeezing their once-a-week practice and weekend matches into the crowded cadet schedule West Point demands. Commissioning five to eight officers a year, its graduates serve around the globe in defense of the nation. Built upon the vision, commitment, and generosity of past cadets, officers, coaches and supporters, the team continues its 80-year tradition of honing the critical skills of future Army officers through a love of the shooting sports.
[1] http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1964/25244/price.html
– Contributed by LTC Carl J. Wojtaszek