MING Soldiers win National Winston P. Wilson Sniper Championship

FORT CHAFFEE, Ark. --

Michigan National Guard Soldiers from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 126th Infantry, Michigan Army National Guard, won the Chief Warrant Officer David R. Logan Sniper Team Trophy during the Winston P. Wilson Sniper Championship. Sgt. Saykham Keophalychanh and Sgt. Nicholas Mitchell teamed up for the competition to win the trophy.

Even more impressive about this team’s win, was its last minute notice to compete.
“Our initial intent was to travel down with the team to coach, observe and learn new tactics, techniques, and procedures, to further enhance our current sustainment training within the sniper sections, and to better prepare future Michigan sniper competitors. However, we became last minute replacements because the original assigned team was unable to compete,” Mitchell explained.

The seven-day, battle-focused event, took place at Fort Chaffee, Ark., from April 16-21, and was the 45th edition of the competition. Additionally, participating in the competition were National Guard units from 18 different states, as well as the 19th Special Forces Group. The Soldiers were graded on sniper-specific tasks as well as spotter tasks. The Soldiers used the M110 semi-automatic sniper system, the M4 carbine and the Beretta M9 during the competition.

Individually, Keophalychanh won the W.P.W. Top Sniper award and Mitchell placed third in the night unknown distance match. Each Soldier also earned the Chief’s 50 badge, given to the top two teams.

Speaking on behalf of the team, Mitchell went on to say, “We would like to thank the Michigan National Guard for supporting competitors for this event, the Small Arms Readiness Training Section for supporting our training prior to the event, and our unit leadership for providing us with the leadership, guidance, and resources which enabled us to maintain a high level of proficiency in our sniper skill set.”

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