by Theresa Austin, Maj. National Guard Marksmanship Training Center
ROBINSON MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Arkansas – Last year, 42 states and territories participated in the 47th Annual Winston P. Wilson (WPW) National Rifle and Pistol Championships, and this year we are only 14 states away to reaching our goal of all states and territories sending a team to participate this year.
The NGMTC The National Guard Marksmanship Training Center (NGMTC) will provide the funding for your team if you want to participate. As of March 4, 2018, the National Guard is over half way towards the goal with 40 states and territories confirmed participation out of all the 54. Not only do we host the national matches, but concurrently host a multi-national competition drawing in competitors from across the globe.
The Army’s modernization strategy sole focus is to make Soldiers and units more lethal to win our Nations’s wars, and then come home safely. The National Guard Marksmanship Training Center (NGMTC) plays a big role in meeting that intent for the National Guard and the Army as a whole. They offer marksmanship training courses and advanced level training competitions that focus on speed and accuracy under pressure with the intent to train U.S. troops to win our Nation’s wars.
WPW is one of these advanced training opportunities, hosted by the NGMTC each year, which is held concurrently with NGB’s multi-national competition the Armed Forces Skill at Arms Meeting (AFSAM). AFSAM focuses on advanced marksmanship and promotes interoperability with our allies and partners to strengthen alliances and deliver more effective coalition operations. AFSAM currently has Canadian Armed Forces, the British Army Reserve, the British Army, Royal Netherlands Army and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force competing as well as other military components such as the U.S. Marine Corp. Reserve, U.S. Army Reserve, U.S. Air National Guard, U.S. Army National Guard.
Change your state from red to green by contacting us. All you need is a four-man team, which NGMTC will pay to attend.
The intent behind these competitions is learning to be a better marksmen, and with the additional focus of WPW being that these competitors take this knowledge and share it with others in their home units. Every competition is a training opportunity, with the ultimate goal of increasing weapons familiarization and skill for increased battlefield survivability and combat readiness.
National Guard Marksmanship Training Center 