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Marine Staff Sgt. Payton Garcia (a\u00a0fuel specialist!)<\/em> matched a 66-year-old Marine Corps marksmanship record by taking the overall first prize in the Marine Corps Championships – in Pistol, Rifle, and Multi-Gun events with the highest overall score..<\/p>\n \u201cWe were curious about that during the actual conduct of the match, and we dug through all of our history books and records,\u201d said Capt. John Bodzoich, the shooting team commander. \u201cAnd what we found is, in the 124 years the team\u2019s been around, and since the establishment of all these matches, Sgt. Garcia is the second Marine in history to do a clean sweep of the championships. So of the thousands of Marines that have come through, he\u2019s the second one ever to win both high rifle, high pistol, and high overall [score].\u201d<\/p>\n The annual Marine Corps Championships, held in Quantico, is a culminating event among shooters who advance through qualification competitions at major bases like Camp Pendleton in California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.<\/p>\n Across 30 events, shooters face scenarios that the shooting team has dreamed up based on their experience in civilian practical shooting competitions. This year\u2019s stations included shooting lanes from boats, from a balance beam, and even with a mandatory bench press set before shooting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of the things Garcia had to do was\u00a0 learn how to train. The Lawrence, KS native said he had almost no exposure to firearms or ranges prior to entering the service.<\/p>\n Garcia\u2019s path to the top marksmanship awards in the Marine Corps, he said, traces directly back to getting smoked by a senior citizen and a grade schooler.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest things that went into my improvement was actually learning how to train,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cActually sitting down and deep-diving into the fundamentals of shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n Shooting against civilians and absorbing non-military training techniques, he said, was different than traditional Marine marksmanship training.<\/p>\n \u201cJust like any other sport, there are build-ups to each one of those fundamentals that you need to do,\u201d he said. \u201cStructuralizing training and isolating skills that I\u2019ve learned from those local matches, and realizing that it\u2019s not all just about shooting. There\u2019s a lot of mental aspects that go into shooting, where you\u2019re competing at any level, realizing that you need to be in the right headspace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Senior citizen and a kid, you say?<\/p>\n \u201cI did my first [Marine Corps marksmanship] match in 2021, and I did relatively well. I got a silver pistol badge on my first time,\u201d Garcia told Task & Purpose. \u201cThen I went to a match on the civilian side, thinking that I was, like, \u2018The Shooter.\u2019 The best ever.\u201d<\/p>\n He was not.<\/p>\n \u201cI got beat by a 68-year-old man and a 12-year-old little boy,\u201d Garcia remembers. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when it lit a fire, like, realizing that there\u2019s so much more to marksmanship. I was a Marine who thought that he was a really good marksman, and then getting humbled up in town made me realize how much we don\u2019t know about marksmanship.\u201d\u00a0Task & Purpose<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s worth noting that the multi-gun match was added since 1959, so his accomplishment is not just historic, but unique. Well worth reading the article, if for nothing else the descriptions of the various events.<\/p>\n As the top shooter, Garcia was awarded a historic trophy: his own M-1 Garand rifle, the same kind used by Marines in World War II.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t keep it and instead gave the rifle to Sgt. Kai Byrom, the highest-scoring first-year competitor, a mortarman and marksmanship coach with Weapons and Field Training Battalion, Parris Island.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was more important to isolate and kind of award the next generation of Marines,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cSo I thought it was important to spread marksmanship knowledge and to light a fire under some of the newer guys by awarding or deferring the M1 to that Marine. It\u2019s more important for the next generation, and not about us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sounds like this young staff sergeant has his head screwed on straight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"