As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. The Fort Monroe Rifle Team consisted of a good group of motivated shooters. Some of them had served in Afghanistan and others in Iraq. A very diverse group, the team consisted of everyone from two meat-eating Special Forces officers to a number of highly skilled musicians. They were actually a pretty good cross section of not only the Army but of our great country. Some of them seemed much older than their twenty-something years would indicate--a hard maturity that could only be earned in combat. Although I was a civilian outsider, I was made to feel right at home by the team. In turn, I shared what shooting knowledge and insight I could with them.

Competitors charge to the firing line during a match. Depending upon the match, competitors either began from position or had to run up to 1.5 miles to demonstrate their level of physical fitness and to get their heart rate up.

The Competition
The All Army consists of a number of small matches shot over a period of 10 days. Many of the matches are similar, although not identical, to a civilian High Power match. The main difference between the two being the use of military silhouette targets (Type D at 200/300 yards and M9 pistol at 500 yards), no sighters, firing at 500 rather than 600 yards, and shorter time limits in the rapids. While you get 60 seconds to shoot a Sitting Rapid Fire stage in High Power, you have only 50 seconds at the All Army. Move back to 300 yards for Prone Rapid Fire, and you have 60 seconds rather than the 70 of High Power.

Other matches are quite different, and team matches are included. In the U.S. Infantry Center Infantry Trophy Match, for example, you start on the 500-yard line and have 50 seconds to fire 10 rounds from the Prone Supported position. Moving to 300 yards, you have 60 seconds to go from Standing Alert to Prone Supported and fire 10 rounds. At the 200-yard line, you have 60 seconds to go from the alert position to kneeling and fire 10 rounds.

Following this is Reflexive Fire where the firing line advances from 200 yards to 100 yards and fires two rounds from the kneeling position at random six-second target exposures. The last stage is fired at 75 yards with one round fired standing and two fired kneeling at random six-second target exposures.

Competitors are required to compete in helmet, protective eyewear, and field gear with body armor (including hardplates). Fortier wore a Blackhawk STRIKE plate carrier and shot a rack-grade M16A2.

My favorite match was the Audie Murphy Combat Match. Here, we began with getting pulses into high gear by running one and a half miles with full gear, helmets, boots, and rifles. We then sprinted from the 500-yard line to the 400-yard line and fired 10 rounds from Prone Supported. Next, we sprinted from the 400-yard line to 300 and fired another 10 rounds prone. Getting back on our feet, we sprinted to the 200-yard line and fired 10 rounds kneeling. We finished the match off by sprinting to the 100-yard line and firing 10 more rounds kneeling. Scoring was based not only on shooting but also heavily on each competitor's run time. Due to this, many of the serious yet older guard and reserve shooters fell by the wayside to younger regular Army soldiers.

I was issued a standard rack-grade M16A2, which was by far the most common rifle seen on the line. That said, the Fort Monroe MPs on our teams are normally issued M4 carbines. So, despite the disadvantage of a shorter sight radius and 14.5-inch barrel, they competed with what they carry.

Shooting a rack-grade M16A2 in competition is a bit different than shooting a match-grade AR-15 Service Rifle. The most notable differences I had to adjust for were the substantially lighter weight (my Service Rifle tips the scales at a porky 17 pounds), wider front sight, coarser sight adjustments, lack of a float tube (careful on that sling tension!), and ratcheting three-round-burst trigger. Due to the design of the burst mechanism, you get three slightly different trigger pulls. Although this isn't noticed during the rapids, it can come into play on the 500-yard line.