The Easterner recently did a profile on the Rifle Marksmanship Class being offered by the EWU ROTC program for Spring Quarter this year. It will be taught by our very own Sergeant First Class (SFC) David Ratliff and held in our indoor shooting range at Cadet Hall:
The ROTC is bringing the basic rifle marksmanship class back to EWU.
The class, which will take place in Cadet Hall this spring, is back from hiatus thanks to Sgt. David Ratliff of EWU’s ROTC.
The course is open to all students, not just those in the ROTC program, and is listed as a military science course for those wanting to register.
Students registered will be practicing their rifle skills using a Crosman CH2009 CO2 rifle, which is provided by the ROTC.
The current iteration of the course is new, though EWU has had marksmanship classes in the past. The school was also host to a shooting team, which it hopes to bring back, according to Lt. Col. Jonathan C. Stafford.
“Our shooting team has historically been very good here,” said Stafford. “We had two Olympic medalists that came out of the ROTC program here.”
The new course will cover three-position shooting, meaning students will be practicing firing a rifle from the prone, kneeling and standing positions.
There is currently a cap of 20 students in the course.
Training will take place in Cadet Hall’s indoor range, which features a 10-meter firing line, the distance that those wanting to compete in EWU’s shooting team, which will begin the following quarter, will need to be proficient in. [The Easterner]
You can read more at the link, but we encourage anyone looking to learn about or improve their marksmanship to sign up for the program. The marksmanship program has historically been very good with two Olympic medalists coming out of EWU, Wanda Jewell who received a Bronze Medal in the 1984 Olympics and Launi Meili who received a Gold Medal at the 1992 Olympics.
You do not need to be a Cadet to enroll into the marksmanship class, it is open to all EWU students. Below is the course catalog listing for the class:
MLSC 288. BASIC RIFLE MARKSMANSHIP. 1 Credit.
Notes: open to all EWU enrolled students.
Pre-requisites: permission of instructor required.
Students taking this course will develop firearm safe handling skills and the knowledge to safely operate at a firearm range. Students will receive expert instruction in the fundamentals of rifle marksmanship.
I wonder how good we would have been with some good instruction like that. When I was sent to check out the team,(1963) the coach said, “Just ask some one how to use the equipment”. I didn’t even know how to attach a sling or adjust a sight. I guess we figured it out. We were conference champions and went undefeated for several years…and I was All Conference for three of those years.
Good luck to all of the new shooters and I hope you regain the status of the Eastern Rifle Team. Frank Ham
Frank, I can assure you that we definitely provide more instruction to the Cadets in the program today then you experienced. We still have a number of trophies here at Cadet Hall from past shooting champions. We hope to build up the shooting team again to be competitive regionally again. Thanks for commenting.
Hi,
The Army sent me to Eastern in 1975 for grad school with follow-on ROTC duty. I was ‘teaching’ in ’76-’77 when we lost the adjacent (?) old, totally destroyed, field house to fire. I don’t remember how much of the pictured hall was damaged. But our ROTC offices and admin were moved for a few years to the then relatively new HPE building across the street.
The class of ’78 had a reunion last summer. Much fun talking about those good ‘ol days. Amazing how my young, eager cadets had morphed into old retired colonels…made me proud.