Arizona republican., 1913-12-09
URGE NEW PLAN
 CHOOSING TEAM
National Guardsmen Be- lieVe Arizona Rifle Teams Should Comprise Men Who Will Later Instruct Enlisted Militiamen.

That the method employed in the past in selecting the teams to repre- sent the state or ArIzona at the an nual rifle matches at camp Perry is not calculated to result in the most benefit to the members of the Ma tional Guard of Arizona, but that it rather gives opportunity for the sat | isfying of personal ambition the part of the higher officers and the | winning of medals that mean nOth- | ing so far as the concrete organiza- 1 tion is concerned, is the growing sentiment of the greater majority o1 the officers and enlisted men of the various companies of the First Regi- ment. So strong IS this sentiment becoming there is a well organized | movement on foot to endeaVor to bring about radical changes to the 1 end that the members may receive the full benefit that should acrue from the holalng of these annual shoots.
 Pointing to the team that went to Camp Perry this year and made such an excellent showing, it is claimed by those who are in a position to know that hardly a man who would handle a gun in actual service was benefited by the experience and in struction the individuals received while in Ohio.
 Four of the officers attached to the Arizona team, it is claimed. were men who in the field would never have occasion to use a gun them selves and would not be in command or connected with a branch of the service where their subordinates em- ployed guns. In the years work none of these four men come in contact with the men who carry guns. None of them are ever employed in an in structing capacity.
 One of the officers who went to Camp Perry drew down in federal , and state salaries, it is claimed enough to have sent at least eight men to the camp from the ranks. Another drew in the same manner enough to have sent four or five men. And these men returned to Arizona and from that time to the present have not come in personal contact with a single enlisted man nor has had the opportunity to disseminate to the men with guns any of the knowledge they secured while at the camp.
 The feeling of the commanders and ] men under them is that each com pany should be represented at the national rifle camp by at least one non commissioned officer, preferably a sergeant. who upon his return would at once be in contact with the men in the ranks and be in posi- ton to impart to the entire company some of the technical knowledge ht secured while at the shoot
 As it stands today, it is claimed the men have little or no opportunity to learn the technique of shooting ! with army rifles. They know little , or nothing of estimating distances 1 the velocity of wind. the effect O.
 wind upon a rifle ball, the use o e the sights, the difference in light anC , heavy bullets, in fact ncne of tho Q finer points of guns md ammuni- = ton.
 If a sergeant instead or a colonel I or a corporal instead of majo
 were to have been at Camp Perr! those n-commissioned officers upoI their return would have been in position to take squads of enlisted men to the company r3Pees and t' have given them instruction una would have gone long ways toward providing each company with eXper i marksmen.
 Just how the end desired IS to p' | attained has not been Thade puoIl' but it is confidently predicted una when another national rifle camp + held, the personnel If the Arlzoh' team will be of that class that Wll | 1,o abIa to benpfit t,l.a men in the ranks after the encampmcnt ends IL may be that such team would not bring home so many personal medals but inc guard as a whole would sooT receive more of the benefits that arc said to be the basic principles ol the camp that is held annually