NY Army Guard Staff Sgt. Warren Solomon, a Lewiston resident, Competes in Nation-wide Marksmanship contest

Latham, NY (05/15/2024) — New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Warren Solomon, a Lewiston resident, competed in the National Guard's annual marksmanship competition in Arkansas which ran from April 29 to May 3.

The Winston P. Wilson Marksmanship Competition, known as the WPW for short, and named after the Chief of the National Guard Bureau who established the national shooting event in 1971, takes place at the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Solomon is assigned to C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry, headquartered at the Masten Avenue Armory in Buffalo.

The New York team of four Soldiers did not win, but they finished in the middle of the pack, according to Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lamorte II, the team captain.

The competition consisted of a variety of events.

These included firing at moving targets, using night vision sights, a reflexive fire course, a close quarter battle simulator, and the Bianchi battle.

This last event challenges the shooters to use three different weapons: the M-4 rifle, the M-17 pistol, and the M-500shotgun to engage target while running 100 yards between each engagement.There was also a mystery event, called the "Xiphos", pronounces "Z-phos".This year that event consisted of individual shooters using an M-4 rifle, an M-17 pistol and an M-500 shotgun. The M-4 shooter engaged steel targets, the M-17 marksman shot the paper targets, while the shotgun shooter downed the clay pigeons.The fourth team member had to run the right amount of ammunition for each weapon forward to firing line.

According to Solomon, a sniper squad leader, this is a practical event that echoes stressors that exist on a battlefield."It forces you to calm down before taking your shots," Solomon said. "This translates to everyday tasks that we deal with, controlling our breathing and heart rate during physically stressful situations in order to shoot accurately."

The other team members who participated are:

• Staff Sgt. Adam Crist, a Buffalo resident, assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment.
• Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lamorte II, assigned to Joint Force Headquarters operations section.
• Sgt. Craig Rowell, assigned to the 152nd Engineer Support company, 204th Engineer Battalion.

Soloman competed in the WPW in 2020 and was also recognized as part of the New York Army National Guard's Counter Drug Task Force, as an intelligence analyst in support of the Buffalo Office of Homeland Security.

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