NY Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lamonte II, a Guilderland resident, takes part in national marksmanship competition.

Latham, NY (05/16/2024) — New York Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lamorte II, a Guilderland 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, 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.

Lamorte is assigned to the New York National Guard's Joint Forces Headquarters operations section in Latham. He served as the team captain for the New York shooters.

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.

Lamorte said he "couldn't be more proud" of his team members.

"They are some of the finest Soldiers and marksmen that I've ever had the honor of serving with," Lamorte said."They all showed a huge level of commitment to the team this year, and we excelled at working together, particularly during the Xiphos battle, which requires planning and rationing of ammo, and gives each member a chance to shine with a different weapon system," Lamorte added.

While they didn't win, they placed in the middle, above teams that spend more time training for the competition, Lamorte said."We didn't win this year, but all of the scores were incredibly close, and it proved how one bad shot out of hundreds can be the difference between winning and losing," Lamorte said.

The other team members where:

• Staff Sgt. Adam Crist, a Buffalo resident, assigned to the 2nd Squadron of the 101st Cavalry Regiment.
• Staff Sgt. Warren Solomon, a Lewiston resident who is assigned to C Troop, of the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry.
• Sgt. Craig Rowell, a Buffalo resident who is assigned to the 152nd Engineer Company.

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