 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2024 Marine Corps Rifle and Pistol Championship Awards Ceremony. Please rise as we render honors to Brigadier General Ferrell J. Sullivan, followed by the National Ambulance. And gentlemen, the commanding officer, Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Colonel Gregory L. Jones. Hey, I appreciate everybody for coming. Certainly, General Sullivan, thank you for your time and support to the program. If you guys didn't know, there was a comment back at M16s that you shot. General Sullivan made sure we got money for that, so PWS could build those and give you guys an edge in competition. So thank you for your time, sir. It means a lot to the shooting team and for us to have you here. For any unit leaders that are here, obviously, we've got folks from Okinawa to Camp Lejeune. So if you're your COSR major company, you know, Battalion Squadron, aren't able to come here, definitely please tell them thank you for me. I know we pay for this, but we can't make up for really between your regional making your time here, Marine Corps Championships. We can't make up what you do in your unit for the two weeks you're gone. I see some ITV instructors, etc. So it's a big deal for you to be here. Please tell your leadership that I personally am thankful to the family members who have some of you here. Thank you. What I've learned at this battalion is competitive marksmanship is an addiction and you probably know better than I do because that impacts the pocketbook if they're shooting on their own out in town, but it also impacts time away from all men's Marines. We do quite a lot of that. For distinguished marksmen, shooters, Association, thanks for being here. They continue to support. We appreciate again our Veterans Service Organizations for paying attention to what we do and continue to support the program. It means a lot to us. I'd like to thank the shooting team. They go to every MiCMiC, put on every regional MiCMiC, and they really in my mind went above and beyond what I asked them to do. It was worth thinking through what is the best shooting discipline and the type of shooting that we asked you guys to do to accomplish the mission of the Combat and Arms program, which is to increase the lethality of the total force. I think they did a really great job of that. So let's give them a round of applause, please. The confirmation brief and all the things they threw at you, it warmed me. And I smiled because Marine NCOs and Staff NCOs certainly are devious. And other devious setting up our competitions for you. And if you're Russian or Chinese, you should be really concerned, because we have the best NCOs and Staff NCOs around. And then to the competitors, again, thank you guys. It's not easy to go ask your boss to leave again. And again, you are important for where you come from. So thanks for being dedicated to the program. Again, like I said, I believe that we did accomplish the mission of the Competition and Arms program this last week. And while in the competition there is a first person, that means there's a last person, but realize you guys, I don't care what you place. I know you guys care what you place. I don't, because you're here and you tried. Every once in a while I've tried, shot, make, make, East and my performance wasn't too hot. But you tried and you take this profession of arms seriously. And I'm proud of you for that. So just, I'll be brief. We want to turn it over to General Sullivan and really get the awards to the folks that did the hard work. But I get asked a lot in this job, as we look at modernizing Mark Spinship, you know, what is, what are we doing in the Marine Corps? Is that the Marine Rifleman? Still important. I just want to talk about that a little bit. It's sort of, it's what I like to talk about a lot. But General Smith just published Fraggo one, one tack 2024 and he said, I quote, we will remain our nation's expeditionary shock troops that can deliver combat power from sea to land and now from land to sea. So what I think about shock troops, I think about you guys shooting close bay at night. If you don't, I know, I'm not going to say who the award winners are, but the top three, we've got a boat fueler, a comm strap Marine and an infantry Marine again. When we talk about shock troops and, and increase the lethality of the total force, that tells you something. And I mean, that was just amazing to watch you guys this week. And so you're definitely shock troops, expeditionary. I think we, those of us in uniform, we know what that means. That means living out of our house that we're carrying on our back and eating, eating chow at a plastic bag. It's not too fun. But as you think through where we're going with, with EABO distributed operations, if you're at a FARC for the Army Refueling Point or you're at a fire ZAB to shoot naval strike missile and sink a Chinese ship, you're not going to get, but those are, those jobs are done by non-infantry Marines. You're not going to get a battalion of infantry Marines to come protect you, right? Because we need to minimize our physical signature because we're fighting bad guys that have a lot of the same capability that we do. They have drones, they have sensors, they have satellites and they're going to be able to find a bunch of people on the ground, right? Doing what we do, digging fight holes, improving positions, et cetera. And I don't think in this fight that you're going to get an infantry battalion or even an infantry company or maybe even an infantry platoon to secure that EAB. So your ability, regardless of MOS, to remain every Marine Rifleman is hugely important. And again, you all definitely did that. I want to talk a little bit just for the audience so they know a little about what the teams threw at you guys this week. And again, I was really impressed with their idea. So we always think through, like, obviously the purpose of championships is to focus on marksmanship. General Sullivan runs a fitness instructor competition. We do do a marksmanship stage there, but the purpose of that is more physical fitness and even the marksmanship stage. We really want to see how you can shoot under duress, but we'll really push it in and get a good run time. Here we want to focus on marksmanship. And we threw a lot of stuff at you. We shot it at night with lasers. Talked about a little bit already close space with more CQB type shooting out at distance. We shot a lot of robots. We flipped tires. We did casualty drags. We low-crawled them through grenades. And that was a great stage after, named after Sergeant Cole from World War II, who was a French-born player. Didn't like that MOS, so he wanted to be a machine gunner and got a medal of honor posthumously. You guys, I think, ought to come well in your competition. And we did some mechanical breaching. And I think, probably for some of y'all, that's the first time you ever knocked open a door, kicked open a door, and then flowed through it and took down some targets. And why did we do that? Well, we did that because Gunny Highway is a fictional character in Art Break Ridge's movie, and I cannot actually shoot back at you. And so in a competition where we do want to focus in on your marksmanship skills, we also want to put you under the level, because I can't shoot back at you. Hopefully you're never shot at in a harm's way, but if you are, I want you to be comfortable in your ability. Flip a couple of tires, get your heart rate up, and able to put two targets, a nice center mass, or in the chest, or in the forehead. And again, you guys did a great job doing that. So again, just in closing, super great competition. Really proud of the teams for putting it on. I'm really proud of the competitors for showing up and just giving it your all. One day when I showed up at PT, and I noticed we weren't doing anything about 9.30, I'm like, yeah, we were tired. But again, the teams didn't cut it. I didn't think Kat Lotz would cut off some stages. I knew we would just roll start X. And I don't think you got finished yesterday until about 17.30, something like that. And then the teams were there, I know, late. So again, that's what we do in the Marine Corps. We excel under duress, and we are as perfect as we can be in those kind of situations. And again, you all proved that. I think just to be able to come here, to complete the course of fire, you're a winner in my book. So congratulations to all the competitors, and obviously we'll get some specific comments. Congratulations to each or one of the thanks. Sir, over to you. Okay, good afternoon, everybody. Let me just get a thumbs up in the back if you can hear me. Okay, good. So Greg, see you and Sergeant Major John, the last year I wasn't here because I was traveling. And for those that don't know, weapons training to tide is one of the 17-06 commandants in training commandants right across the country. But I made it a purpose to be here this year. So I'm thanking you for inviting me. Yeah. Before I get into my brief remarks, I just want to say congratulations to all of you that came here to compete. There's other things you could have been doing right now other than spending the last week or so here. We all have important things going on. But for reasons that I will express to you personally, I thank you for being here because it's important to be here. And for those of you who are about to be awarded even more appreciation, gratitude, and thanks to you for taking a keen interest in applying your trade, whether it be as a rifleman or as an F2 Marine. And then for those that are going to go on to the inner service competitions, my guidance to you is give them help. When Marines are on the battlefield or on the range of the rifle, people expect something out of you. And they expect to show the other services what we can do as Marines. Let me ask a question to all who are here, but the competitors in particular. My question is why are you here? As a competitor, my question to you is why are you here? It's a rhetorical question. I don't expect you to answer it out loud. But it's at the core of what's important to me here. And Colonel Jones talked about it a little bit. You may answer that question by saying, I need some ballistic therapy. I need to get away from what I do normally. This is a good way for me to relieve stress. And that's a fine answer. I'm not saying that that's not a good answer. You may answer it by saying it's fine. Whether you've been doing it because you grew up in a country somewhere or you knew her to it, you start as a kid because your parents or some mentor introduced you to it, or it's something that you've come to love later on in life. The fact that it's fun is also not a bad reason for being here. It may be a personal passion of yours because this is a skill set that you can continue to refine over your lifetime. At a certain point, you're going to get to my age. No matter how hard you try, you'll probably die off a little bit. If you were wondering if I just forgot to put my badges on, I didn't forget. I don't have any shooting badges like most of you do. I'm just a simple infantryman. But if it's a personal passion for you because you want to be faster or more accurate and you can measure that and get better and better, then that's a good answer too. You may like competition. And being here to compete with the best is a good reason too. It puts you under stress and adversity. And only under stress and adversity do we grow. Some people like to avoid that, but that's the only way we really can make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and grow. It may be because you want to be individually better as a Marine. You want to be more ready for the fight that Colonel Jones was talking about. There was a Marine, a Lieutenant Raymore, who was a Harrier Squadron Commander. Some of you probably remember this in 2012. He died fighting off a Taliban penetration of Bastion Airfield, which was a subsection of the Leatherneck. There was no brunch there to be had. He grabbed his rifle, got the other Marines who were maintainers on aircraft, some pilots in the ready room, and they counter-attacked. And then that counter-attack, he died. But they quickly closed that penetration and got on to business. So individual improvement is a good thing. But at the end of the day, and I think you know where I'm going with this, this is really important because of unit readiness. Because those of us that have been in the Marine Corps for 30 years or something approaching that, we have fought in multiple wars, been on multiple combat deployments. But if you were to average the amount of time between conflict from World War I to today, it's roughly between 5 or 10 years that we're in some kind of major dust-up that requires you to deploy Marines into a combat zone. And if you're going to stay in for five years, you're going to stay in for 15 or 20 or longer, that will be you again someday. And you may be heading for the exit of the Marine Corps, which is perfectly fine. But you will leave Marines behind who will go into combat. So this is only important. Everything that happens here, weapons training at the time, is only important because it prepares Marines to go into combat again individually and as a unit. And please don't read into that. I applaud you for the individual accomplishments. That's important to recognize that, to recognize that expertise. But lethality in our use of small arms, that will never go away no matter what you think about Fourth Design 2030 and what it says we can now do. We can attack from shore to sea with long-range weapons systems, high-explosive weapons systems. Those are important. But at the end of the day, we will have to put Marines on foreign soil at some point in the future to achieve our nation's goal, whatever that may be. And they will have to deploy their small-armed individual weapons and do that collectively to be successful. Now, I don't know if you know this and I'm sure it was time it was an accidental, but if you were to go to Marine Corps Association publication called the Leatherneck Magazine, last month they published an article about Brigadier General Wachheimer who I knew nothing about until I took this job last year and was made aware of the different awards that you're presented here. That award right there, if you were to go back into a picture of him in 1920, that award that's now encased in wood is the same exact trophy that was handed out back then. And back then, he was a major and he was a lawyer who just graduated law school as a Marine and they put him in charge of being the inspector of target practice. That was his job. That was his official title. I think we got that wrong in terms of what the official title was, but his responsibilities were to develop and construct live fire ranges to institute a competitive marksmanship program in the Marine Corps and to oversee the execution of the Marine Corps shooting team in international and national competitions. It sounds a lot like the CO of weapons training in Italian, although you have more responsibilities today, but I can guarantee you when he took over that job, none of this existed. So if you're wondering what one person can do and he probably had no idea where this would go, and that you'd have a room of people like this sitting together who would follow his footsteps. But if you're wondering what one person can do and what that legacy could look like going back to your old responsibility in terms of taking what you've learned here back and giving back to your organizations back in the Fleet Marine Force or if you're getting out, like I saw Sergeant Cardenas over there, he knows why I'm not wearing anything here because he put me through AMTB at least a portion of it. But I know you're getting out, but you have paid the service already. So you've either already done it or you need to do it. Just like Brigadier General Lauchheimer did and so much is going to receive that trophy here when I'm done it. Now in closing, weapons training in Italian, thank you for what you do here for this and what you do for the Marine Corps. I did not understand for John and Mass Heart Capcom the value of the Marine Corps shooting team. I'd never shot on it before when I was a platoon commander, company commander, attack commander, whatever. I knew there were matches going on and Marines went off to the matches, but we were involved in a workup or whatever it was and I probably should have paid more attention back in the day. But after spending two years almost in this job, I have no doubt that we absolutely positively need a Marine Corps shooting team. So all what you did to set this up, all the regional matches that you ran to get us here today, I very much appreciate it for both you, you two and your rifle and pistol teams. I know a lot of work went into that and I don't think people understand the grassroots impact that has on the Marine Corps and I certainly have a much better understanding of that now. But also if you have any of your MPMS team here, really the engine room that drives innovation, like protecting the things that we know are good and then innovating in the ways we know we must, as well as the schoolhouse formerly known as the Skystop Schoolhouse that has transitioned the folks on precision marking the ship. What you do too is tremendously important. Precision weapons attachment that you had. Everything that you guys do is important and I greatly appreciate it. And with that I'll humbly conclude my remarks and again thank you for having me here today. You're welcome. From its inception the competition in arms program has enhanced the marksmanship proficiency and lethality of the Marine Corps by providing a base of highly skilled marksmanship instructors, scout snipers, coaches, and ranged personnel. It also stimulates the individual Marines confidence and desire to excel with service weapons while facilitating the development and exchange of ideas to improve equipment and shooting techniques. In accordance with the competition in arms program the Marine Corps championship is the culminating event for the top competitors from the five Marine Corps marksmanship competitions. National Capital Region held in Quantico, Virginia. Far East held in Okinawa, Japan. Pacific held in Hawaii. West held at Camp Pendleton, California. And Far East held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Competitors placing in the top 10% at each of the marksmanship competitions earned the privilege of competing at the Marine Corps championship. At this time we will present the individual rifle awards. Those Marines, Marine competitors previously awarded a distinguished badge and who placed in the awards bracket will receive a previously distinguished certificate. It is a tradition at the Marine Corps championship that the competitor who finishes one place out of the medal bracket will receive an award referred to as First Leather. By recognizing this Marine's accomplishment he or she is encouraged to remain active in competitive shooting and to further develop their shooting abilities. Please hold your applause until all of the award winners have been recognized. Placing 12th receiving the First Leather award is Staff Sergeant Stephen Corson of the Marine Corps shooting team. Placing 11th receiving third bronze is Staff Sergeant Kanika Beck of the East team. Placing 10th receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant John Treat II of the Marine Corps shooting team. Placing 9th receiving a distinguished marksman badge in lieu of second bronze is Sergeant Greg Robinson of the East team. Ladies and gentlemen, the Marine Corps newest distinguished marksman. 8th receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Robert Germanello from the West team. Placing 7th receiving a distinguished badge in lieu of first bronze is Gunnery Sergeant Michael Martinez of the Marine Corps shooting team. First newest distinguished marksman. 6th receiving a distinguished marksman badge in lieu of second silver is Sergeant Adam Haswell of the Marine Corps shooting team. Ladies and gentlemen, the Marine Corps newest distinguished marksman. Previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant Joshua Cardenas of Weapons Training Battalion Quantico. Placing 4th receiving a certificate awarded a higher medal in another Marine Corps championship match is Sergeant Minto McSherry of the East team. Placing 3rd receiving first silver is Captain Phillip Williams of Weapons Training Battalion Quantico. Certificate is Staff Sergeant Peyton Garcia of the Marine Corps shooting team. And the 2024 Marine Corps rifle match champion receiving the McDougal trophy and distinguished marksman badge in lieu of first gold is Staff Sergeant Christian Cotola of the Marine Corps shooting team. And 2024 rifle match for pistol. Please hold your applause until all the award winners have been reckoned. Placing 18th receiving first leather is Major Parker Tomasi of the East team. Placing 17th receiving a distinguished pistol shot badge in lieu of third bronze is Staff Sergeant Paul Wilkerson of the West team. The Marine Corps newest distinguished pistol shot. 16th receiving a distinguished pistol shot badge in lieu of second bronze is Sergeant Kanika Beck of the East team. Ladies and gentlemen the Marine Corps newest distinguished pistol shot. 15th receiving a certificate due to being awarded a higher medal in another Marine Corps championship match is Sergeant Sean Moeller of the Marine Corps shooting team. 14th receiving a distinguished pistol shot badge in lieu of first bronze is Sergeant Mason Shaw of the West team. Ladies and gentlemen the Marine Corps newest distinguished pistol shot 2nd silver is Sergeant Paul Blue Gorman of the National Capital Region team. Certificate due to being awarded a higher medal in another Marine Corps championship match is Sergeant Jacob Zupke of the Marine Corps shooting team. Receiving 2nd silver is Sergeant Dylan Kelly of the East team. Placing 10th receiving first gold is Captain Sean Chang of the West team. Placing 9th receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Major Frank Gall of the National Capital Region team. Certificate is Sergeant Adam Haswell of the Marine Corps shooting team. Receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Kevin Graf of the Marine Corps reserve shooting team. Previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant Mitchell McSherry of the East team. Placing 5th receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Stephen Corson of the Marine Corps shooting team. Placing 4th receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant John Treat II of the Marine Corps shooting team. Previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Payton Garcia of the Marine Corps shooting team. Certificate is Corporal Tanner of the East Team. In the 2024 Marine Corps Pistol Match Champion receiving the Wall's trophy badge and a previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant Joshua Cardenas of Weapons Training Battalion, Quantico. Ladies and gentlemen, the multi-gun match. Please hold your applause until all the award winners have been recognized. Is Sergeant Paul Lugorman of the National Capital Region Team. Receiving third bronze is Sergeant Original Hancock of the East Team. Receiving a distinguished pistol shot badge in lieu of second bronze is Major Parker Tomasi of the East Team. Ladies and gentlemen, the Marine Corps newest distinguished pistol shot. Receiving a certificate due to being awarded a higher medal in another Marine Corps Championship match is Sergeant Adam Haswell of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. Placing seventh, receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Stephen Corson of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. Placing sixth, receiving first bronze is Corporal Tanner Wright of the Far East Team. Placing fifth, receiving a distinguished marksman badge in lieu of second silver is Sergeant Mitchell McSherry of the East Team. Ladies and gentlemen, the Marine Corps newest distinguished marksman. Receiving first silver is Sergeant Jacob Zuppie of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. Receiving a distinguished pistol shot badge in lieu of first gold is Sergeant Sean Muller of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. And the Marine Corps newest receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Sergeant Joshua Cardenas of Weapons Training Battalion Quantico. 24 Marine Corps Multi-Gun Match Champion. Receiving a previously distinguished certificate is Staff Sergeant Peyton Garcia of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2024 Marine Corps Multi-Gun Match Champion for Heartsville Trophy, your competitor in the competition and arms program referred to as the High Tyro. In 2022, this trophy was donated by the Marine Corps Distinguished Shooting Association and retired Major General Heartsville. Major General Heartsville joined the Marine Corps in 1981 as an enlisted Marine before earning his commission in 1983. During his career, he earned a distinguished pistol shot badge and was a member of the 1992 Eastern Division team who won the Interdivision Pistol Team Trophy. The Heartsville Trophy is being presented by retired Gunnery Sergeant Nelson Ocasio of the Distinguished Shooter Association, Marine Corps in 1921 by the family of the late Adjutant and Inspector of the Marine Corps Brigadier General Charles H. Lockheimer. In 1901, then a Major General Lockheimer established competitive marksmanship in the Marine Corps. He also captained the first Marine team to enter rifle competitions. The large bronze trophy has, since its inception, been awarded to the competitor attaining the highest aggregate score of the individual rifle and individual pistol match. The winner of these shooting disciplines receives a gold medal miniature of the trophy while the second and third place receives silver and bronze medals respectively. Placing third, receiving a bronze Lockheimer badge is Sergeant Mitchell McSherry of the East Team. Second, receiving a silver Lockheimer badge is Sergeant Joshua Cardenas of Weapons Training for Time, Quantico. In 2024, Marine Corps Championship Lockheimer winner and receiving a gold Lockheimer badge is Staff Sergeant Peyton Garcia of the Marine Corps Shooting Team. Competition consists of the team matches where each region put their best competitors against other teams in order to win the Interdivision Rifle Team Match, Interdivision Pistol Team Match, and the Fleet Marine Forces Combat Infantry Brofiend Match. All of these competitions share not only a rich history and competitive partnership but hold a very important significance to all who participate. The Interdivision Rifle Team Trophy is awarded to the team with the highest aggregate rifle score from the Rifle Team Match. The trophy is dedicated to the memory of those Marines, instrumental in the furtherance of rifle matches who gave their lives in World War II. The winner of the 2024 Interdivision Rifle Team Trophy is the East Team. The team captain is Sergeant Toby Schindler. The team coach is Sergeant Kyle Turbat, Sergeant Mitchell McSherry, Sergeant Greg Robinson, Corporal Michael Mayo, Staff Sergeant Anika Beck, Staff Sergeant Christopher Simbler, and Staff Sergeant Garrett Schroll. Rifle Team Match Champion, the Pistol Team Trophy is awarded to the pistol scores from the Pistol Team Match. The team captain is Staff Sergeant Garrett Schroll. The team coach is Staff Sergeant Anika Beck and the firing members are Sergeant Mitchell McSherry, Sergeant Dylan Kelly, Gunner Sergeant Joshua Haskell, and Sergeant Greg Robinson. Infantry Team Trophy is during the Infantry Trophy Team Match. The winner of the 2024 Infantry Trophy Team Match is Chief Bar-E. The team captain is Corporal Kevin Keen. The team coach is Sergeant Victor Vargas. The firing members are Staff Sergeant Alexis Santiago, Staff Sergeant Tyler Trundle, Sergeant Sam DuMond, Corporal York Bayer, here back to your parent commands and share them with your fellow Marines and Sailors. Please remain for pictures after the conclusion of the ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the playing of Angers Away and the Marines' Hymn, followed by the departure of the official party.