Civilian Shooting Industry Accomplishments

Civilian Shooting Industry Accomplishments

Sometimes it is hard to delineate my military shooting accomplishments from my civilian as most of them occurred while I was on active duty. In some cases they were a by product of my military duties, and in other cases they were because of my competition shooting and pistolsmithing activities on my off time. Because of this I have categorized them into different areas:

Industry certifications and awards:

• FBI certified firearms instructor
• Secret Service certified firearms instructor - high shooter award in my class
• NRA certified firearms instructor
• National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) 2003 Carlos Hathcock award recipient - this award is given for excellence in the end user community for outstanding contributions in small arms training and weapons development. I am proud to be the first special operations community recipient of the award.

Competition arena accomplishments:

I have had the privilege to train with several of the best competition shooters in the US including Rob Leatham, Jerry Barnhart, Mike Voight, and John Shaw. I consider many of them friends and want to publicly thank them for their contributions for helping me become a better shooter. I shot competitively as a hobby for several years. I have many state and regional awards and championships. I will only list some of the highlights:

• Top Ten finisher at USPSA Limited Nationals in 1993 & 1994
• Two time top CDP shooter at IDPA Winter Nationals
• Two time top 5 finisher in my class at IDPA Nationals
• Founding member of International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA)
• IDPA Vickers Count scoring system is named after me -I did not originate it however; I learned it from Rob Leatham (an interesting story in itself)
• Master Class USPSA Limited Shooter
• Master Class IDPA shooter in CDP, ESP, and SSP

Pistolsmithing accomplishments:

When I decided to pursue 1911 pistolsmithing as a hobby I was fortunate that my good friends Ken Hackathorn and John Miller took me under their wings and showed me what made a 1911 tick. In addition, Steve Nastoff gave me input and Dick Heinie really stepped up and helped me out, eventually sponsoring my membership into the American Pistolsmiths Guild. Once again let me publicly thank these individuals for their help. I was also fortunate to be in a Unit where more .45 ACP ammo is shot out of 1911 style pistols than any other place in the world; the ultimate test bed. I learned alot in the 15 years I was at 1st SFOD-Delta about what it takes to make a 1911 work reliably and how to keep it running. I also want to thank the individuals who work in the arms room at the Unit; they will remain nameless but I learned alot from them on making a 1911 run.

• Member American Pistolsmiths Guild
• Named 'Most Sought after 1911 Pistolsmith' by American Handgunner magazine
• Key player in refining the Unit 1911 service pistols and developing better end user training and maintanence techniques
• Key player in influencing several 1911 vendors for better designed components; Vendors I have had input with include but are not limited to Caspian Arms, Springfield Inc.,and Wilson Combat.
• I have built pistols for many of the key people in the 1911 business including Bill Wilson, Chip McCormick, Ken Hackathorn, Rob Leatham, and Dick Heinie

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