OUTSTANDING!

Woman wins national rifle championship

Shooting her M-16A2, Spc. Liana Bombardier, a U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit service rifle shooter, won the Service Rifle National Long Range Rifle Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio. Bombardier garnered the Billy C. Atkins Trophy as the highest scoring service rifle shooter in the National Highpower Rifle Long Range Championships Aug. 15 – 18.

The 21-year-old soldier is the first woman in the 100-year history of the matches to win the trophy awarded to the service rifle (now a M-1, M-14 or M-16) shooter with the highest aggregate score over the entire championships.

“The Atkins Trophy is a hard trophy to win and I was thrilled to find out I had won it,” Bombardier said. “I was behind by 5 points going into the last day of competition. I shot well that last day and came up ahead. I never thought I was going to win it.”

Bombardier also fired her M-16A2 in matches at 600, 800, 900 and 1,000 yards, and won the Service Rifle Category in the Palma Individual Trophy Match and the High Master Category in the Porter Trophy Match. She also won the Annie Oakley Trophy for being the best female shooter in this year’s Interservice Championships at Quantico, Va.

That is one tough competition. Hat’s off to her. Read the whole story.