Culdrose marksman hits the mark
An Air Engineer Technician (AET) from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose has been awarded a prestigious Medal for shooting at this year’s Royal Navy & Royal Marines Operational Shooting Competition (RNRMOSC).
AET Alex Fisher who works in Culdrose’s Merlin Depth Maintenance Facility (MDMF) servicing aircraft has scooped the Queen’s Medal and becomes only the thirteenth Sailor to have done so since its inception in 1966. He beat the best of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines to secure the top shot for 2014. The medal is highly rated amongst service men and women and only three are given annually to the best of the best in the Navy, Army and Air Force.
“It’s good to beat all the Royal Marines, they're the strongest competition and a really close competition,” said Alex. “There was only 30 points between me and second, which equates to about 6 shots. The Queens Medal is all rifle shooting using the current service 5.56 weapon, from 500 metres all the way down to the Close Quarters at 25 metres.”
RNRMOSC 2014 involved marksmen representing thePortsmoutharea, and Naval Air units and the Royal Marines organised and supported by Military Training Units from HMS Excellent and Raleigh. Over 14 days of competition teams competed for 24 trophies over 20 Rifle and seven Pistol events, divided between; Tyro (Novice), Individual, Team and Command Team categories.
The competition is made up of a number of physically demanding and operationally relevant matches requiring a high level of weapon proficiency in simulated operational encounters representing urban and rural offensive, defensive and counter-attack situations, fire support, close quarter battle (CQB) and pistol contacts.
All shoots are conducted with weighted webbing, body armour, helmet, eye protection and contact gloves and generally involve a physical component of moving between distances at speed in addition to the complications of different points of aim for different ranges and accounting for environmental effects such as wind and rain.
The competition culminates in the top 20 marksmen competing for the Queen’s Medal for Champion Shot of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
The 2014 Queens Medal was won be AET Alex Fisher, Naval Air Command.
Alex added: It’s such a huge honour to win the Queen's Medal, it's been going since 1966, there has always been a competition for the Top shot in the RN & RM. Being only the 13th Matelot even to win one is fantastic. I feel truly honoured”.