June, 1960 at Parris Island. I had been shooting since around 8 years old, mostly .22's, and an occasional chance to shoot my cousins 1903A3.
During our qualification, I shot a 248, which put me as 'high rifle' in our batt. They put me on the rifle team, and I had to skip a week of mess duty. I sure did not miss that. After being assigned to 8th & I, between parades and time at Camp David, I was placed on the HQ rifle team. Lots of traveling, lots of trigger time. Many close matches, but no 14k in 1961.
Went to Eastern Division matches at LaJune (sp) in '62. Got my first chunk of 14k there. A couple more later that year at Camp Perry. All our ammo was Frankfort Arsenal Match.
Last transfer was to HMX-1 in late '62. Even though we lived/flew out of DC, our 'offical' duty station was Quantico. Short hop on a chopper, and we had plenty of those. The Corps did not have a sniper program at that time as it had been discontinued about the end of the Korean Conflict.
I was 'asked', along with a couple of other guys to see what we could do with some rifles bought from a few manufacturers. First we stated by improving our accuracy with our M-1's from 600 yds to 1,000 yds., still open sights. After a few weeks of this, we moved to the 'new' stuff they bought, with improved sighting systems. We mostly worked with different factory reps to see what seemed to work best. We were not given much information regarding overall test results. During 'bad' weather days we assisted at the FBI range working with 'new guys'. This is when I discovered that the FBI hired people that had never fired a firearm.
With all this going on, we were still officially assigned to presidential security.
Did not re-up, as VietNam had started taking buddies. Not a lot of them were returning.
Still miss not having a Garand of my own, but with my defib/pacemaker, my doctors will not let me shoot any shoulder fired weapon over .22 cal. I have started trying my hand as pistols. This is sort of funny as when I was on the USMC team, we were considered alternates on the pistol team. Were assiged a pistol box with a .22, .38 and .45. We seldom shot them, they were just another piece of luggage we hauled around.
Was sitting in an English class in Cookeville, TN at Tennessee Tech the morning of Noverber 22nd, 1963. Heard the news, went outside to toss cookies, stayed stuck to the TV for the next 2 days. Saw a lot of my buds from DC there. If I had stayed in, I would have been in the middle of that whole damn mess.