Olympic Gold Medalist returns to USAMU after 36 years

[USAMU]

By Paula J. Randall Pagán
U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Accessions Support Brigade

FORT BENNING, Ga. - An Olympic Gold Medalist has come home to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit after 36 years.
John H. “Jack” Writer, 60, was hired as a civilian reloader with the Ammunition Section of the Army Marksmanship Unit Custom Firearms Shop in April nearly 36 years after he left in August 1969 as an Army first lieutenant. As an Army officer, Writer won two Olympics medals - the Gold Medal in Three-Position Free Rifle in the 1972 Olympics and a Silver Medal in Three-Position Free Rifle in the 1968 Olympics.

As a reloader for the USAMU Ammunitions Loading Section, Writer, and his coworkers, are responsible for the thousands of rounds of world-class match ammunition produced each day for the Soldier-athlete shooters of the USAMU. Each round must be measured and adjusted to within 1/10th of a grain. The reloaders produce ammunition for rifles and pistols and test each cartridge case, propellant, primer and bullet.

“We’re very excited to have someone with his level of experience here on our team,” said Writer’s supervisor, Troy Lawton, chief of the USAMU Ammunition Section.

According to Lawton, Writer and his coworkers not only get to work on the ammunition for the world-class shooters of the Marksmanship Unit, but they also work on ammunition development and testing, which has led to ammunition improvements for the warfighter.

The USAMU’s high-velocity 77-grain ammunition is being used by 3rd Infantry Division Soldiers in Iraq in their USAMU produced Squad Designated Marksman rifles and in Afghanistan by Special Forces in the Special Purpose Receiver rifles.

Writer joined the Army in February of 1967 and after completing Basic Officers School at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., he was assigned to the Army Marksmanship Unit in 1967 as an international rifle shooter. The ordnance officer competed with the USAMU International Rifle Team until August of 1969, then as a captain in the Army Reserve, he shot with the Army Reserve Shooting Team until 1976.

When he left the Army, he returned to Illinois and ran a manufacturing firm that made metal finishing equipment and supplies and a bicycle shop, and before rejoining the USAMU, he worked in a gun shop. Writer built his own guns and loaded his own ammunition for more than 40 years, so when he heard the Army Marksmanship Unit was hiring a reloader, he applied for the job.

“As a boy, I loved shooting my BB gun and .22-caliber hunting rifle,” Writer said. “When I was about 12 years old, I found out that shooting was an Olympic sport after watching the 1956 Olympics. After a couple of years of pestering my parents, they bought me my first target rifle.

“Even though I did not know anyone who competed, I had made up my mind that I wanted to win the 50-Meter Three-Position Rifle event in the Olympics” he continued. “That early goal was probably the main reason I was successful in achieving that accomplishment in the 1972 Olympics.

“As a junior shooter in high school, I would train seven to nine hours a day all summer and as much as I could over the winter,” Writer said. “In college, I had a key to the range so that I could get all the training I needed. Over the years, I always felt that there was never enough time to train; there was always too much to do.”

Writer, an Illinois native who began shooting in 1959, has numerous marksmanship accomplishments including more than 30 medals in international competition; he also set four world records and won 11 open national championships.

He was the 1974 Three-Position Free Rifle World Champion, the 1970 Standard Rifle World Champion, earned the International Distinguished Badge and is a member of the USA Shooting Hall of Fame, USAMU Hall of Fame and the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame.

Writer graduated from Riverside Brookfield High School of Riverside, Ill., in 1962 and received a bachelor of science degree in economics from West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va., in 1967.

“Fort Benning and the Marksmanship Unit haven’t changed a whole lot since I left,” Writer said. “While facilities and equipment have been improved and modernized, the atmosphere is still the same. The USAMU’s mission to produce the finest shooters in the world has remained unchanged over the years.”

He and his wife, Ginger, were married in the Fort Benning Post Chapel in 1967. They live in Columbus, Ga., with their son Randy, 17; their daughter, Kimberly, and three grandchildren live in Illinois.

“We always liked it here,” he said, “so being back is like coming home again.”
(Formed in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to raise the standards of marksmanship throughout the U.S. Army, the Army Marksmanship Unit is assigned to the Accessions Support Brigade of the U.S. Army Accessions Command. The Marksmanship Unit trains its Soldiers to win competitions and enhances combat readiness through train-the-trainer clinics, research and development. For more information on the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, contact the Public Affairs Office at (706) 545-5436, paula.pagan@usaac.army.mil or http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/amu/.)