Recently, Masters at Arms (MA’s) from NAS Whidbey Island Security, officers from Oak Harbor Police Department and deputies from Island County Sheriff’s Office met to face each other with weapons drawn. It may sound like a bizarre standoff, but it was an event designed to bring the three agencies, which cooperate on a regular basis, closer together.

“It was about getting to know each other away from the pressures of work and just talking to each other, meeting each other’s families and talking about common interests besides work,” said Chief Warrant Officer John Machaby. “It gave us an opportunity to explore that and when you find yourself in a work situation again it’s not just a Sailor and a Oak Harbor police officer or deputy, it’s Joe or Jim or James that I met at the range and I know him and I know a little bit about him and it makes your working relationship all that much better.”

The course consisted of 32 separate targets that shooters had to hit from behind barriers while on the move. To complicate things, some of the ‘hostile’ targets were partially obscured by ‘friendly’ targets and shooters had to hit their mark without hitting the innocent bystanders. Just to add another twist, part way through the course the shooters had to rescue a teddy bear and cradle it in their arm to carry it to safety while continuing to engage targets. The timer stoppedafter the shooter strapped the teddy bear into a child seat and hit the final target.

“Accuracy and speed were factored in to determine the final scores,” said Oak Harbor Police Chief Steve Almon.

“Winging a target in the shoulder, but being really fast wasn’t as good as hitting the target where you were trained to, but being a little slower. Speed wasn’t necessarily everything, accuracy was most important,” added Machaby.

This type of shooting was a new experience for Navy marksmen, but it would be hard to tell from the results. NAS Security walked away with first and second place in the four-person team event and a second place win behind the Oak Harbor Police Department in the two-person team category.

With plans to make this an annual event, Almon looks forward to confiscating the traveling trophy from the Navy after next year’s shoot.

Members of the winning Navy teams were:

First place, four-person team - MA1Jonathon Baumgartner, MA1 Stephen Mabes, MA2 Randy McKalip and MAC(SW) Dean Willette.

Second place, four-person team - MA1(SW) Michael Hansen, MA1(AW) John Swizdor, MA1(SW) Mark Taylor and CWO3 John Machaby.

First place, two-person team - Steve Nordstrand and Steve Almon - Oak Harbor Police.

Second place, two-person team - MA1(SW) Daniel Shaw and MAC Jerry Shenefield.