Vance skeet shooter began with borrowed gun

  • Published
  • By Joe B. Wiles
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A life-long love of skeet shooting began in the 1980s when Miles Crowell's roommates at Columbus AFB, Miss., invited him to give it a try one weekend. Eight months later he placed 3rd in the 20-gauge category of the Armed Forces International - with a borrowed gun. 

An Air Force Academy graduate, Mr. Crowell is the deputy program director with Computer Sciences Corp., here. 

He was encouraged along his skeet-shooting path by two friends, Scott Schroeder, an award winning skeet shooter, who was a first assignment instructor pilot with Mr. Crowell at Columbus AFB, Miss., and Bill Roy, a 1996 Olympian, 11-time member of the U.S. Shooting Team and 18-time member of the U.S. Air Force Shooting Team. Both were fellow Academy grads. 

Unlike his two buddies, Mr. Crowell was satisfied with his one big win. "After proving I could shoot competitive skeet at the Armed Forces International, I have not shot competitively since," he said. Now it is just for fun. 

Well, as much "just for fun" as a former F-15E Eagle pilot does anything "just for fun."
"Back when I was flying fighters, I thought skeet shooting contributed to good gunnery and good bombing skills," Mr. Crowell said. His study of flying aces revealed that one of the few traits they had in common was marksmanship. 

"I was top gun for an entire year at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., at the same time I had my run as the base skeet champion," Mr. Crowell said. "I always thought there was a correlation between putting bombs on target and breaking clay pigeons. Sure enough, when I got knocked off the top-gun podium I also got knocked off the skeet-shooting podium." 

While at Seymour Johnson, Mr. Crowell urged one of his crew chiefs, then Staff Sgt. Stuart Brown, to join the squadron skeet league. In 2007, then Master Sgt. Brown, placed over-all active military champion at the World Skeet Championships in San Antonio.
"He was another guy I used to shoot with that shoots far better than I do," said Mr. Crowell. 

He continues to shoot skeet, because "I enjoy it, I am good at it, and you always like doing things you're good at." Last year his two-man team took second place in league skeet shooting at the Grand National Gun Club here in Enid. 

"It is a hand-eye coordination thing - instant feedback - instant gratification because you get to see something break," he said. 

Mr. Crowell shoots skeet regularly at the Grand National Gun Club, located 7.5 miles north of Enid on Highway 81. "The club opened March 4 for the 2009 season. It is open every Wednesday evening for the public to shoot from 4 p.m. until dark," he said. 

The 2009 leagues at the GNGC will include trap, where the clay pigeons move away from the shooter; skeet, where the targets move across in front of the shooter; and 5-stand, where the targets are thrown in patterns designed to simulate hunting situations. 

Members of Team Vance are regulars at the GNGC. Contractors with CSC, flying squadron commanders and Airmen in the 71st Operations Support Squadron shoot often, said Mr. Crowell. 

"Family members have participated in the 4-H trap shooters program coached by Darrell Scott since 1981," he said. Mr Scott has produced nationally ranked shooters from the 4-H program. Mr. Crowell even remembers when a squadron wives club held their evening meeting at GNGC and shot a round of skeet and trap. 

While Mr. Crowell started his skeet shooting adventure with a borrowed gun, he now shoots with his own - an Italian-built Sabatti, an over-under shotgun. "It fits into a small case that, coincidentally, fits into the travel pod of an F-15E."