Filed under: Battle of the Bulge, Veterans, WWII | Tags: Battle of the Bulge, Fort Benning, Marksmanship, Sniper, Ted Gundy
When he arrived in Europe as a replacement, Ted Gundy was handed a sniper rifle because he’d scored the highest in his company during training. Today, sniper selection and training is far more complex and involved, but, truth be told, Ted Gundy would likely be a sniper if he enlisted today. Given a replica of his old rifle and 65 years later, Gundy showed he is still a marksman.
Today, Gundy’s gait might be uncertain, his hands shaky and his hearing electronically enhanced (but not always quite enough), but when he settled behind “his” 03 Springfield A4 sniper rifle, none of that mattered.
From a basic rest, he proceeded to make hits on a silhouette target -at 300 yards. Each one was better than the previous, with the final round landing dead center. Shooting Wire, February 8, 2010
I think this was passed to me the reenactors I know, but I’ve lost the original email, so can’t tell you which one passed it along. Gundy watches Shooting USA on TV and had emailed them about the long-range shots modern snipers make. When they realized they had a sniper from the Battle of the Bulge, they coordinated with the Army Marksmanship Unit (established back in 1956 by Eisenhower) to grant Gundy a chance to make a 1000-yard shot himself. It made for marvelous television.
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Amazing, it was heart warming to watch this old Warrior. Thank God he was on our side!
Comment by Dannyboy53 5 January 2013 @ 09:23These guy like Mr. Gundy were my heroes. Still are.
Comment by Charles Moore 25 February 2016 @ 16:00My father also was handed a sniper rifle after posting the best shooting score in his brigade. He was formally trained and served officially in the Signal Corp as a troubleshooter. He also was in the Battle of the Bulge, the truck he was assistant driver for a buddy he was going with out of boredom, wound up in a German convoy in the dark. Made it back to our lines. Told higher, also told higher the roadsigns had been changed, all that stuff, didn’t matter, by the the time it went up the chain the Attack was already on.
Comment by Charles Moore 25 February 2016 @ 15:58