Air Force takes top honour at national military shooting competition

News Article / February 20, 2014

By Captain Ken Barling

For the third year in a row, Captain Ken Barling, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, won the Queen’s Medal for Champion Shot for the Regular Force. He won this prestigious award at the Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration (CAFSAC) which was held from September 7 to 22, 2013, at the Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre in Ottawa, Ontario.

Capt Barling, an air combat systems officer (ACSO) by trade, is currently posted to NORAD Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he works in the Aerospace Planning cell.

The Queen’s Medal is awarded to the top rifle marksman who obtains the highest aggregate score in each of the Regular Force and Reserve Force.

The competition began with nearly 300 shooters in attendance, but only 30 members from the Regular Force made it to the final rifle match to compete for the Queen’s Medal. Of those 30, only two weren’t from the Canadian Army: Petty Officer 1st Class Brad Browne, who is from the Royal Canadian Navy and based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and myself.

Heading into the final match, known as the Queen’s Medal match, I was in second place behind a first-time shooter at CAFSAC. On the day of the match, the weather was very poor with heavy rain and strong winds.

I think the weather conditions gave me an edge over the less experienced competitors. I’ve shot in those kinds of conditions before, so I’m comfortable adjusting for the wind and I just accept the challenge that I’m faced with.

At the end of the match, I had scored 243 out of 250 points with 24 bulls-eyes; that gave me the highest score of the match and put me in first place.

I thought that I had done well, but I didn’t know just how well I did until I saw my targets and they were scored. It was a great feeling to know that I had done very well in the difficult conditions we had. It was a confidence booster.

We began the last match by engaging targets at 500 metres. We then sprinted to the 400 metre firing point where additional targets were engaged. Another sprint to the 300 metre point followed where moving targets appeared. The match finished with final sprints to the 200 metre and then the 100 metre point where we fired from the standing, kneeling and prone positions.

To make matters even more challenging, all matches at CAFSAC are operationally oriented – with competitors wearing helmets, body armour and tactical vests throughout the competition.

In the end, I finished with an overall score of 1,228 points with 112 bulls-eyes.

Corporal Edward Ferguson of 1st Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders in Nova Scotia, was awarded the Queen’s Medal for top Reserve Force marksman.

In addition to winning top prize for the Regular Force rifle portion of CAFSAC, I also finished second in the combat pistol competition.

The six matches for the combat pistol were a combination of conventional static ranges and more advance dynamic ranges. We moved through maze-like scenarios while engaging targets.

It’s a lot of fun and it’s my favourite part of CAFSAC. You just don’t get to do ranges like that every day, and I consider myself more of a pistol shooter than a rifle shooter, so I find it very interesting. I’ve come close to finishing first in both the rifle and pistol competitions the past four years, but I haven’t won both at the same time. Winning both the rifle and pistol competition at the same time would be an amazing achievement! It’s my motivation to keep training.

I found training for CAFSAC to be difficult, however. Being posted to NORAD means that I don’t have access to the weapons, ammunition and range time like everyone else back in Canada has. I try to do what I can with my own personal equipment and I use one of the local civilian ranges here in Colorado Springs.

I did have the opportunity to go to Bisley, England, this summer as part of the Canadian Forces Combat Shooting Team. So that gave me two weeks of operational shooting. I also enlisted the help of a personal trainer who helped me to prepare physically for the competition through various exercise routines and nutritional guidance. It really helped me a lot. I am also very grateful for the support I received from my chain of command by giving me the time away from the office to attend these events, and also to the Canadian Forces Support Unit for their financial support. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I did.

The Queen’s Medal was first instituted by Queen Victoria in 1869 and was awarded to the best shot from the British Army and Navy. It ceased to be issued after 1883 but was re-introduced by King George V in 1923 as the King’s Medal. It was open to participants from the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (including Rhodesia).

Today it is known as the Queen’s Medal and only four Commonwealth countries – the United Kingdom, Jamaica, New Zealand and Canada – continue to issue it.

In Canada, from 1923 to 1952, only one medal was awarded to the best shot from the Militia (Army Reserve), RCMP or the Regular Force for the Service Rifle Individual Championship.

Then in 1953, the medal was only awarded to the winner of the Canadian Army or RCMP. However, that changed in 1963 when an additional medal was awarded to members of the Reserve Force. In 1964, the RCMP were moved from the Regular Force category and became eligible for the Reserve Force medal.

Today, members of the Reserve Force, RCMP and the Canadian Rangers compete for the Reserve Queen’s Medal.

From 1954 to 1967, another Queen’s Medal was issued for the best rifle shot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 1968, the Air Force Queen’s Medal was discontinued when the three branches of the military unified and the Canadian Army (Regular) Rifle Competition, now called CAFSAC, was created.

Since then, the Regular Force Queen’s Medal has only been won by members of the Canadian Army with two exceptions: in 2009 it was awarded to Petty Officer, 1st Class Martin Cashin of the Royal Canadian Navy, and in 2011, 2012 and 2013, to Captain Barling of the RCAF.