Who are the best shooters in the U.S. Army? If you check out the results of the “All Army” Small Arms Championship, the answer is… the Army National Guard. This year’s Small Arms Championship ran March 10-16 in Fort Moore, Georgia. It’s an Army-only event, with the exception of Air National Guard members, who are also allowed to participate because of their cooperation with Army National Guard units.

This year, more than 230 shooters from a wide range of backgrounds—active Army, Army Reserve, National Guard, Reserve Officers, even Military Academy cadets and Training Corp members— came to the competition. They participated in four-man teams led by a coach or captain. There were 14 courses of fire in this year’s competition, including service rifle, pistol, and multi-gun matches.

The top score went to Staff Sgt. John Jordan of the South Carolina National Guard, who took the All Army Champion title, while his team (South Carolina Alpha) was also the top squad of the 50 that entered.

This was the ninth year that a National Guard team has won the championship; they won 15 of the possible 33 top awards this year and were first in six of the 11 competitive categories. Obviously, whatever the Guard is teaching these soldiers is working. The Army’s PR says:

The training platform used by the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center (NGMTC) has been tested and proven to remain focused on precision through lethality. The goal of NGMTC is to produce humble competitors who can teach others the value of marksmanship through their own level of proficiency. The soldiers associated with NGMTC will constantly seek to be and remain the best version of themselves possible.

Capt. David Morris, program manager for the NGMTC Competitive Marksmanship Program, says he’s proud of the National Guard competitors who were new to the competition this year, and hopes that what they learn will establish them as the next generation of Pro/All Guard competitors—and that they can eventually teach these shooting skills themselves.