First Recruit Skirmish

By Rob Harrison Recruiting Officer North-South Skirmish Association 48thVA@gmail.com

For those that do not know a Recruit Skirmish was held at Fort Shenandoah on February 26th. There were 21 attendees. Of those 21 I am almost certain that at this point or by the time this edition of the Skirmish Line comes out that at least 10 of those have joined our organization. That’s a roughly 50% success rate.

Here is the history of the Recruit Skirmish. The recruit skirmish is the brainchild of myself and several other members of the 48th Virginia Infantry. The concept is to give special attention to potential new skirmishers and to let them get a taste of the competition without fully committing. This we felt would be better served by presenting it as a “Class” to learn how skirmishing works. Also, we felt this would help with the safety aspects in that it was a line that could be monitored. This we feel eliminates the intimidation factor of having to get their first taste of skirmishing at an actual skirmish. In this we knew the way to keep the intimidation factor low was to not have them compete with veteran skirmishers but to have them compete against other new folks. That’s why existing skirmishers do not shoot at this skirmish; they are to act as mentors for the new folks. This served another purpose in that the veteran skirmishers could be there to give them a level of comfort knowing a veteran skirmisher was right there by their side with their attention focused on keeping them safe and teaching them.

How did we get so many folks out to try you ask? At the Nations Gun Show in Chantilly, VA and the Great American Outdoorsman Shows we began putting out the date and having them fill out contact forms if they were interested in attending. Then 2 weeks before the Recruit Skirmish we reached out via email and let them know where and when and what to bring (ear and eye pro). Then one week before we asked them for confirmation that they were attending. Many of them asked if they could bring others and our response was “Of Course”.

The initial briefing (administrivia and history of the N-SSA) began at 10 AM in the stat house because it was a bit chilly that morning and it provided a good place for hearing all that was said. There were very few questions asked by the attendees because I think they really did not know what to expect so we used that time to help put them at ease and assure them they weren’t being asked to climb Mount Everest but mostly to learn and to enjoy themselves.

Then we had them gear up. We provided Leathers and had them choose a weapon. This took a little time with fitting these guys out, but it went as smooth as something like that can be expected to go. Once they were geared up, we began the safety briefing. In the briefing we covered basic range safety, loading procedures and safety, what the duties of the line safeties are and what commands they would hear on the firing line. We then gave each attendee 5 rounds and caps and had them pair off with a mentor and begin shooting at targets at 25 yards just to familiarize themselves with the weapons and how they operate and for them to get a feel for how the weapons shoot. During this you could see the wonder and excitement of the attendees building and that was very evident in the smiles and looks on their faces. We went through 3 relays of 5 rounds each for them. We even got some smaller kids to fire the musketoons just to give them a taste of it.

Then we broke for lunch which we provided for them (thank you Andrew Laurent for being the grill master) after which Tim Scanlan put on an artillery demonstration and even let some of the attendees fire the Mountain Rifle. You could REALLY see the excitement at this point.

Then we had all the attendees line up and had them call A - B - C and whichever letter they called out was the team they were assigned to. We gave each of them 10-15 rounds and had them step up to the firing line to fire at 20 pigeons on a backer at 25 yards (all shooting was at 25 yards). We explained how the competition works and each command they were going to hear and what was expected of them after each command. They were given one minute to snap caps. Then they heard those words that most of us can hear in our sleep....”LOAD AND COME TO THE READY! THIS WILL BE A 5 MINUTE TIMED EVENT! ALL FIRING WILL STOP AND START ON THE SOUND OF THE HORN!”. The horn was then blown and their journey in skirmishing fully began. Keep in mind that all this time they had a mentor right there by their side keeping them safe and cheering them on. You could hear them yelling back and forth at the urging of the mentors standing beside them. None of the 3 teams cleared the board but you could see joy on their faces after the ending horn was blown. These folks were seriously enjoying themselves and so were we. Next, they got to experience what shooting in a unit/team was really about when they shot a stake event. You could hear them communicating back and forth about where they were hitting and all that. It was as much of a joy for us to watch as it was for them to shoot.Afterwards we gave out joining packages and answered questions and just got to know the guys and we realized “We’re really on to something here.”. Now this begs the question: Is this a model we can take out to the regions?

I want to take a moment to thank all the following who attended and acted as mentors to our recruits:

Greg Brondos of the 48th VA Inf Bruce Lecrone of the 48th VA Inf David N Maria Price of the 48th VA Inf Andy MacPherson of the 48th VA Inf Andrew Laurent of the 48th VA Inf Lynn Warner of the 6th PA Cav Jason M Rexrode of the Jeff Davis Legion Scott Harris of the 1st FL Cav Nick Taylor of the 21st VA Inf MD Guard Dave Bohrer of the 12th US

Jeff Hall of the Washington Blue Rifles Doug Walter of the 1st PA Bucktails Trenton Lewis of the 5th VA Cav Dave Cole of the 12th PA Rev Ken Winklepleck of the Dulany Troop R Gary Sheppard of 2nd USSS Co C Ray D. of the 1st Stuart Horse Artillery Tim Scanlan of the 1st MD Cav All of you made this a success. The Next recruiting skirmish is tentatively scheduled for September 17th. We will let you know when the date is solidified. Come on out and help us grow our sport.

Announcement from the National Command & N-SSA Board of Directors

April 18, 2022

Bobby Hannula resigned as National Deputy Commander, Signal Officer and Long Range Planning Chair. Bobby resigned due to increased work responsibilities that consume the majority of his time and he felt that he did not have the ability to perform his elected and appointed positions to the extent that they deserve. On April 10, 2022, Commander Kindle accepted Bobby Hannula’s resignation.

Per the N-SSA By-Laws, Article III: Officers, Section 4 “Vacancies created by resignation, recall or death of a national officer shall be filled for the unexpired portion of the term of office by the Board of Directors, either from its ranks or from membership.”

With this resignation the Board of Directors, on April 15, 2022 appointed David Cole, 12th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteers and Allegheny Region Commander to the position of National Deputy Commander for the remainder of this term.

In addition, David Cole will resume temporary duties as the National Signal Officer until the May 19,2022 Board meeting, at which time the Board of Directors will vote on this staff officer position.

Ed Thompson will assume the Committee Chair position, as he was the cochair of this committee appointed by the National Commander.

Judy Stoneburner Executive Secretary N-SSA