Tunstall’s JROTC had the privilege of being taught a marksmanship course this past week. On February 1 and 2, Ronald Emerson came to teach them information in regards to shooting. He was certified to teach this class with the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP).

There were three topics focused on during the course: safety and familiarization firing, basic marksmanship, and rifle team activities. The students learned things such as how to shoot a target, the correct position for shooting, positional sequences, how to hold a rifle, and how to load it. He also taught them the score needed to win a medal in competition and how to achieve that.

After the lessons, the students were required to take a short assessment to make sure they were ready to move on in their training.

Junior Stefan Toney was one of the students in Emerson’s class. “I learned that the number one goal in marksmanship and also with handling a gun is to prevent all gun related accidents. His course will help me in keeping safe while using firearms,” Toney said.

Emerson was in the army as a Chief Warrant Officer (CW2) for 32 years and 4 months before retiring.

Now he uses his experience to teach children and teenagers. He works as a JROTC teacher at Dan River High School and also teaches marksmanship to local Boy Scouts.

“I was never inclined to teach JROTC until one day the principal of Dan River called and said ‘I’ve got a deal for you’- what a deal it was,” Emerson chuckled.

Since then, he has been teaching for 15 years and loves it.

“My favorite part is interacting with high school students and motivating them to be better citizens.”

Emerson’s marksmanship classes were taught in partnership with Tunstall’s Colonel David King.  While Emerson was at Tunstall, King taught CPR classes at Dan River High School”s JROTC.