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Taps, Present Arms
Chief
Warrant Officer Coats Brown
Chief Warrant Officer 3
(Retired) Coats Brown, 96, died in Dacula, Georgia, on Friday,
September 1, 2006.
CW3 Coats Brown's
distinguished shooting career began in 1935 with his enlistment in
the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment. He soon established a
reputation as the best marksman in the Regiment by demonstrating his
proficiency with practically every weapon in the inventory including
the 1903 Springfield service rifle, the caliber .45 service
pistol, the Browning automatic rifle (BAR), and the caliber .30
water-cooled machine gun. As a result, he was assigned as NCOIC of
the battalion rifle team. Brown's effective training enabled his
battalion to achieve an overall 92 percent qualification rate,
which was the highest in the Regiment.
In 1939, CW3 Brown won the
National Trophy Individual Rifle Match over a field of more than
3,000 competitors in the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. He
also won the Coast Guard Trophy Match and was a firing member of the
team that won the Roumanian Trophy, Enlisted Men’s Trophy,
Herrick Trophy, and Infantry Squad Team Trophy. He was awarded the Distinguished
Rifleman Badge in 1939.
CW3 Brown was assigned as Head
Coach of the newly formed Army Marksmanship Unit Service Rifle Team
in 1956. Under his supervision, which included many long hours on the
"Dry Fire" range, the Army won the National Trophy Team
Match the following year at Camp Perry. CW3 Brown retired from the
Army in 1965.
In 1965 he was hired as a
Graphics Illustrator by the USAMU—a position he held for 17
years. It was during this period that he refurbished the many
trophies won by USAMU shooters and teams and established the unit
trophy room. Coats was also a national recognized calligrapher. He
never sold his elegant calligraphy but gave them as gifts or
donations. One such calligraphy of the Lord's Prayer that he donated
to a Columbus, Georgia, charitable organization fetched over $1,000
for the charity in a silent auction.
Coats was inducted into the
USAMU Support Hall of Fame and later into USAMU Hall of Fame. He was
the senior member of the Military Marksmanship Association.
Coats Brown's invaluable
contributions to Army marksmanship as a shooter, coach, and graphics
illustrator spanned a 47-year career. His training methods have
influenced more riflemen than any other Army service rifle coach in
history. He taught would be rifle shooters to be extraordinary riflemen. |