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Taps, Present Arms
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1960
Olympic Village, Rome, Italy
US
Olympic Committee Photo |
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William
W. "Bill" McMillan, Jr.
Olympic gold
medallist Lieutenant Colonel William W. McMillan, Jr., U.S. Marine
Corps, Retired, died June 6, 2000, in Encinitas, California. He was 71.
In a dramatic
three-way shoot-off, McMillan won the gold medal in the Rapid-Fire
Silhouette event at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. At
the end of the two-day competition, McMillan had fired a 587 to tie
the existing Olympic record and ended up tied for first place with a
shooter from Finland and one from Russia. Two hours after the regular
competition – a period that Bill used to take a catnap on the
range, no doubt unnerving his challengers – he fired a 48-50-49
in three series of four second for a 147 total to best the 139 and
135 shot by the other two shooters.
McMillan was
selected to carry the U.S. Flag and lead the United States Olympic
Team at the 1960 Olympic Games closing ceremony.
Bill also
competed in the 1952 Olympic Games and at the 1954, 1958, and 1962
World Shooting Championships. He earned the United
States Distinguished International Shooter Badge
at the 1962 World Shooting Championships. Additionally, he won the
U.S. Marine Corps Service Rifle Championship in 1955 and won the
National Pistol Championship at the 1957 National Matches.
Bill served as
a rifleman during the Korean War and in 1953 he was commissioned a
Second Lieutenant. In 1969 Bill was assigned as an ordnance officer
to Vietnam where he was awarded the Bonze Star Medal. Bill retired
from the Marine Corps in 1974. After his retirement, the San Diego
County Sheriff's Department employed McMillan as weapons training coordinator.
In those early
years of international competition – before the advent of the
sophisticated rapid-fire pistols we know today – one must
reflect in awe at the rapid-fire scores fired by Bill with the
pistols and ammunition available then. And one must wonder what
scores Bill would have fired if he had competed in a more recent era.
For those who competed against and knew him, Bill McMillan will be
remembered as a world-class champion and a world-class competitor. |