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Tag: 1964 Olympics

Former Nebraska National Guard Soldier donates Olympic Gold Medal winning rifle to Nebraska National Guard Museum
January 2, 2025 — Like an aged warrior, Gary Anderson’s famed rifle is showing its age; the rifle stock, barrel and accompanying sights still bear the scars and marks of countless competitive battles, including a very historic one in Tokyo more than 60 years ago. Masking tape holds bent cardboard in place on the rear of the wooden stock. Similar tape clings to a silver front palm-rest where its “owner” steadied the rifle during its last competition with an athlete representing the U.S.S.R. In its totality, the rifle is understated, both gangly and elegant in appearance. Yet, despite its looks, the rifle holds an honored place amongst American Olympic lore. And now it’s part of the growing collection of artifacts at the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward, Nebraska. “This rifle served me well during the years that I used it,” former Nebraska Army National Guard Lieutenant Gary Anderson wrote recently about the Remington 300-meter free rifle he donated to the Nebraska Guard Museum on Dec. 27. Did it ever. In 1962, Anderson used the rifle to lead the U.S.A. marksmanship team to two 300-meter World Championship Gold Medals. He also used it to win a gold medal in the 1963 Pan American Games in the 300-Meter (3x40) free rifle event with a score of 1,146, just one point shy of the world record at the time... MORE

Gary Anderson, former Nebraska Guardsman, donates his 1964 Olympic gold medal winning rifle to the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward, Nebraska, Dec. 27, 2024. Anderson used the rifle to lead the U.S.A. marksmanship team to two 300-meter World Championship Gold Medals. He also used it to win a gold medal in the 1963 Pan American Games in the 300-Meter (3x40) free rifle event with a score of 1,146, just one point shy of the world record at the time.

It was the same rifle that Anderson used to win a Gold Medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo on Oct. 15, 1964., the first of two consecutive Olympic Golds the Axtell, Nebraska, native earned in the 1960s while also serving as a Nebraska Army Guard engineering officer In Hastings and Grand Island.

(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Gauret Stearns)

Videos

Video by Staff Sgt. Alexander Schriner

155th Air Refueling Wing at the Central Coast AirFest

155th Air Refueling Wing, Nebraska Air National Guard

Sept. 22, 2024 | 1:54

The 155th Air Refueling Wing presented their KC-135R Stratotanker with a heritage paint scheme at the Central Coast AirFest, held at Santa Maria Airport in California on Sept. 21-22, 2024. The aircraft was part of the static display.

The AirFest had a special guest—101-year-old James Kunkle, a World War II fighter pilot. The heritage paint scheme on the KC-135 was specifically modeled after the markings on Kunkle’s own P-38 Lightning, the aircraft he flew during combat missions in WWII. Kunkle is the last surviving pilot of the 401st Fighter Squadron, which went on to become the 173rd Air Refueling Squadron.