AR HEEL PROFILE
By James E. Wood
Shootout At Le Mans
Lloyd Griffin of Edenton won honors at the greatest
pistol-shooting match in history.
Few people today can recall that
Lloyd Griffin of Edenton placed
in the top three at the world's
greatest pistol-shooting contest of all
time — in 1919 at Le Mans, France.
The best pistol shots in the armies of
England, Italy, France, Australia,
Canada and the United States partici¬
pated in the contest, which was organ¬
ized as much to occupy tired troops as
itwastotesttheirskills. Becauseofthe
limited number of ships and a lack of
ocean-crossing aircraft, transporting
the armies back to their homelands
was a slow process. Millions of Allied
soldiers were still in Europe in 1919 —
2 million from the U.S. alone — and it
was no easy job keeping them busy and
out of trouble.
First Lieutenant Lloyd E. Griffin of
the American Army's 81st Division,
322nd Infantry, shot his way into the
top 10 of 700 marksmen trying to make
the U.S. team. He was the only mem¬
ber from North Carolina.
"I had never done much shooting
prior to entering the armed services."
he recalled years later. "But since
shooting was the name of the game in
the Army — whether it was with pis¬
tols, rifles, machine guns or cannon —
I decided to see what 1 could do with a
pistol. I surprised myself, for in a very
short time I was shooting with the best
of them.
“I was lucky, however, in attracting
the attention of an elderly man who
was a captain in the Army and a crack
pistol shot. ‘1 am too old now to com¬
pete,’ he told me, ‘but not too old to help
you.’ He was a big help, and he showed
me how to adjust the trigger mecha¬
nism of my pistol to make it more
sensitive, therefore requiring less
pressure to fire."
It took several months to select the
teams and whip them into shooting
shape. For the finals, the contestants
started 25 meters from the targets and
wound up 50 meters away.
"The match wcnton all day long, day
after day for a week or more, with each
member of each team shooting at least
50 rounds a day," Griffith said. "The
Lieutenant Lloyd E. Griffin
noise was terrific and reverberated in
our ears far into the night. The score-
boards changed by the hour, with one
team leading the pack and then falling
back, with another team taking its
place only to drop behind another, and
so forth, on and on it went.
“My pistol was hot. and I was sweat¬
ing with excitement when the end
finally came. The U.S. team had won.
and I was one of the top three scorers.
Then we three shot it out, but they
never could decide which one of us was
the best under all circumstances.
“The next event was the presenta¬
tion of a medal and certificate to each
member of the U.S. team by General
(John Joseph) Pershing at the Persh¬
ing stadium in Paris, July 5. 1919. It
was a beautiful, sunshiny day. The
flags were flying, the bands were play¬
ing, and the bleachers were filled with
dignitaries from all the armies.
“The pageantry ofitall was fabulous.
A special detachment of 1.000 crack
U.S. troops, all the same height, put on
the most spectacular exhibition of
drilling I ever saw in my life, keeping
time like chorus girls, while the bands
rent the air with the stirring strains of
‘Yankee Doodle Dandy!'
"When our team marched up to the
podium where General Pershing was
standing, the bands played *The Star
Spangled Banner.’ Then General Per¬
shing made an inspiring speech, prais¬
ing us for our superior marksmanship,
and presented the medals to each of us
by name. His face beamed with pride in
triumph.
"When I returned to my home in
Edenton. my father couldn’t wait to
take me out in the country to demon¬
strate my marksmanship. He picked
out a small pine sapling about 3 or *1
inches in diameter, 30 or 40 feet away,
and asked me to see if I could hit it. I
carefully aimed my pistol at the tree
and fired five times.
"Papa rushed over to the tree and
exclaimed. You hit it only one time!’
But when 1 examined the hole in the
tree more closely, I could see that all
five of the shots had gone into the same
hole. 1 bent the tree back, and it broke-
open where the bullets had entered,
and there they were, all five of them
embedded in the wood.
“Son,’ my father said, 'you are some
shot.”
Back home in North Carolina. Grif¬
fin rose to a position of some promi¬
nence in the business world before he
eventually retired as executive secre¬
tary of the North Carolina Citizens
Association. Hedied in 1987,attheage
of 94.
Photo courtiM of Ihr family
The Stilt e/Apfil
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