Shaun Tichenor
In the Army, they make you shoot. You have to learn how to shoot. For Staff Sgt. Shaun Tichenor (Brainerd, Minnesota), that was all
shooting was going to be – a function of the job. He never had plans to take it further, he’ll tell you matter-of-factly. While deployed in Afghanistan in 2012, Tichenor and his team were
watching over a road suspected of being used for explosive materials transport. “Our procedure was that we walked in each other’s footprints,” he
said. “We were walking, I stepped where they stepped, and I guess the pressure plate (on an improvised explosive device) went off for me. They stepped on it, cleared off the dirt and when I stepped on it, it was metal on metal and exploded - Vaporized my heel and left a big open wound in the middle of my (foot) arch.” When sent back to the U.S. for treatment, Tichenor, an avid runner,
was told he had the option of keeping his leg – he wouldn’t be able to run and would be in pain for the rest of his life – or amputation. He chose amputation. “I went to Walter Reed for about eight months, I was running in four (months) and that’s all she wrote!”he said with a smile. While rehabilitating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Tichenor met a man from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s newly- created Paralympic Section who was recruiting new shooters “It sounded cool, so I stayed in touch,” Tichenor said. “I talked with
(Paralympic Assistant Coach) Sgt. (Armando) Ayala, and when I cleared the medical board, I came down here…and I learned how to shoot a lot better. I wanted to stay active duty and shooting’s cool. I actually was found fi t for duty so I could go back to an infantry-line unit if it didn’t work out here, but this is a good replacement for that. I get to do what I like to do and don’t have to dodge bullets at the same time. Don’t have to watch where I step anymore,” he joked. Tichenor, who will compete in the IPC World Championships in the P1 and P4 Pistol events, trains daily as a member of the Marksmanship Unit with the “short-term goal of making the Paralympics and winning some stuff.”
“My scores are slowly going up, I’m going in the right direction and there will be the point I’m really competitive with some of the top shoot- ers in the world,” he said, with the same matter-of-fact tone. Leading into World Championships, Tichenor feels he’s getting the
physical stuff nailed down – “I have a strong shot process” - but now what he is working on is honing the mental aspect of shooting. “I’m kind of a hot head,” he confessed, noting it’s not the most
conducive trait for a precision shooter. “I’ve gotten pretty good at re- covering from a bad shot and shooting well after that, but still working on recovering between matches. I am getting better at not being such a hot head. Hey, it was a tough transition from an infantry unit to (the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit)…Now I just try to make fun of my team- mates as much as possible. It builds comradery and sometimes it’s just needed comic relief. Shooting is a love/hate relationship. You can shoot for the day and be really happy with the performance or really mad, but when you come in the room and people make fun of how bad you did, you can laugh and it lightens the mood a little bit.”
July 2014 | USA Shooting News 29
Photo by: Kevin Liles
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