indo

AASAM shooting competition (Australian Army Skill at Arms Meeting) was held on December 6 to 22 May 2011 in the Combined Arms Training Center, Headquarters Australian Army, at Puckapunyal, Victoria, Australia.

This international competition was joined by several countries such as Indonesia, Netherlands, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Canada, France, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and the United States.

In the final round of competition, Malaysia became the strongest opponent of Indonesia, but the First Sergeant Poltak Siahaan  and Corporal Two  Woli Hamsan won seven gold medals, 9 silver medals and 5 bronze medals by which Indonesia outperformed participants from other countries. Even the Indonesian participants get praise from several other participating countries as claimed by the participants from the Netherlands, “Good score! Indonesia have the best score than the other countries.”

This year the Army was challenged to not use gun ST1. Yet not a difficulty for the Indonesian Army. Armed with a pistol type of Browning’s Australia though, Indonesia is still superior in this category. One participant from Australia said:  “It’s not about the gun, but it’s all about the man behind the gun.” This shows the quality of the Indonesian Army sniper.

This annual competition not only provided useful experience for the Indonesian Army, but also provided an opportunity for the team to measure the ability of teams from other countries, as expressed by Woli, winner of the competition in the individual category in 2009 and this year.

Colonel Geoff Stacey, which is one of Australia’s finest shooters also praised the team from Indonesia, “We all have done very well but Indonesia have done the best out of all. They’ve done very well in the competition and they are very professional.”