European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a a a a a is amps Ron Jenson n urn Berg High s Dawn Henly who topped All scorers in last year s Rifle championships takes aim at another title. Best shooters Are listeners not hotshots Hatcher Mathern by Ron Jensen Niernberg Bureau hooting yeah it s for girls. 7. Tucking the butt of a weapon into your shoulder and feeling it smooth on your Cheek. Sighting along its sleek and narrow form holding still holding your breath and then squeezing that trigger Eyer so softly a that s a feminine thing. Ask sgt. Bruce Andrews coach of the shooting team at Niernberg High school in Germany. He has six girls and three boys on the Rifle team sitting atop the conference standings. Other teams too he said Are top heavy with females. There s a Good reason for this. Boys he said often come to the team toting a Load of dirty laundry. Quot they plunk at tin cans behind grandpa s barn and they learn a lot of bad habits Quot said Andrews. Quot Here we re not trying to hit the can. We re trying to Dot the i on the  so the coach wants girls a girls who have been taught by every cop show on television that girls and guns Are an awkward combination. Shooting they Are taught by society is for Guys. Missy Smith said the masculine image of guns helps any girl learning to shoot. Quot boys think they can come Here with the ability to shoot a gun Quot said Smith a Sophomore member of Andrews team. Quot whereas girls we Don t know How to do it. We listen. Quot when sergeant Andrews tells me i m doing something wrong he s right. So i Correct  boys Andrews said have a tendency to Quot muscle Quot the weapon that is use their innate strength to aim and to hold. That s the wrong Way he said. The Only thing that should move Are the Bones inside the Muscles. The Muscles should be relaxed. Except for the Finger muscle that squeezes no pulls a the trigger. Quot most girls Don t try to muscle the t weapon Quot Andrews said. Quot Guys try to muscle the  shooting then is one of the few competitive sports on the High school level where boys and girls compete against each other there is to girls team no boys team. _. It is a perfect sport for these liberated times. As the top teams prepare for the . Army Europe sponsored championships saturday at Baum older Germany last year s top individual scorer plans a title defense. Last year Dawn Henly s score of 283 out of a possible 300 topped All other shooters at the championships in Only her second year of shooting. Scores Are made by hitting a target the size of a Susan b. Anthony Dollar at a distance of 11 Yards. A bulls Eye or Quot Bull Quot in shooter parlance is Worth 10 Points. Rings falling away from the Center of the target Are Worth fewer Points on a receding basis. Shooters fire from three positions standing kneeling and prone scoring a possible 100 Points in each. Besides possessing Good aim Henly a Junior has something else necessary for shooting. Quot you be got to concentrate a just you and the target. That s All there is Quot she said. Quot i can hear my  Andrews noticed her natural ability during a shooting class that is part of the Reserve officers training corps program he directs at the school. He invited her to join the team where she exhibited the perfect approach Quot she listens Quot he said. At the end of her first year she was out shooting half of her teammates. At the end of her second year she was tops at the Usa eur championships Quot she went from a cold Rookie to one of the top shooters in Germany in two seasons Quot Andrews said. Of course she was carrying no baggage when she came aboard. Quot sgt. Andrews thinks i have a lot of natural ability Quot said Henly an honors student Quot but to me it s concentration and discipline Quot those Are topics that come up time and again in conversations with Andrews shooters More often than Quot Good Eye Quot and Quot natural Talent Quot Quot it s like chess Quot said Shelley Mathern a freshman who began shooting last summer. Quot you have to have a lot of  Susan Hatcher a Sophomore began shooting at age 10 with her Grandfather and father at California ranges. Quot you have to Blank out everything Quot she said. Quot you have to concentrate on the  Henly who wants to shoot on the College level before joining the military said Quot i m kind of in my own world up there. It s pretty neat to be in charge of the weapon to make it go where you want it to go. You have a lot of control a lot of . Short Story military researchers set weapons on stun by Art Pine los Angeles times a powerful laser device mounted under an m1a2tank sets off a huge blinding Flash that temporarily blinds enemy troops leaving them vulnerable to capture. An acoustic Generator sends out High frequency sound Waves that disorient opposing forces a and in some cases even injure them. 7 a special forces unit clandestinely sprays enemy armoured vehicles with special combustion inhibitors that stifle their engines a immobilizing an entire column. If All that sounds like the stuff of a James Bond movie then recheck your sights. The technology is part of the new modern Day military. And some of it May Well be used the next time . Forces intervene abroad. Such flashy concepts Are part of a growing push by the Pentagon to develop Quot non lethal weapons a devices that can enable . Forces to disrupt enemy communications and disable equipment without actually killing anyone. With . Forces increasingly Active in peacekeeping operations a and Public tolerance for killing shrinking steadily a strategists Are looking for ways to disarm rather than kill enemy forces and to reduce the risk of accidental injury to civilians. Proponents of the new technology argue that if . Forces in Somalia had had non lethal weapons they could have disarmed machine gun carrying youths and dispersed hostile crowds without killing hundreds of somalis a or producing such an angry backlash from clan members. Long under wraps As part of the army a super secret weapons program non lethal weaponry is gaining increasing attention As an alternative to the use of massive Force displayed by the United states in the persian Gulf War in 1991. Army weapons laboratories Are building prototypes of several of these weapons. The service is moving to write special doctrine and training manuals. And defense experts say officials have begun testing the weapons in simulated War games. A we Are planning on modelling this on a Batte a scenario Quot says col. Thomas Sinclair commander of the army a close combat armaments Center at Pic tinny Arsenal in new Jersey. A a there a a lot of technology out there. We re trying to see what people  a the acoustics and combustion inhibitors Are not the Only exotic gadgets in the scientists labs. They also Are experimenting with stun guns that shoot out electrified Nylon Quot sting nets Quot which can trap an enemy and Shock him if he tries to escape. The researchers also have used polymers to make roads Railroad tracks and runways either extra Slippery or super Sticky sprayed chemicals on aircraft wings to make them extra Brittle and used super caustic acids to weaken Bridges and tunnels. But even advocates of non lethal weaponry caution that the concept still has serious limits and is useful More for isolated strikes in specific situations than As any sort of substitute for conventional arms. Quot they re mainly ancillary weapons used to augment conventional weapons in order to give a commander additional options Quot says retired army it. Gen. Richard Trefry an expert on non lethal devices. Quot no one Ever envisaged that these things would take the place of regular  the stars and stripes wednesday february 2,1994