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1951 Fennesy Memorial Trophy Presentation
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Awarding of Fennesy Memorial Trophy, 1957
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Fennesy Trophy winners, Company D, 1st Bn (Reinf), 20 September 1963
(1SG Richardson, SPC Neisten, PFC Calhoun and SPC Saccomen)
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Illustration of Fennesy Trophy from the Christmas 1914 Menu from Company H, 3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) while the company was stationed Madison Barracks, NY.
Guest Post by Pete McDermott, Historian of The Old Guard Association
When I was assigned to The Old Guard in 1960, the Battle Group Headquarters building also served as the museum and the repository for trophies awarded for sports competitions and military skills.
One such trophy was the Fennesy Memorial Trophy which was awarded annually to the 3d Infantry company attaining the highest score in annual range firing. The trophy is named for Corporal Michael Fennesy, Company M, 3d Infantry, who was killed in a range accident at the International Rifle Matches, Camp Perry, Ohio, in 1913. CPL Fennesy was serving as a scorer in the pits when a shot fired by a member of the Swiss competition team struck the metal marker and ricocheted downward striking CPL Fennesy and killing him. All members of the competition teams contributed one dollar each to commission the trophy and presented it to the 3d Infantry to be awarded to the company attaining the highest score in annual range firing. The first winner was Company H in 1914 followed by the Regimental Machine Gun Company in 1915. The trophy was awarded annually until the start of World War II and reinstated in 1948 after the Regiment’s reactivation. The last time the trophy was awarded was 1978 to B Company and then it went missing until 1991 when it was found in B Company’s attic. The trophy was then turned over to The Old Guard Museum and it is currently stored with the other 3d Infantry artifacts at the Center of Military History’s Museum Support Branch at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
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Images courtesy of Old Guard Museum
Old Guard History 