KY JON, since you know me and you shot in MD, I'll tell this Wayne Mayes story. At the old now closed National Capital Skeet and Trap club, we were hosting the North South shoot, the oldest continuously run NSSA shoot in the country. Wayne Mayes, Todd Bender, and the rest of their regular squad, minus one, were signed up. My friend, Pat, went up to the sign up desk to sign up to shoot, but was not with a squad. He filled in Wayne's squad. The first gun they shot together was the 20 gauge event. Pat had never run 100 before and was a bit apologetic about joining the squad. I was cooking dinner for the shoot, so had some time to watch the squad shoot. It was evident that Pat was a bit apprehensive, so Wayne and the squad took him under their wing and shot every bird with him. One station, Wayne would stand with Pat, next station, Todd or one of the others would stand with him. At the 50 mark, the squad was straight. I took over for the trap loaders and started loading the Western traps after the rounds. At the end of the 100, there was quite an audience behind the field. The squad had run 500X500, with my friend, Pat, running his first ever 100. The rest of the squad were as distracted from their shooting as any squad ever had been, but they were taking care of their squadmate and didn't care about their individual scores. I later asked Wayne how often 5X5s were shot with a mixed squad. Wayne said that it just didn't happen with a stranger on board and hardly ever even with his own squad. The picture of that squad sat on Pat's desk at work until he retired. Wayne is gone now, but he will never be forgotten. I had a nice visit with his wife a few weeks ago and we shared some stories about the old days. Bill Murphy in MD.
