CMP Club &

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The following biography was written by

Olympic gold medallist Lieutenant Colonel William W. McMillan, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, died June 6, 2000, in Encinitas, California.

In a dramatic three-way shoot-off, McMillan won the gold medal in the Rapid-Fire Silhouette event at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. At the end of the two-day competition, McMillan had fired a 587 to tie the existing Olympic record and ended up tied for first place with a shooter from Finland and one from Russia. Two hours after the regular competition – a period that Bill used to take a catnap on the range, no doubt unnerving his challengers – he fired a 48-50-49 in three series of four second for a 147 total to best the 139 and 135 shot by the other two shooters.

McMillan was selected to carry the U.S. Flag and lead the United States Olympic Team at the 1960 Olympic Games closing ceremony.

Bill also competed in the 1952 Olympic Games and at the 1954, 1958, and 1962 World Shooting Championships. He earned the United States Distinguished International Shooter Badge at the 1962 World Shooting Championships. Additionally, he won the U.S. Marine Corps Service Rifle Championship in 1955 and won the National Pistol Championship at the 1957 National Matches.

Bill served as a rifleman during the Korean War and in 1953 he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. In 1969 Bill was assigned as an ordnance officer to Vietnam where he was awarded the Bonze Star Medal. Bill retired from the Marine Corps in 1974. After his retirement, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department employed McMillan as weapons training coordinator.

In those early years of international competition – before the advent of the sophisticated rapid-fire pistols we know today – one must reflect in awe at the rapid-fire scores fired by Bill with the pistols and ammunition available then. And one must wonder what scores Bill would have fired if he had competed in a more recent era. For those who competed against and knew him, Bill McMillan will be remembered as a world-class champion and a world-class competitor.