As a champion precision sharpshooter who can repeatedly nail a half- millimeter bullseye from 10 meters without magnification or crosshairs, Cadet 1st Lt. Chloe Shannon is known for her keen eye, disciplined trigger finger, and scores of competition wins, including the U.S. Air Force title at this year’s All-Service Championship.
But to know the Oklahoma Wing cadet as a person, don’t think about that trigger finger, her aim, or the victories. Index fingers and vision, like medals and trophies, can fade.
Instead, consider the story of a raised hand and things eternal — character, integrity, and honesty.
Her dad, CAP Lt. Col. William Shannon, picks up the story, which began with sharpshooter’s nightmare — a “dry fire.” The trigger is pulled and only air is released. It means a zero for the shooter.
“In the past, I’ve seen times when rifle athletes with less integrity expel air on the firing line, they won’t raise their hand, or they will deny it’s them and try to blame someone else,” Lt. Col. Shannon said.
When he heard Chloe’s dry fire, he saw her head spin around, a look of shock and panic on her face. Chloe raised her hand and reported the dry fire to the range officer.
Officials scored the miss and instructed her to keep firing. Keep in mind that many times, the difference between winning and losing is 1/10th of one point.
“She fought back,” her dad recalled. “You saw integrity. That air fire cost her the overall championship. She would have won.
“To watch her have the integrity to raise her hand, knowing that it cost her 10 points. … Watching her have the integrity and the resiliency and the competitive spirit to stay in there and work hard was amazing.”
Now 18, Chloe didn’t pick up a rifle until eighth grade. Since then she’s more than made her mark as a precision sharpshooter. She captured the Air Force Junior ROTC Precision Individual Championship at the 2022-2023 Junior ROTC Three Position Postal Championship.
Those successes are the result of practice sessions two to three hours long, five or six days a week.
She finished second overall in the three-position (standing, kneeling, and prone) event at the 2023 Oklahoma Junior Olympic 3 PAR State Championship.
And most recently she finished in the top half among the nation’s most elite Junior Olympic precision shooters — 79th of 179 competitors — and achieved a personal best.
Chloe’s also won that Distinguished Shooter’s Badge. It’s an honor reserved for only the best, the culmination of a protracted process of accumulating points.
“I got involved (in marksmanship) just on a whim,” she said. “I really started getting into it midway through my freshman year.”
Initially, Chloe competed in the Sporter Division — basically an introduction to the sport — before taking the next big step into the Precision arena.
“Precision, if you look at Olympians or NCAA athletes, they’re wearing a suit. Their rifles can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $12,000. Everything’s governed by USA Shooting, the National Three Position Council, and the International Shooting Sports Federation,” Lt. Col. Shannon said.
Chloe recalled her first shooting experience.
“It was just a random Saturday,” she said. “I went out with my dad on a whim to a veterans competition.”
“I just picked it up and my dad told me what to do,” she said.
Chole fired her M-4 rifle and heard a sound that for sharpshooters is akin to the swish Iowa’s Caitlan Clark hears after a jump shot or the unmistakable smack of baseball on bat that home run king Henry Aarron heard 755 times in another era.
Ding!
Ding!
“I thought, ‘Oh, this is fun,’” Chloe recalled upon hearing the sweet sound of projectile on a steel bullseye, shooting a gun like ringing a bell. The rest is history.
Does she have a gift?
“[My dad] likes to say so,” Chloe said. “I’m very much one who thinks it’s on the end of anything you work for. He likes to call it a gift.”
College recruiters saw that gift. In the fall, she’ll attend Morehead State in Kentucky on an athletic scholarship. She plans to study sports medicine and physical therapy.
“That [the scholarship] was amazing, because I came into the sport so late compared to some kids,” she said.
What qualities, beyond the eagle eye, strong upper body, and discipline does it take to be a championship shooter? It’s about having a growth mindset, she said.
“There’s a lot to do with the mental aspect,” Chloe said. “It’s funny, because when people think about sports, they often forget about that mental aspect. … That really comes through with shooting.”
She added, “There are all sorts of other aspects that come into it. There’s humility. There’s a lot to do with integrity and resiliency.
“Those things — integrity, and resiliency — have been a big part of it recently, mainly the resiliency aspect of it.”
That resiliency — controlling the things you can, not worrying about those you can’t — has driven her success.
“It’s just kind of thinking, ‘Yes, that just went totally out of my control. But I’m going to keep my cool and just push through it and do even better than before.’”
That mental toughness, resilience, and integrity shine through in her Civil Air Patrol service. Chloe joined in August 2019, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. With an eye toward a career in aviation, she wanted an alternative to ROTC that she could join right away.
She has participated in a Southwest Region CAP Flight Academy twice and has also served on academy cadet staff. She pitched in at National Blue Beret at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2022. She has taken 12 orientation flights.
“I just really dove in deep,” Chloe said. “I think a big draw in that was future ambition in the military. My mom — Capt. Tamara Shannon — was one of the big reasons, because she had done it when she was a kid.”
For the Shannons, as for many in the organization, CAP is a family affair. They are members of the Broken Arrow Composite Squadron, where Lt. Col. Shannon is the squadron leadership officer, as well as the Oklahoma Wing’s maintenance officer. Capt. Shannon serves on the wing staff as well, as director of operations.
When Chloe joined CAP, she was “very much an introvert,” she said. But she has emerged from her shell.
Her sport and CAP have complemented each other, helping Chloe excel.
“The leadership aspect has come from CAP, and that has played into rifle in terms of qualities. And then rifle has helped to strengthen and grow a lot of other aspects in terms of camaraderie. I’ve found a home in both of them.”
Lt. Col. Shannon isn’t surprised at his daughter’s success in both worlds — rifle and CAP.
“Everything she does, she works hard at it,” he said. “In rifle, that was a little bit of a surprise. But once I saw how much she enjoyed it, the fact that she was so coachable and was willing to put in the work … she’s willing to try new things.”
Going back to her dry fire moment, Chloe summed up her raised hand.
“It was the right thing to do.”
And of those dry fire moments of life, when it feels like the world is caving in, the cadet has a simple philosophy.
“You know when you’re in one of those major slumps and you don’t feel like there’s anything good coming out of it, just keep pushing through and learn every little thing you can,” she said. “Keep that growth mindset.”
Her story isn’t just about athletics.
“Sports has the potential to teach a lot of life lessons to our youth,” Lt. Col. Shannon said. “Those life lessons can’t be replicated in other venues.
“It’s not about being the jock. It’s about integrity, resiliency, and true sportsmanship and supporting people who sometimes aren’t even on your team.
“And then when they win, you’re happy that they won, not upset that you didn’t win.
“That’s Chloe.”_____Paul SouthContributing Writer
