CAMP PERRY, OHIO - It's time for an estimated six to seven thousand Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force JROTC Cadets to gather targets, get their gear bags zipped and head to their ranges to prepare for this year’s JROTC Air Rifle Postal Competitions that kick off this month, to mark the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year’s shooting season.

A new online team registration system is now open so that JROTC instructors can register their teams and order official targets for this year’s postal. There is a separate postal for each of the four Armed Services in this fast-growing "remote" match program that offers junior shooters an opportunity to compete on their home ranges against competitors from across the country and to qualify for their respective Service Championship in February. All shooters in the open postal competitions will fire a 3x10 three-position air rifle course of fire.

The competition gives all cadets who participate in air rifle marksmanship an opportunity to experience a national-level competition. It provides each participating unit with national rankings that determine which JROTC unit teams and at-large individual cadets advance to their championship competitions in February.

All Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force JROTC rifle teams can order their postal targets now, but must order targets no later than 21 November. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force units can fire their postal matches any time between now and 5 December when targets must be postmarked for return to CMP for scoring and ranking.  Results will be final on 18 December.

The postal competitions will be followed by a three-week series of JROTC Service Air Rifle Championships. This year all four Service Championships will be held at Camp Perry on the new CMP Competition Center air gun range that is fully equipped with electronic targets. The Army JROTC Service Championship will be on 12-14 February 2009. The Marine Corps JROTC Service Championship will be held 18-21 February 2009. The Air Force JROTC Championship will be on 19-21 February 2009. The Navy JROTC Service Championship will be on 26-28 February 2009.

Those championships will not only honor the top teams and individuals in each Service, but they will also identify the teams and at-large individuals that will represent each Service at the National JROTC Air Rifle Championship at Fort Benning, Georgia on 25-28 March 2009.

New this year, all teams and individuals will register online. To find the registration form, click on the “JROTC Postals” icon on the CMP home page at http://www.odcmp.com. Then select the Service and from there, click on “Team Registration.”

Unlike years past, ALL service teams will need to register online in order to receive targets, including USMC teams who were sent targets manually last year. Kruger targets will be provided and will be pre-printed with each cadet’s CMP competitor number, name, school, type of rifle and firing positions. If a cadet's CMP competitor number is unknown at the time the online entry is made, or if it is their first year competing, the CMP will assign a number after the online registration is received and it will be printed on their targets.

The Orion Visual Image Scoring system, which uses optical scanning and computer software technology, will once again be used to score targets. The system works by digitizing and scoring scanned images of the target bulls. The scoring program is designed to work with images that can be provided by any 8.5 x 11inch flat-bed, consumer grade scanner that can scan at 300 dpi or better.