Talk:William Tell (aerial gunnery competition)

Not much here

Of course, there's a lot more history for this competition than this stub indicates. By the way, the William Tell project name was also used for tactical weapons meets later known as Gunsmoke at Nellis AFB in the late 50s and early 60s. There actually were two William Tell meets in 1958, one air defense and one tactical, but thereafter they alternated - the air defense meets in odd years (1959, 1961, 1963, and 1965) and the tactical meet in even years (1960 and 1962). The meets were suspended during the Vietnam War (there was no tactical meet after the 1962 event and no air defense meet after the 1965 edition). As the Vietnam War wound down, the William Tell meets for the air defense units resumed in 1970 and returned thereafter in even number years until Desert Shield/Storm interrupted them again in 1990 - the tactical meets resumed later under the Gunsmoke name. Prior to 1958, there were also both tactical and air defense meets (the latter included 1954, 1955, and 1956 air defense competitions at then Yuma AFB in Arizona) although known by the less exciting title of the "USAF Gunnery and Weapons Meet."