Warrant Officer Dave Oakie started shooting in 1974 as a member of the 2PPCLI Rifle Team under the mentorship of Sgt Ed Kingston. That first year at the Canadian Forces Small Arms Competition (CFSAC) he place third in the Queens Medal Match (losing the medal on a crossfire) and also won the Vanier Cup for Top Tyro.
Dave left the Regular Force in 1977 but continued to shoot with the Reserve Forces. In 1978 he won the Queens Medal as a member of the Royal Montreal Regiment at CFSAC. At that same competition he also won the first C3 Sniper Rifle Championships at Connaught Range. He won the match opting to use the iron target sight instead of the optic. He was one of the first Reserve shooters to be selected to the 1979 Bisley Team.
In 1979 Dave joined the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and represented that unit in Bisley shooting service and target rifle. Again in 1979 Dave won the Queens Medal at Connaught.
In the fall of 1979 Dave returned to the Regular Force as a member of 2 RCR in Gagetown. He shot extensively in the Maritimes for 5years and won the New Brunswick target rifle championship in 1980 as well as the service rifle and Biathlon Championships for 5 Brigade.
At the Bisley meeting in 1982, Dave place second in the Service Rifle Grand Agg winning the Silver Medal. On his return to Connaught he qualified for the DCRA Target Rifle Team to Bisley and was selected to shoot the Palma Match where the Canadian team won the Gold Medal.
Dave qualified for 9 Bisley teams both Service and Target Rifle. In 1986 Dave shot the Canadian Crosman Air Gun Championships and won a Bronze Medal. In 1988 he received the Des Burke Award for contributions to service rifle shooting. He went on to coach the Airborne Team which won the Soldiers Cup in 1994. In 2005 he competed in the World Masters Games in Edmonton winning 2 Gold medals in 300m iron sight and optic matches. Dave was instrumental in coaching the LFWA Reserve teams for several dominant years.
Dave was inducted into the Canadian Forces Honor Roll for Shooting in 2005. He was again honored at the Sports Awards in 2010 for Top Army Coach for the year in 2009 and again in 2016 for the Dedication to Sports Award. He is a proponent of Mental Management as a training technique and continues to compete in both service rifle and target rifle competitions. Dave retired in 2017 with 45 years of service.
