When I was in during The Jurassic Period, rifle marksmanship was in a dismal state. I qualified in Basic, and never qualified again during my enlistment of 3 years. Later in life, I participated in NRA Service Rifle Matches and discovered that the Army had not taught me to shoot a rifle; they had taught me how to operate a rifle. Plus, whenbudgets get tight, the first thing X-ed out is ammo. After all, if a soldier gets injured on the range, that could be the end of an officer's career.
I am taking this kind of personal. We always wanted to shoot more, especially pre deployment. We were hustled through flat ranges in Kuwait before flying to Iraq during the surge of 2007-08. Even back at home station, resources were scarce. I sent two of my squad leaders to a reflexive shooting class. They shot so much there, they didn't want to shoot anymore. Watching them train the squads, and you could tell they weren't marksmen, they were gunfighters. Fast forward to now. If I was running an infantry company, I would try to shoot my annual small arms ammo budget in the first quarter. Gunfighting and squad movement would be the priorities and work up to company enter and clear a trench. I'm out and getting a full knee replacement next Friday, so I'll be sitting this one out.
When I was in during The Jurassic Period, rifle marksmanship was in a dismal state. I qualified in Basic, and never qualified again during my enlistment of 3 years. Later in life, I participated in NRA Service Rifle Matches and discovered that the Army had not taught me to shoot a rifle; they had taught me how to operate a rifle. Plus, whenbudgets get tight, the first thing X-ed out is ammo. After all, if a soldier gets injured on the range, that could be the end of an officer's career.
A very common experience, especially for us in the shooting world.
Not everyone was blind to the problem.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/532-wall.pdf
Thanks for sharing!
I am taking this kind of personal. We always wanted to shoot more, especially pre deployment. We were hustled through flat ranges in Kuwait before flying to Iraq during the surge of 2007-08. Even back at home station, resources were scarce. I sent two of my squad leaders to a reflexive shooting class. They shot so much there, they didn't want to shoot anymore. Watching them train the squads, and you could tell they weren't marksmen, they were gunfighters. Fast forward to now. If I was running an infantry company, I would try to shoot my annual small arms ammo budget in the first quarter. Gunfighting and squad movement would be the priorities and work up to company enter and clear a trench. I'm out and getting a full knee replacement next Friday, so I'll be sitting this one out.