Army Marksmanship?
I went through Basic Training in 1970, just as the Army changed over to the M16. The marksmanship training was so poor that I was able to take the trophy in my basic class of 220 recruits after I spent the entire marksmanship training time in the hospital with pneumonia! The CO gave me one day to zero my M16 and told me if I could qualify I could stay with the platoon and not be recycled.
I didn"t tell him I had shot smallbore in college, zeroed my M16 with 9 rounds, went to one practice range and shot the qualification course as an expert!
The sergeants didn't know how to teach people how to shoot, fortunately I did not have to listen to them for two weeks. Shooting at little green men popping up from behind well marked berms is not marksmanship!
In seven years in the Army (active) INCLUDING Infantry OCS at Benning I never fired at a paper target except the zero target at 25 meters!
You cannot train soldiers to shoot accurately popping little green men.
Phooey to the 9MM, ask any GI who was in WW2!
Geoff Ross
I went through Basic Training in 1970, just as the Army changed over to the M16. The marksmanship training was so poor that I was able to take the trophy in my basic class of 220 recruits after I spent the entire marksmanship training time in the hospital with pneumonia! The CO gave me one day to zero my M16 and told me if I could qualify I could stay with the platoon and not be recycled.
I didn"t tell him I had shot smallbore in college, zeroed my M16 with 9 rounds, went to one practice range and shot the qualification course as an expert!
The sergeants didn't know how to teach people how to shoot, fortunately I did not have to listen to them for two weeks. Shooting at little green men popping up from behind well marked berms is not marksmanship!
In seven years in the Army (active) INCLUDING Infantry OCS at Benning I never fired at a paper target except the zero target at 25 meters!
You cannot train soldiers to shoot accurately popping little green men.
Phooey to the 9MM, ask any GI who was in WW2!
Geoff Ross