That makes sense - but it brings up a question that I have been curious about for a while - what branches of the military actually train extensively with pistols?
I ask in part because my dad served for 20 years in the Navy - and as far as I know - qualified once with a 1911 in OCS, and was never to do any more.
I think - but I don't know - that almost no one in the Navy trains extensively with any firearms except for MPs and special ops. My dad's friends joked that they measured caliber in inches, not hundredths.
I assume Marines and Army train with rifles extensively. Do either of them train a lot with pistols?
I'm not the best person to ask.
I had four years in the Navy and 18 years in the Air National Guard--retiring in 2002.
So I don't know much about how things are now with pistol training, I expect you don't get much, but more recent active duty vets can probably tell you more.
I didn't get to shoot anything but the M-1 in Boot Camp. They demonstrated several other weapons.
In Yokosuka, Japan in 1966-67 I was on the base intramural pistol team for two years. The various commands competed with each other. We had the honor of ALMOST beating the Marine Barracks team.
At Yokosuka I got some unusual training with the 1911 due to the quite serious and potentially dangerous demonstrations against allowing nuclear submarines into the port. Many E-3s and below had to attend anti-riot training for three days. We learned to advance in formation with our M-1s with bayonets attached--stamping our feet in unison and looking dangerous. It was a break from our normal work. We loved it.
We also got to shoot a few magazines through some old 1911s. That was the highlight of the training, I thought. We also got to learn how to field strip them and clean them.
I next went to Guam where there were no pistol teams but I got to know the old Gunners Mate who ran the pistol range and I worked that into hanging out at the range with him and doing some shooting.
My important shooting started when my dad handed me a 38-40 Colt Peacemaker at the age of five and told me to shoot it. He had to catch it as it recoiled above my head. I loved it. The beginning of hearing loss.
My dad had been in the Pacific Theatre in the SeaBees. He had PTSD before it was invented. He carried the 1911 (that he illegally brought home) for years after the war. He was somewhat crazy but I was lucky to have him as he thought it important to teach me how to shoot. He felt I would be needed in the coming war with Russia. It turned out to be Vietnam.
As a youngster I got to roam on our farm and hunt and plink with quality handguns......among them a K-22 and a Colt Woodsman.
That's where I really got my training. Burning up a lot of .22 shells on animate and inanimate targets.
Now I'm an old man and all I have is memories........(but I'm still dangerous).