Posted on Oct 31, 2014
Why don't officers wear marksmanship badges?
763K
5.72K
1.87K
522
522
0
The day I turned my chevrons in for gold bars I noticed something. All the officers I've ever seen never wore marksmanship badges in dress uniforms. I just assumed they were unauthorized for officers and removed it voluntarily. I honestly never desired to wear the badge (probably because I was only ever a sharpshooter), but I haven't found any documentation specifically preventing officers from wearing them. Do you think officers should wear them?
Officer
Uniforms
Marksmanship
Badges
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 764
0
0
0
All any officer ever did for me was try to get me KIA, so I do not much care for them. Before all you shavetails go wild, many of my kin are/were officers and I have a military family history longer than Lt. Dan!
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
0
0
0
Why is this a question? If you want to wear it and there is nothing in AR670-1 that say you can't, then slap it on.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Because it is expected...As an officer and an example of leadership...That officers know how to shoot a weapon.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
PFC Charles Sanders
My dad is a Vietnam vet. He got his physical notice and went ahead and enlisted so that he had at least some say in what he did. Ended up working as a photo interpreter for Army Intelligence. He's got some crazy stories, lol. I'm glad everything worked out well for you. It sounds like you really made the most of your service time.
(1)
(0)
1LT Rich Voss
PFC Charles Sanders - He was fortunate. Can't tell you how many guys I knew enlisted in the Army or another service rather than get drafted. I suspect they thought there was some "stigma" attached to being a "draftee" that you'd never be able to overcome. Back to the point, many of them DID NOT get the school or MOS they enlisted for. It was WAR, after all, and when it comes down to it (the worst of it), everyone is a "grunt", or if you prefer, rifleman. My best childhood friend, with whom I share a birthday (I'm 4 hours older), one number difference in SSN and all kinds of other stuff, joined the Air Force for 4 years to "avoid" the draft ! And, I believe, Viet Nam. HAH ! He was a straight "A" student in high school, so he got to go right into computers and electronics in 1966. Same month I got drafted. Surprise ! He got sent to a secret radar station on a mountaintop in Cambodia directing air strikes into North Viet Nam for a year, then a year on a remote mountaintop in Italy performing similar function for our jets along the Eastern Bloc and Mid-East (look up 6 Days War !), then back to SE Asia again, at a place called "Black Virgin Mountain" in Viet Nam directing B52 strikes in the North. He was actually pissed at me for becoming an Officer AND getting out 6 months before him ! He had some crazy stories too, like nearly being overrun by VC, and having their artillery support lower their guns downhill using "fleshettes" and "grape" shot. Everybody became riflemen that night, and others. We were both fortunate to live !
(1)
(0)
PFC Charles Sanders
1LT Rich Voss - The husband of one of my Mom's friends at work was a recruiter, so he hooked Dad up that way. That said, he manned a machine gun nest more than once. Had a few experiences I probably shouldn't talk about on here. Some comical, others infuriating. You know how that goes. He almost got sent back for a 2nd tour, but he was working in a classified document library at Bragg and was signed for over 10,000 classified documents. Lucky for him, since the "Top Secret" unit they put together and sent out under cover of darkness was announced on the evening news, including travel plans. Half of them never made it to the base
(0)
(0)
1LT Rich Voss
PFC Charles Sanders - Holy crap. I understand. Again, very fortunate for him. Not so much the other guys. I did know one guy that did three tours (or more). Warrant Officer helicopter pilot. He was most interesting to me, because he was so laid back. He was our Brigade COs pilot and we made friends at the Officer's Club. I had wanted to become a rotary wing guy until I learned that it was a five year commitment after graduation from flight school. 3 trips to 'Nam guaranteed. I didn't like the odds of being an Air Cav Troop commander AND pilot for three tours. In a then unarmored HUEY. This Warrant verified that rule and said: "No big deal, when I rotate out of "country", I can pick any duty station in the WORLD that has a helicopter. He kept picking where I was stationed in Germany. I know he survived his tours, because he went and came back during the two plus years I was there, then when I went back to Germany in ''72 he was back again, and the last time I saw him (and stayed with him) in '75 he was there AGAIN !!!! Never had a life threatening wound. Still funny and cheerful and laid back. He had a truly charmed life. Wonder where he is and what the heck he's doing ?
(1)
(0)
0
0
0
0
0
0
Before WWII you saw many officers wearing marksmanship badges. Korea, Vietnam and on not at all. Something clearly happened in the officer corps to push this idea. Of course we haven't won a "war" since then either....coincidents?
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
There are two classes of military professionals. In one class, leadership and professional leadership development is highly valued with good pay and career protections followed by an even better retirement package. In the other class of patriots you treat like the proletarians in communist societies with minor differences in their own social structure and leave them with broken bodies and much reduced pensions compared to the first class. What is a good way to distract the second class from their real position in military society? Give them pretty uniforms with lots of colorful pieces of cloth and shiny medal badges and then let them argue and contest with each other on who can earn the most pretty things on their uniforms.....
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Many Are NCOes on hear seam to assume officers can't be expert marksmen. Well as another former E-5, i make no apologies for"going to the dark side". I'm a strategic planner, soldier and Yes Expert Marksmen with rifle, pistol , and as an FA gunner. Disparaging remarks from E8 and E9s don't set a good example of professionalism, nor support for the service as a whole, when they openly put down officers. I've met and handled more than my share of do nothing , coffee drinkers, who are Stuck NCOES as well. MAJ , RL,
(0)
(0)
CW4 Tim Claus
Didn't need a badge on my chest for the soldiers in my unit to know that this old CWO was one of the best shots with an M9 and could outshoot the majority of the unit with an M16. Only time that started to drop off was the last trip to the range with an M16 at 58 when age was starting to catch up with the eyes at 250 and 300 meters.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
I never thought about it or gave it much thought. all that mattered to me was to do my job nothing more nothing less. What a Officer wears was up to him and not me.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google