Why don't officers wear marksmanship badges?

I know this tradition exists in some foreign militaries and is a matter of regulation. Officer in the German Army are not allowed to wear marksmanship badges by regulation. As far as our American Army Officer Corps tradition of not wearing the badges, I don't really like it. I qualified expert most of the time with rifle/carbine and pistol and wanted to wear those badges. I do concur though that I believe this tradition comes from the fact that all officers should be experts in the profession of arms which includes marksmanship. Of course, as many NCOs will point out, we have many officers who are horrible marksman who can hide their bolo status behind this tradition :)

Interesting question, as an enlisted I think it would be best for them to wear them. For if they are to lead by example then why not be able to prove that they can perform basic tasks and drills. My Drill Sergeants said it best, every soldier is first and foremost an infantryman regardless of rank.

Not sure if anyone point this out already (couldn't find it) but besides the reasons I read on here, I have heard that:- "Officers are supposed to be all Expert marksmen"... I guess it's a mythical notion. Perhaps they're waiting for that day when thousands of officers all synchronize and become all Experts LOL I say good luck with that

SFC R. Emery, I enjoyed 3 years as a Drill Sergeant in the U.S. Army. I was approached by my COL, Brigade Commander that I should apply for OCS. At the time I was a Staff Sergeant and one of my questions to him was, could I still wear my Drill Sergeant badge. He replied that Officers normally did not wear enlisted earned Badges, but it was up to me. I may get some slack for it. I found myself at the time looking into the future saying I would for sure where my Drill Sergeant badge and thought the same of my Expert Marksmanship badges which I had three tabs. I look at it from a little different angle that sometimes our Soldiers beneath usgain, or beside us, gain inspiration, motivation and direction from our leaders who set an example in who they really are and to lead from the front. Shooting well, and wearing their expert badges shows who they really are. I wonderd many times what did that LT, CPT, etc. qualify with when we could see everyone else at our dining in or Class A time together. At the time I had three tabs and many Soldiers would comment. Maybe that inspired them, to work and train harder. Soldiers observing an Officer wearing them would definitely see them leading from the front as well. Wearing the Drill Sergeant badge as an Officer would for sure show them that I was once a part of them, so in conclusion I feel Officers wearing Marksmanship badges would be a welcome sight and show the backbone of the Army the NCOs as well as the younger and enlisted Soldiers that that Officer was also a leader and a true part of the unit. I'm sure many would disagree but I think being proud of who we are and what we have accomplished doesn't say were showing off but actually inspire our younger generation to work hard to train as we fight and truly pay attention and focus on the details. Attention to details as we used to say. God bless Godspeed gotta go!

I suspect somewhere along the line were not as proficient as the soldiers they led and were embarrassed by that fact and quit wearing them. I wore mine as an ROTC SMP Cadet where I shot Expert (which I did almost everytime in my career) but was encouraged to remove it at my graduation from FAOBC

But officers (at least in SF) have to qualify with their assigned weapons. On more than one occasion I saw officers repeatedly fail to qualify expert until after multiple iterations (I'm talking 5 or more). You can rationalize all you want but your NCOS will know.

I'll take a good officer that can't shoot over one that can shoot, but can't lead.

A better questions is why does anyone wear a marksmanship badge?

In our Stars and Stripes column on military trivia, we could not find any regulation prohibiting it; many officers related it was a tradition they learned at OCS and Officer Basic Courses....because most officers after WWII are issued pistols (when there are enough in the supply system). We did find photos of officers in WWI and WWII wearing marksmanship medals in Class A uniform, anda few with special marksmanship medals (such as Olympians).

I never thought about it . . . but, the only marksmanship badge I wore on my uniform was the EIC Pistol badge.

I know if I had worn any others, my Expert badge would have had a long ladder and just wouldn't have looked right. I also know that a vast majority of the NCO's I knew, only had 1-3 bars under a badge and whether they wore one or 3 badges, it still looks nice.

One thing that sticks in my mind is, Officers, especially INF Officers, have more ability to qualify on the various weapons systems, then do Enlisted. That may also be a reason that Officers don't wear the typical marksmanship badges.