Posted on Oct 31, 2014
Why don't officers wear marksmanship badges?
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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?
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 764
Yes, and I proudly wore my expert badge for rifle and pistol on my Class A uniform, but not on Dress Blue or Dress White uniforms - back in my day.
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In every command I was in after commissioning (I was enlisted for 10 years), officers were REQUIRED to wear marksmanship badges. Furthermore, officers had to qualify on every weapon under their command. Wearing marksmanship badges served two purposes: 1) it showed that you were, in fact, qualified to fire every weapon in your platoon or company and 2) it provides incentive for officers to actually strive for an Expert badge. Here's the kicker, though, for non-combat arms types: if you only fire your weapon once a year, how can you be expected to be proficient? I was a marksman before I joined the Army and have always kept my marksmanship skills honed. 16 years after retirement, I maintain a rifle range on my farm and my sons, my oldest grandson and I still qualify fo Army standards once a month. And, yes, authorized or not, we ALL proudly wear Expert Rifle and Pistol badges on our range vests/jackets.
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Maybe it is just an excuse that the officer can’t shit for sh!t and doesn’t want to be upstaged. Just saying.
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Do you carry a rifle during combat? Nobody is particularly proud of getting expert on the M9. It's a little easy.
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As a reserve officer and hobbiest competitive shooter it isn’t unrealistic I shoot more rounds in a year than my entire company will.
I take no enjoyment at the range and put all my efforts on getting my reservists qualified in the one time a year they will fire a rifle.
Also, someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t qualification badges suppose to be current within the year? Such as the case, a lot of reservists shouldn’t be wearing them. I went 4 years once without pulling an army trigger.
I take no enjoyment at the range and put all my efforts on getting my reservists qualified in the one time a year they will fire a rifle.
Also, someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t qualification badges suppose to be current within the year? Such as the case, a lot of reservists shouldn’t be wearing them. I went 4 years once without pulling an army trigger.
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Army Platoon Leaders (2LT and some 1LT) are issued rifles and are required to qualify with them.
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I was in the Guard and was on the state rifle team. I taught marksmanship, both rifle and pistol to soldiers of the units I was assigned to. The NCO's ran the rifle range and I ran the pistol range.
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Officers should qualify expert with their assigned weapon, and it should be identified on the OER like the APFT.
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We suck. Well, not me but most of us. We aren’t going to walk around with our marksman badge for all to see.
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