In 72, at Bragg, I quilified expert for pistol, shooting a 1911, I don't think that day, not many did not quilified, but there were some, Duh's.

Yes, "Expert", but let me defind "Expert" at the range that day with the 82nd ABN.

There was a 55gal drum about 25 feet away, online down range.
You were given 7 rounds of 45acp, due to the mag only holds 7 rounds, loading showed the instructors that you were proficent in loading and injecting a round into battery. Which alowed you to even shoot the pistol.

Let me define the Range Instructors that day, they were battle harden Vietnam vetereans, NCO's, that took no shit from privates.
They spoke once, and if you didn't hear the commands, you were thrown off the range.
If they had "RANGER" on their right sholder, when they spit, it was fire.
If they had a "LRRP" patch on their chest, they spoke as they barked.
And they all knew their "SHIT", and you knew, you were full of "SHIT". Lol

Then you had to shoot your 7 rounds at the drum, one handed, under the eagle eyes of the instructors, after shooting, if you put 5 holes into the drum, you quilified "EXPERT". Lol
If you hit the drum 3 times, you quilified to use the the 1911 pistol, on guard duty.
If you "Bo-lowed", with less then 3 rounds, or miss the drum completly, the instructors mocked you, called you "Panty Ass", and "Shit Head", you got to shoot again once, and were told that you are waisting government money. Lol

At the end of the shooting day, before being release back to your unit, all shooters stood at attention online.
Then the SFC incharge of the range, that looked like, and as big, that growled like a Sasquatch, told us Who, and What.
First names read off , were the "EXPERT" quilified, then the "Quilified" to use the 1911, at last, the non-quilified, and were told, "Go Join the Navy." Hahahahahaha!

Now, to the old army GI's, and infantryman, yall must be laughing by now, and the younger that don't understand the old army lingo, are in question. Lol

But let me tell you, I would have follwed any of those Range Instructors anywhere, and proud to be under their command, anyday.

That was the first time, that I had ever held or shot a pistol, and a 1911.
Today, I own 9 pistols that are 1911's, and shoot them well, I can even still hit the drum 5 or more time. Lol

"All The Way, gentelman" and for those old school, "WELCOME HOME, GI"

SGT (Join to see) - I've never seen QUITE that "qualification" course for the 1911, but I saw plenty of strange ways to qualify.

My last assignment was at a Readiness Group. We had no weapons -- at all. According to Army Regulations, because we weren't assigned individual weapons, we were supposed to qualify with the M16 rifle, but we didn't have those either. Since out entire job was to "assist" various National Guard units, the commander just said that the Branch Assistance officers and NCOs would qualify with whatever National Guard unit happened to be holding qualifications while we were there. We were also supposed to "make arrangements" for the Readiness Group staff to come qualify with us and the guard unit. The only redeeming thing about this plan was that it meant that on the Armor Branch Assistance Team we got to do pistol qualification instead of rifle qualification. My last pistol qualification was fired with a .22 pistol at stationary silhouette targets on sticks stuck in the ground. I don't recall the exact pistol we used but it didn't even vaguely resemble an M1911. Most units had Beretta target pistols, but a few had Ruger Mark IV target pistols.

At the other end of the spectrum, while I was in the Berlin Brigade the CG was on a big kick about NBC warfare. Part of the new emphasis was a decision that "one table" of each weapon qualification course would be fired wearing the protective mask -- at the time that meant the M17 for everyone else, but the M25 for us and the M24 for air crews. OK, a slight disadvantage, but not a big problem.

Then the geniuses at Bde S3 decided to "standardize" the procedure by changing for from just "one table" to "Table I" of each qualification course would be fired while masked. Table I of the rifle qualification course had the fewest rounds, was at some short distance (I think it was either 50m or 100m), and counted very little towards the total score. Meanwhile "Table I" of the M1911 pistol qualification at that time was 25m slow fire scored on a 25m pistol bullseye target, that counted for half your total score.

Our commander invited the CG to come visit our pistol qualification, then when he got there the captain invited him to shoot the qualification course with his General Officer Pistol that he always wore 'in the field' -- the CG promptly boloed and that same afternoon the Bde S3 had a new memo out changing how pistol qualification would be done. They kept the requirement for one table to be fired while masked, but shifted it to Table II for pistol qualification (which was something like one magazine of 7 rounds fired at 5 targets, all at 10-15m).

MSG Thomas Currie - Thanks for the information, you know most don't even know of what it takes, to support the front lines.

Alot of things need to happen for anyone at the front, with the support needed to accomplish the mission task.

Back in the 60's at Andersen AFB, anyone that was on the security force had to train on rifles that shot 22LR rounds.
I remember the AF personnel commplainting about it, and they wanted to shoot M-16s, but they all had an issued 38spl revolver, while at the gates.
Anyone on the flight line fencing had a M-16, there was a defference between the AF Security Force and the Security Police then, as to their mission task.

I'm sure shooting 22lr firearms were to fimilurize with a firearm, and it's funtions. All in All, no matter what it shot, round placement is, King.

In the infantry, all weapons had to be quilified for someone to use, even a M-79 or M-203, with all the deferent 40mm rounds. As well as the 106 recoiless, pull twice and push once, that had to be known and be familiarize with, general knowlege of the weapon.

I think the key ingredent of it all, was the intrest of firing, and using what was needed in what field you were in at the time. Hell, even we had instructions on how to use the P-38, and to most like me, we didn't even know what it was at first. Where I came from, we used a knife to open our can goods, thats why I use my bayonet.

Gas mask with the 2/505 Inf. 82nd ABN in my batallion, we had 12 mile Speed Marches, at the convenunce of the Full Bird.
We all found out that your sliva and muncus starts to fill your gas mask during the speed march, and you forgot the pain in your legs. The itich that came with mucus and sweat in your mask, was the wourst tourture for anyone. Lol

Most said that they were going to crack their gas mask to get fresh cool air, but the CS gas that was use was to insure you kept the mask on during all 12miles.
So what did the 12 mile speed march with gas mask do for us infantry?
Well for one, it showed the full bird that his men, would follow and obey his orders.
It showed us that it could be done, for 12 miles if the need would ever rise.
And it taught us, that what is needed in order to do so, and how it felt to do it.
After going through 12 mile speed marches with a gas mask, we all knew that when we had it on for 5 or 10 minutes, that was a convenunce.

And, we all appreciated that the next GI at our side, can be depended on, if the need would ever come.

"All the Way, Sir" and "Then Some"