Originally Posted by
Surf
Yep. There are some caveats to certain aspects of scoring and badges, but it is a sad but true reality. I know all of the "Official" releases / run down on the reasons for making such a move to optics and without getting into the politics of "why", the bottom line is that over the years and since this has occurred I have seen a noticeable decline in Marksmanship skill sets with the rifle in the Marines that I encounter. If you talk to your average squared away Marine NCO who has many years of service, has seen the evolution first hand and is being honest, they will probably say the exact same thing. One of my very close instructors who sees everything I do, is a former active duty Marine and he is utterly disgusted by what he sees today. I guess he takes it more personal. Of course we expect lack of quality skills with the pistol, but the Every Marine is a rifleman motto does not seem to have the same meaning. On the upside, in one week we get them far far beyond any level of rifle training / proficiency that they could have obtained, now or in the past. Of course the individual attention pays big time, but I stand by that.
I will note that our upcoming course starting in a couple weeks will have 3 Marines. 1 scout/sniper, 1 Force Recon and 1 SRT / MP. All with multiple combat deployments. Should show an interesting spread of experiences / skill sets.
Indeed, it was all irons for me all the up to my first deployment to Iraq, but even after that it was still qualifications with irons. Sad to hear of poor choices , thanks for the reply.
"Courage is being scared to death ,but saddling up anyways" John wayne
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