Posted on Jul 27, 2020
What caused marksmanship to not be as important as APFT?
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Pet peeve. Marksmanship.
How is it for promotion packets for E5 and E6, that Marksmanship and APFT carry the SAME point weight relative to the soldiers weapon qual or APFT scores but we will run the soldier into the ground for poor APFT and treat marksmanship as GO, or NO-GO, and not even really care there is no current weapon qual on record. I have never flagged a soldier for not having a current qual score.
However, when it comes to promotions for Jr. NCO's they carry the same weight per the points allocation.
How is it for promotion packets for E5 and E6, that Marksmanship and APFT carry the SAME point weight relative to the soldiers weapon qual or APFT scores but we will run the soldier into the ground for poor APFT and treat marksmanship as GO, or NO-GO, and not even really care there is no current weapon qual on record. I have never flagged a soldier for not having a current qual score.
However, when it comes to promotions for Jr. NCO's they carry the same weight per the points allocation.
Posted in these groups: 
Marksmanship
Fitness
Marksmanship Fitness
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 7
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Excellent point 1LT Richard Lesher!
I knew many a Soldier whose records were ‘flagged’ fir bolo APFT scores and had barely qualified on their M16A1...I was always in a unit which stressed the importance of both! I qualified with my M16A1 every 6 months, same as mandatory APFT.
I knew many a Soldier whose records were ‘flagged’ fir bolo APFT scores and had barely qualified on their M16A1...I was always in a unit which stressed the importance of both! I qualified with my M16A1 every 6 months, same as mandatory APFT.
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So it’s funny. I just completed a study in my division in which I incorporated tons of soldier measurement data to determine the biggest predictors of Soldier “success” (as defined by some factors agreed along by the enlisted leadership) and the number one predictor was weapons proficiency.
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I can't speak for the rest of the Army but that is not the case in infantry units. Fort Bragg has a qual range that runs three days every week to get Paratroopers qualified. We make sure that all of the Paratroopers we get to the unit have a current qualification. For us a Paratrooper can't go into a live fire and that is a unit readiness issue. I would honestly ask why your unit is treating it this way. When I was in the guard weapon quals were hard to come by and were only performed at AT.
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CPT (Join to see)
Spot on sir, and what is going to be brought up here are the logistical limitations, but even absent that there doesn't seem to be a culture of rewarding marksmanship as a critical skill even remotely on par with fitness. Exception being of course combat units.
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