Why don't officers wear marksmanship badges?

Having spent 10 years as a Marine and 14 as a soldier, I can say this is one way that the two services differ greatly. In the Marine Corps, when a uniform is prescribed for uniform of the day, an event or occasion, it is accompanied by specifics, i.e. service A uniform with ribbons and badges. As such, all Marines would wear them. I never noticed Army officers not wearing them until this posting. While shooting Expert in either branch is an excellent accomplishment, anyone who has had a bad day on the range can attest that shooting Marksman is also a qualification worth displaying. Marksmanship is a skill we all have in common and one I feel should be shown proudly.

I do believe it is because most officers cannot shoot so rather than having to explain a marksman badge to the private who nailed a 40 out of 40 on the last range, you just do not wear them. At least that is the story I tell at the range after qualifying expert so I do what I can to motivate the officers in my unit to qualify on their third or fourth attempt. Motivation is important.

I don't even know how to respond to this. Sounds to me like a lot of "I can't do it, and I don't want any officers who can to show me up for what I am--just a guy in a pretty soldier suit wearing a bunch of pretty patches." How can a leader look a soldier in the eye? Every Marine has a right to know if his officers can perform the single most important task of the warrior--kill the enemy with everything from bare hands to nukes, but especially aimed, killing rifle fire at maximum range. It is just one more of those things that we all do together that makes us Marines.

As a Marine officer, I wore my rifle and pistol badges for my entire 30 years.

I ran many a pistol range for qualification. Our Enlisted who were issued pistols, no problems. Warrants no problem. O grade offices, scary with a few exceptions.

I am retired now, but as an Infantry Officer I felt that it was important to be very proficient with my assigned individual weapons and always wore my marksmanship badges just like I expected my soldiers to wear theirs. At some point in my career I switched my annual qualification badges with Excellence in Competition (EIC) badges - silver in rifle and bronze in pistol. Officers who didn't wear theirs and used the excuse of "officers should be expert in everything" generally weren't experts in much including shooting their assigned weapon. Officers who said its tradition not to wear them as an officer - I always thought that was an adequate answer since the regs generally state they are authorized for wear, not mandatory.

I always thought that officers not wearing weapons skill badges was a mistake by the Army in general. The points made about "the officers job is to lead not fire his weapon" is hollow and sounds like some kind of stuffy British Army bs. The Army talks warrior culture doesn't follow through. Infantry, Rangers, and SF officers fight, shoot AND communicate. Combat is a full contact event, not some neat tidy white paper theory. Shooting skill is no indication of officer ability, no more than how shiny your boots are, how short your hair is, or how fast you run. But soldiers like to know their leaders have skills they can see. And shooting skill is one that can be displayed with the shooting badges. Good on MG Miller to emphasize shooting proficiency for the new Infantry LT's. I'll note that MG Miller is a former Delta commander and understands the value of shooting skill by all members of the team. The Army, and especially the combat arms branches, would be well served to emulate the USMC model that every one is fundamentally a rifleman work forward from that point. To answer the original question No, there is no regulation prohibiting officers wearing shooting badges they are qualified for. I for one encourage it. After all "It ain't bragging if you can do it!"
Brad Herzog
SF, ret.

They want to avoid the embarrassment of everyone seeing that their enlisted troops shoot better than they do, especially when they don't do anything particularly well. But, yeah..let's call it tradition.

Generally speaking it is assumed that Officers will already be experts and as such the display of it is unnecessary. This isn't the case with all units but in all the line companies I was in and even in the Heavy Weapons company at the 10th Mountain all the officers shot expert. In my first platoon I was the worst shot at 36. We even had a competition put on by General Townsend and my Weapons Company at the time outshot all other companies in the division. There is no specific regulation that I know of that prevents an Officer from wearing it however, so if you desire to do so go nuts. Just expect the occasional head swivel here and there.

I wore mine. As an officer, I figured the Soldiers and NCOs would like to know that I qualified expert on a number of weapons. Kinda hard to be the example if you can't set the example.