Brad R. Torgersen@BradRTorgersen
(TL;DR warning!) Here's the dirty secret: the Army DNGAF if anyone outside SOF is any good with a pistol, and barely GAF if anyone outside Infantry is good with a rifle. If you are compo 2 or 3 you are lucky to see a rifle qual on your calendar once a year. MPs have pistol qual written into their requirements, but again, it's only annual. And nobody ever improves shooting that infrequently. Especially when the focus is on floors for "GO" versus exceeding the floor.
Officer corps is routinely mocked for being terrible on the M9, but it's because company plate and field plate OERs never include scores, and almost nobody ever receives anything other than hip pocket training. Again, it's just not an Army priority. If you are Active, Guard or Reserve, and in any unit that's not explicitly infantry, you're spending your own time and own dime to get better via private civilian training with your own weapons and ammo.
It oughta not be like this.
I can't speak for the USAF nor the USN but the Army absolutely oughta prioritize marksmanship. Invest the dollars. Invest in the weapons and training.
Make and form enough roving dets of advanced cadre who can travel around the country helping units of every compo, every function, with rifle and pistol range time. No exceptions. No abandoning the part-time compos. Quarterly, versus annual. Make scores matter on NCOERs and OERs. Incentivize, but back up the incentivization with manpower and resources so people can become truly proficient.
Because the fact is less than half the Army across compos is genuinely proficient with rifles, and maybe a tenth or less of the Army is genuinely proficient with pistols. And this is a true shame.