I was looking at my father’s old service record. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, transfered to the Army Air Force, achieved the rank of Technical Sergeant and was discharged in early 1946.
My father said he served the entire war shuffling papers in the continental U.S. and never saw combat. According to his service record he received the American Theater ribbon and did not receive anything for overseas service. So far, so good.
However, his record also shows that he earned a marksman medal for riflery in March 1945. Huh?
In March 1945 my father would have been a 29 year-old Technical Sergeant who had spent the previous 2 1/2 years (according to his own account) shuffling papers at various AAF bases in the Midwest. What was he doing on a rifle range at that point?
Any American Theater buffs who can venture a guess on what happened? Did noncoms have to maintain shooting proficiency throughout the War? Was he in training for the projected Japanese invasion? Was he trying to win a bet?
Any ideas?
Most military folk who are combat-ready, such as Army, Marines, Seabees, etc. have to periodically qualify on the rifle range. When I was in deployable units with the Seabees, we had to go to the range whenever we rotated back to the States. The levels of expertise were Marksman (lowest), Sharpshooter and Expert (highest). Even paper pushers must be able to handle their weapons if called upon.
Was he a Tech Sergeant before the qualification? He might have had to requalify to get promoted. Or, he might have had a new CO that wanted everybody requalified. In March of 1945, we were gearing up for Operation Olympic, so maybe they wanted all personnel who might be occupying forward air fields to actually know how to use a rifle.
Most if not all service members are required to be proficient in basic weapon use. Your father may have been particularly good with a rifle and won a medal for it.
Even in peacetime, *every * member of the Army qualifies with their rifle on a regular basis. It’s no different than maintaining physical fitness test scores. A Marksman badge means that he wasn’t very good at it, I’m afriad.
Periodic qualification and/or training for the invasion of Japan makes sense. Thanks, everyone.