Quote Originally Posted by MattC86 View Post

Also I wonder how long it will take for a Marine to come in gleefully chirping "every Marine a rifleman"

- Or is this a problem among USMC units as well?
I'll take the bait. I led some non-grunt types in two deployments, and relentlessly focused on small arms training. The most dificult part was getting the ammo. Nonetheless there was plenty of opportunity to get the Marines doing more than the known-distance shooting skills.

There have been several cases of CSS Marines getting attacked on convoys, with the Marines immediately dismounting and destroying the enemy. Just the same, I personally knew a former Marine officer who led a convoy between Ramadi and Fallujah some years ago and managed to abandon and lose his HMMWV and the SINCGARS radios in the HMMWV. He's no longer serving.

I think Marines have a generally superior ethos when it comes to small arms training, but that ethos needs to be drawn on if its going to result in anything substantive. And there are plenty of excellent army units that know how to use their weapons. Indeed, I don't think America's army is the army of Jessica Lynch. Witness this.

Cliche, I know, but it's just a leadership issue. If you make it a priority, it'll happen.