Marksman, Sharpshooter, or Expert?

“I’m so tired I can hardly get around.” So begins Ralph’s letter of March 28, 1943. After complaining about being assigned KP duty for no apparent reason and raving over the cookies received from home, Ralph goes on to describe some aspects of their rifle training and what it takes to qualify.

“We’ve had nothing but rifle all week, and I’m so tired of it I think sometimes I never want to see another rifle.” To this point their training has focused on sighting the rifles, studying positions, sight setting, and windage. He hasn’t even fired a rifle yet, as he has been pulling targets while another company of the regiment does their shooting. After getting up at 4:45 and marching to the range, he stands in a pit behind a target. Each time the soldier fires, Ralph pulls down the target and marks the bullet whole with a marker before pushing the target back up so the shooter can see where he hit before firing again.

Ralph gives quite bit of detail about the range and targets, as well as different levels of qualification. “The distances we shoot are 200, 300, and 500 yards. The 200 and 300-yard targets are 4 ft by 6 ft with 10-inch bull’s eye. The 500 yd targets are 6 ft square with a 20 inch bull’s eye.” He goes on to explain that shooters will need 140 points out of 210 to qualify as marksman, 165 to qualify as a sharpshooter, and 180 for expert. “I expect I’ll do good if I get marksman.”

In his letter of April 8, Ralph describes the busy week he’s had – getting up each morning at 4:30 or 4:45, marching 3 miles to the range and shooting or pulling targets until marching back to the barracks around 8:00 in the evening. Apparently, the practice paid off. “We fired for a record yesterday (Sat.). I came out with 175 out of 210. That makes me a sharpshooter…. I couldn’t quite make the expert, but, as far as I know now there were only 3 or 4 experts in the whole company (about 225 men) so I don’t feel bad about it.” He goes on to share that his platoon scored highest in the company and his company scored highest in the regiment.

At the end of the April 8th letter, Ralph reports a change in organization. “They had a shake up in the regiment the other day. There is no 147th regiment now. It’s the 147th battalion, as you will notice on the envelope. There are only 3 companies in the 147th now. That’s why it’s a battalion instead of a regiment. They took companies D, E, and F and made the 207th battalion out of it.”