[Chainmail]

In the late '70s, I was assigned to COMNAVSURFLANT as the "duty Marine" for controlling the Atlantic Fleet small arms ranges and marksmanship courses. During that time we had a navy officer accidently fire his .45 on the quarterdeck of his destroyer and that bullet ricocheted all over the place but luckily didn't hit anyone.

Admiral Kidd, CINCLANTFLEET Actual, decreed that "all Atlantic Fleet naval personnel would be qualified with the .45 caliber pistol". That was really nuts: we ran completely out of all of our training and most of our war reserve ammo - 5 million rounds - within the month and the qualification percentages were abysmal. I was instructed to devise an abbreviated familiarization course of instruction and did so - and tried it out at the Dam Neck small arms range with a class of 40 average sailors.

Didn't work. Those "average sailors" were horrible shots and I quickly realized that they would have needed far more instruction and many more rounds to become proficient with a .45. My report was not well received but Admiral Kidd finally gave up and took the .45s away from the ensigns on the quarterdecks.

As a post script, I gave the same course to 18 navy wives who were residents of Dam Neck base housing and they were all excellent shots afterward. I have no idea why they were so good and the sailors so awful.

[Squantos]

The wives had no bad habits or perceptions with firearms, listened, learned and wanted to excel is my guess, experience.

Great post..... stay safe !

[Smokin' Joe]

As a post script, I gave the same course to 18 navy wives who were residents of Dam Neck base housing and they were all excellent shots afterward. I have no idea why they were so good and the sailors so awful.

I would wager the wives knew they didn't know, so they were open to learning (plus some fine motor control). Guys tend to think they know stuff and don't listen as well.

[hlmencken3]

Performance driving school instructors have similar stories.

To believe knowledge and skill comes from a certain arrangements of chromosomes usually leads to bad outcomes.

[X Fretensis]

I stood QD watches as a Junior Officer starting in the early 70s. Only the PO of the watch carried a weapon. In boot camp you fired 28 rounds of 45 ammunition. At OCS we fired probably twice that amount. After that there was no more small arms training. When I was based in Norfolk, it was just about a monthly routine for somebody to fire a bullet into the QD shack overhead while relieving the mid watch. Back when we had Security Guard Force on small boys to protect special weapons, those guys were relatively well qualified with the 45. Sailors in general were poorly trained in small arms.