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Maybe she had a waiver, because back then ALL basic trainees—male and female—had to qualify on the M-16 in order to graduate.

If you didn’t you got washed back.

Throughout my military career of 22 years (and I was FORCED* to do 7 years at the Pentagon in joint duty assignments), I had troops of all kinds tell me war story** after war story that were embellishments, enhancements and outright lies about their training, previous assignments, battles, duties and even civilian life.

Good war stories are meant to be taken with a big grain of salt.

*Forced as in I didn’t want to be at the Pentagon or Washington DC, which cost a fortune for a young troop, spend hours in rush hour, and put up with all the crap only Washington DC has socially. I though after my first assignment at DIA I’d get out of there, but the DCA was able to grab me and stick me in the second, deepest basement/dungeon of the Pentagon, not far from the Purple Water Fountain. I had to volunteer worldwide to finally escape.

**War story - a tale about some aspect of a soldier, sailor, marine or airman’s life, usually meant to make them more of a badass, hero or legend of some kind... Or, conversely, a major doofus or sad sack. Example: “Did I ever tell you about my first sergeant back at Fort Stumble who made us do this thing, until I told him...blah, bah, blah (insert story about how the troop bested the 1st shirt)...” “Or “I never qualified on the M-16, but they let me graduate anyway because they just wanted to get rid of me and out of there because I constantly pissed them off.”