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Army Q-Bars for marksmanship badges


cavcon
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If a wwii soldier, such as an MP, who was required to carry a pistol have to qualify with that weapon and if so would that entitle them to a Q-Bar to suspend from whichever badge they qualified as?

 

Thanks

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And as a follow up to my question above..... If a WWII sailor qualified as a marksman with a M1 Carbine would they be entitled to wear the Navy rifle marksman ribbon?

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Jumpin Jack

Any soldier armed with a weapon is (was) expected to qualify with that weapon, and in doing so, was authorized to wear the qualification bar on the respective badge. As for the Navy, I cannot answer that question effectively. Jack

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Thanks for that info. My father always said he had rifle, pistol and carbine bars on his marksman medal but his discharge only says rifle. But they also got his branch of service wrong too.

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Rakkasan187

It has always been my understanding that the weapons you qualified on and met the requirments for qualification for said weapon you were entilted to wear the q bar. With that said you will also see many Soldier's wearing what was called "the ladder" where they would have a q bar for 8-10 or even more weapons..

 

One reason that your father's discharge may only show one weapon is that the weapon (rifle) may have been his primary weapon and the other weapons he "familiarized with" and met the qualification standards thus allowing him to wear the bars. If he did not requalify on the carbine or pistol then the annual qualification would have expired and he possibly only requalified with his rifle and not the pistol or carbine

 

When I went to basic training in the 80's and finished rifle marksmanship we were awarded the Rifle Bar based on your score and it went on either marksman, sharpshooter or expert badge. We also "familiarized" with grenades and went through the bayonet assault course. We were authorized to wear both the grenade and bayonet bars for those qualifications. Upon arrival at my first duty station these secondary badges were often never worn. The primary weapon that the infantryman carried was the M-16 rifle and so our marksman badges reflected that weapon.

 

In other instances where your primary weapon was machine gun for example, that was worn on the qualification bar.

 

I was a machine gunner that qualified expert on my rifle and then the M60 machine gun as well as expert on the .45 caliber pistol and I was authorized to wear all 3 Q-bars on my expert badge. We had to qualify 2 times a year so we were always proficient in marksmanship. No one really ever paid much attention to the Q-bars on the uniform, Soldiers were more concerned with how you handled your primary weapon in the field and if you were accurate...

 

Leigh

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Also be aware that from the 1970s on (don't know about earlier), most officer records do not show marksmanship medals and bars, even if they qualified on the weapons. For some reason, there was a period when these medals were unofficially felt to be "for enlisted only", even though that is not in accord with the regulations. We were required to qualify annually, but my DD-214 does not include any marksmanship medals.

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