Mr. Thornley.

Once in a while we would have one, but not with any frequency whatsoever.

Mr. Jenner.

Were you forewarned so that you could clean your rifle?

Mr. Thornley.

No; usually you were caught unawares, which was why you kept it clean in the locker.

Mr. Jenner.

I see. What are the grades of marksmanship?

Mr. Thornley.

Marksman, sharpshooter, and expert.

Mr. Jenner.

Marksman, sharpshooter, and expert. Therefore, I gather from that that marksman was the basic grade.

Mr. Thornley.

Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

A grade that every marine was expected to, and had to, attain that grade?

Mr. Thornley.

Not had to attain, some didn't, and there was no particular penalty involved, except maybe something a little extracurricular when you were in boot camp. Otherwise, you didn't wear a marksman's medal is all. You didn't have any qualification in the infantry; of course, it would be looked down upon in the case of promotion or something like that. In the air wing it had much slighter significance than that. Maybe if you were being considered for a meritorious promotion and you hadn't qualified you wouldn't get it, but day to day it had no significance.

Mr. Jenner.

Were the standards applied in the air wing with respect to qualifications for these three classes as severe or as high as the standards applied, let us say, in the Marine infantry?

Mr. Thornley.

Exactly the same; yes.

Mr. Jenner.

Exactly the same. Would you please state for me your concept of the degree of marksmanship for (a) marksman, (b) sharpshooter, (c) expert?

Mr. Thornley.

Well, a marksman is an average shooter. A man, I think, could pick up a rifle and with a little commonsense and a minimum knowledge of the basics of marksmanship qualify as a marksman. When a man doesn't quality as a marksman it is usually either because he is nervous on the day of qualification or he is gun shy or some outside influence confuses him; maybe he gets his windage off, something like this.
Sharpshooter is just a little above average. It ranges over about--a pretty wide field. But it is a man who--a sharpshooter would be a man, the average man, with a good, maybe a week of training on how to use a rifle, and some practice.
Whereas an expert is the kind of man I would hate to have on the other side in a war. He is accurate with his rifle up to and including 500 yards in a number of different positions. Hits the bull's-eye or close to the bull's- eye an overwhelming percentage of the time.

Mr. Jenner.

Is that the category in which we would place that to which we refer generally as the sniper?

Mr. Thornley.

Yes. Well, any man might be assigned as a sniper, I imagine.
But an expert rifleman would perform much better.

Mr. Jenner.

Maybe be a superior sniper.

Mr. Thornley.

Yes. Definitely.

Mr. Jenner.

And to attain the position of expert marksman must there be considerable practice and use of the weapon or is it more of natural ability?

Mr. Thornley.

Now, you enter in once again to natural ability, just as not qualifying might be caused by a lack of natural ability of some kind. An expert rifleman probably would have a much calmer nervous system or, you might say, a much greater degree of control.
I would imagine training can make up for this. I know a couple of times I just missed expert by a few points. It seemed that I couldn't make expert. It seemed to me there was just something I didn't have in order to make expert. It was very frustrating.

Mr. Jenner.

You tried?

Mr. Thornley.

Yes; it takes a great degree of control, primarily. Of course, the other things like good eyesight and so on and so forth.

Mr. Jenner.

Oh, yes.

Mr. Thornley.

Yes.