Y'all talking about in peacetime military not being exposed much to small arms training, I've got a better story than that. My father joined the navy in 1942. He spent his time until discharged in 1945 in the Pacific. In 1944 and 45 a good bit of time was on Jap contested islands repairing landing craft. He said that they were rushed through boot camp in San Diego so fast that small arms training was skipped entirely. He never had a single day of rifle or pistol training, not even drill. When he became a petty officer and had watch duty, he was issued a .45 for the watch and told how to load and fire it, but never had any practice at all. However, he was trained on 20 mm, 40 mm, and 3 in. guns. I have always thought that very odd.
