As a note, in the Army qualification standards as Expert, Shaprshooter and Marksman, you can miss ALL the 300m targets and still qualify expert (there's four 300m exposures). You can miss ALL the 300m and 250m targets and qualify Sharpshooter (four 300m and six 250m exposures). You can miss ALL of the 300m, 250m and 200m targets and still qualify Marksman. Of course you have to pick up all the other targets without missing, but it's really a pretty sorry state when you can still qualify by only shooting out to 150m.
This is used as a trick to get "bolos" to qualify. They just don't soot at the longer range target exposures, that way if they miss a closer target, they just shoot at it again with the ammo they saved by not shooting the longer ones.
While I beleive that the pop-ups are a great way to actually qualify, I never agreed with the low standards. The worst part about it is these are the standards that have actually became stricter. When I first got in, we only had to hit something like 18 or 20 to qualify Marksman, and the other rankings were also lower.
While there are plenty in the Army that CAN shoot (I was on my unit rifle team, and rarely scored less than 40) and the AMTU is a top notch shooting team, the Army as a whole is not the place for shooting. The only people who do ALOT of shooting small arms are Infantry, and as a female she won't be doing that.
She'll shoot her rifle once or twice a year. 12 rds to zero, and 40 to qualify. That's the truth in the real world. Before everyone get's in an uproar, realize that if her primary job isn't as a bullet launching platform, then she only needs to know how to shoot to basically defend herself, or her position. It's merely a "survival skill" for most MOS's. If she's a commo-type or an aircraft mechanic, it's far more valuable for her to be doing her job and providing the combat multiplier of good commo, or a mission capable aircraft, either of which will result in far more enemy casulties than her with a rifle. It's just the way modern warfare is. The Army won't foot the bill for the cost of training better in marksmanship, and also maintianing it's readiness in other fields. Everytime she goes to the range, she's not running that commo rig, or fixing that aircraft, and that costs the Army money and readiness.
The reality of Army small arms training is that it's a training distractor that takes personel away from their primary duities. Going to the range is the same as cutting grass, or picking-up trash. It keeps soldiers from "doing their job". Yeah, I think they should shoot, but I never really had a say in DA policy.
Ross