Saturday, June 11, 2005
pencil whipping pistol scores
Josey Wales, he (Gen. Eres) ain't!
My buddy Jeff Quinton weighs in on the saga (initially blogged by Phil Carter) of California National Guard Major General Thomas Eres, who apparently cheated on his pistol-shooting qualification test.
I can see how a California Guard general could "pencil-whip" his shooting scores (as long as he did it in his office and not on the range), though that surely was a pathetic thing for him - particularly being a general officer - to do.
Anyway, Jeff says he's "been in units where pencil-whipping a PT score or a range score happened on occasion. That was one of the worst units morale-wise I've ever encountered or been a part of. I don't know that the two things were directly related but I find that an interesting coincidence at the very least."
My own take is, I honestly don't see how a young soldier, NCO, or junior officer could "pencil whip" any score on any test unless there is a problem with the system.
Back when I was a member of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children (USMC), I had to regularly qualify at the range (rifle and pistol) and take PT tests. I also had swim qualification in boot camp, then another swim qual in Sea School, then another swim qual a couple years later before my company went to the SEAL base at Coronado, CA to go through a very tough cycle of amphibious raid training.
There was also training and testing on weapons and close combat skills at Little Creek, VA. There, I remember the guys who administered our tests being field grade USMC officers (shotgun training and testing), a few Secret Service agents (for submachinegun training and testing), and an FBI martial arts guy for close combat skills training and testing.
I also remember my final evaluation for close combat consisted of climbing into the ring with this martial arts guy and then basically getting my ass kicked (complete with getting kicked in the head, my nose bloodied, and lots of lovely bruises... though bruises were an everyday feature of training) though I did get in a few good licks myself... and apparently, I passed the test.
At any rate, those were just a few of the myriad tests I was constantly taking during my four-year hitch. It seems like we were always being tested for something.
Range scores were kept by marksmanship judges (scorekeepers, whatever you want to call them), PT tests were administered by staff NCOs and officers, and swim tests were administered by USMC divers and water survival guys... and believe you me, the testees (for lack of a better word) who were most scrutinized, were the ones who seemed as if they might have the greatest chance of failing.
It was almost as if the Corps was looking and hoping to fail them.
In fact, we had a guy going through the Mountain Warfare course in Northern California who suffered an unexpected bout of paralyzing fear before rappelling off a cliff (despite the fact that he had rappelled off many different towers, many times before). The Corps' response? He was quickly out-processed as being unfit for military service and discharged. In fact, I remember the boy's name well - even though that was 20 years ago - but will not mention it here for obvious reasons.
Oh, and here's me back in the day (notice the old steel pot).
Semper Fi,
WTSjr
My buddy Jeff Quinton weighs in on the saga (initially blogged by Phil Carter) of California National Guard Major General Thomas Eres, who apparently cheated on his pistol-shooting qualification test.
I can see how a California Guard general could "pencil-whip" his shooting scores (as long as he did it in his office and not on the range), though that surely was a pathetic thing for him - particularly being a general officer - to do.
Anyway, Jeff says he's "been in units where pencil-whipping a PT score or a range score happened on occasion. That was one of the worst units morale-wise I've ever encountered or been a part of. I don't know that the two things were directly related but I find that an interesting coincidence at the very least."
My own take is, I honestly don't see how a young soldier, NCO, or junior officer could "pencil whip" any score on any test unless there is a problem with the system.
Back when I was a member of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children (USMC), I had to regularly qualify at the range (rifle and pistol) and take PT tests. I also had swim qualification in boot camp, then another swim qual in Sea School, then another swim qual a couple years later before my company went to the SEAL base at Coronado, CA to go through a very tough cycle of amphibious raid training.
There was also training and testing on weapons and close combat skills at Little Creek, VA. There, I remember the guys who administered our tests being field grade USMC officers (shotgun training and testing), a few Secret Service agents (for submachinegun training and testing), and an FBI martial arts guy for close combat skills training and testing.
I also remember my final evaluation for close combat consisted of climbing into the ring with this martial arts guy and then basically getting my ass kicked (complete with getting kicked in the head, my nose bloodied, and lots of lovely bruises... though bruises were an everyday feature of training) though I did get in a few good licks myself... and apparently, I passed the test.
At any rate, those were just a few of the myriad tests I was constantly taking during my four-year hitch. It seems like we were always being tested for something.
Range scores were kept by marksmanship judges (scorekeepers, whatever you want to call them), PT tests were administered by staff NCOs and officers, and swim tests were administered by USMC divers and water survival guys... and believe you me, the testees (for lack of a better word) who were most scrutinized, were the ones who seemed as if they might have the greatest chance of failing.
It was almost as if the Corps was looking and hoping to fail them.
In fact, we had a guy going through the Mountain Warfare course in Northern California who suffered an unexpected bout of paralyzing fear before rappelling off a cliff (despite the fact that he had rappelled off many different towers, many times before). The Corps' response? He was quickly out-processed as being unfit for military service and discharged. In fact, I remember the boy's name well - even though that was 20 years ago - but will not mention it here for obvious reasons.
Oh, and here's me back in the day (notice the old steel pot).
WTSjr
# posted by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. @ 11:04 AM 
