In recent years the Marine Corps has devoted a great deal of time and energy to rifle practice, believing that one of the first requirements of a soldier is to know how to shoot. During the period of the war target practice was given special attention, and in 1918 it was announced that no enlisted men would be sent overseas who had not qualified as marksman or better. This announcement created even greater interest than before in target practice among the enlisted personnel and gratifying results were obtained on all rifle ranges. The Marines that arrived in France were educated riflemen, but despite that fact rifle ranges of some character were established and used in every spot of France and Germany where the Marines remained long enough to make it feasible and practicable to do so. The percentage of marksmanship qualifications of the enlisted personnel of the Marine Corps on various dates, in the American Expeditionary Forces and in the United States was as follows: --------------------------------------------------------+----------- Date and place. |Percentage. --------------------------------------------------------+----------- Entire Marine Corps, Apr. 6, 1917 | 48.0 Marines of American Expeditionary Forces, Nov. 11, 1918 | 68.1 Entire Marine Corps, Nov. 30, 1918 | 67.1 Entire Marine Corps, Mar. 1, 1919 | 66.0 Marines of American Expeditionary Forces, July 1, 1919 | 81.6 --------------------------------------------------------+----------- The number of marksmanship qualifications of the last six years in the Marine Corps was as follows: --------------------+------+------+------+-------+-------+------- Classification. | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 --------------------+------+------+------+-------+-------+------- Expert rifleman | 596| 883| 1,287| 1,709| 6,019| 7,851 Sharpshooter | 2,749| 2,536| 1,984| 2,373| 8,932| 10,642 Marksmen | 757| 1,471| 2,594| 6,011| 14,826| 21,918 +------+------+------+-------+-------+------- Total qualified | 4,102| 4,890| 5,865| 10,093| 29,778| 40,411 Percentage | 0.415| 0.493| 0.591| 0.379| 0.670| 0.828 --------------------+------+------+------+-------+-------+------- RIFLE AND PISTOL COMPETITIONS. During the period of the war the Marine Corps rifle teams, teams representing Marine Corps units, and teams partly composed of Marines, engaged in seven important competitions.