CTers: Do yourself a favor and focus on plausibility

[John Mytton]

Blah Blah Blah ! Does nothing to change the fact:
Consequently a low marksman qualification indicates a “rather poor shot”

Yawn, is that all you got, Capasse?, You're a one trick pony and you can keep repeating some desk jockey's opinion till you're blue in the face, but the fact remains that the NCO in charge of the Marksmanship Training Unit Armory at the Marksmanship Training Unit in the Weapons Training Battalion Marine Corps School, Quantico, Va. tells us that as compared to the average male, Oswald was an Excellent shot.
And don't forget there is a reason for the Marine qualifications and a Marksman still qualifies as a Marine. So despite some pen pushers opinion, Oswald on the strength of his abilities would be defined as a capable Marine. Case closed!

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Is qualifying as a marksman good enough to be a marine?

AI Overview

Yes, qualifying as a "Marksman" is absolutely good enough to become and remain a United States Marine. It is the minimum passing score required on the rifle range, allowing you to earn your official Marksmanship badges (United States) and fulfill the service's foundational "Every Marine a Rifleman" requirement.

The hierarchy of marksmanship qualification in the USMC consists of three passing levels:
Expert: Scores between 305 and 350
Sharpshooter: Scores between 280 and 304
Marksman: Scores between 250 and 279 (affectionately known as the "pizza box" due to its shape)

While achieving a Marksman score means you passed, there are still key reasons many Marines strive to score higher:

Professional Advancement: High marksmanship scores yield points that positively impact your promotion chances. Consistently shooting Marksman—especially if you fail to improve over time—can make it harder to stand out against peers.

Graduation and Retention: Failing to achieve the minimum Marksman qualification can get a recruit dropped from training or a Marine administratively separated from the United States Marine Corps altogether.
While achieving Sharpshooter or Expert badges will earn you more bragging rights and professional points, simply qualifying as a Marksman proves you meet the baseline standard of a capable Marine

BTW, just think for a moment, if being a Marine "Marksman" qualifies you as a "poor shot", why the heck would the Marines who pride themselves as being Elite soldiers accept someone who couldn't shoot?

JohnM

[Dan O'meara]

Not that I think Oswald took the shots but the sloppiness and unprofessionalism of the shooting speaks of someone not proficient with a rifle.
Its a close distance shot and the shooter has plenty of time to line it up.
The target is JFK's head.
Of the three shots, two miss the target.
Some people go on about a professional hit but it was nothing of the sort. It was amateur hour.
There was at least a six second gap between JFK getting shot in the throat and the head shot. In that time JFK could have fallen to the floor of the limo or had his head hidden in Jackie's lap or the Secret Service could have done their job correctly or plenty of other possibilities. It's blind luck that JFK stayed upright to receive the fatal blow.
One of the shots missed everything!!
Anyone going on about professional hit squads needs to wake up.
It was certainly not beyond the capabilities of someone like Oswald to almost blow this easy opportunity.

 

[Royell Storing]

Not that I think Oswald took the shots but the sloppiness and unprofessionalism of the shooting speaks of someone not proficient with a rifle.
Its a close distance shot and the shooter has plenty of time to line it up.
The target is JFK's head.
Of the three shots, two miss the target.
Some people go on about a professional hit but it was nothing of the sort. It was amateur hour.
There was at least a six second gap between JFK getting shot in the throat and the head shot. In that time JFK could have fallen to the floor of the limo or had his head hidden in Jackie's lap or the Secret Service could have done their job correctly or plenty of other possibilities. It's blind luck that JFK stayed upright to receive the fatal blow.
One of the shots missed everything!!
Anyone going on about professional hit squads needs to wake up.
It was certainly not beyond the capabilities of someone like Oswald to almost blow this easy opportunity.

    The result of the "head shot" rendering damage far beyond the damage inflicted by the earlier shots.

[Michael Capasse]

Yawn, is that all you got, Capasse?,
JohnM

  It is all I need.
A low marksman qualification score is considered [not by me or you]  by the Marines to be a "rather poor shot"

[Michael Capasse]

11/22/63: there is insufficient evidence that he had even fired a gun in the previous 4 years.

Mr. Rankin: …there are a good many stories about his practicing with a gun, you know, around various rifle ranges and so forth,
we have checked those out and none of them stand up at all.

[Lance Payette]

Not that I think Oswald took the shots but the sloppiness and unprofessionalism of the shooting speaks of someone not proficient with a rifle.
Its a close distance shot and the shooter has plenty of time to line it up.
The target is JFK's head.
Of the three shots, two miss the target.
Some people go on about a professional hit but it was nothing of the sort. It was amateur hour.
There was at least a six second gap between JFK getting shot in the throat and the head shot. In that time JFK could have fallen to the floor of the limo or had his head hidden in Jackie's lap or the Secret Service could have done their job correctly or plenty of other possibilities. It's blind luck that JFK stayed upright to receive the fatal blow.
One of the shots missed everything!!
Anyone going on about professional hit squads needs to wake up.
It was certainly not beyond the capabilities of someone like Oswald to almost blow this easy opportunity.

I'm not sure how sloppy and unprofessional it was if the M-C was the weapon. First shot (I tend to believe) is a little low and to the right. Second shot, bingo. I mentioned long ago playing golf with a guy who had been a military sniper for 23 years and was now teaching counterterroism.. He greatly surprised me by saying he certainly could have made the shots "but not with that rifle."

John Orr's Mafia theory has 4.15 seconds between the back shot and the head shot. As you do, he notes the risk of JFK slumping out of view during that period. He explains this (with a photo on page 46 of his "Analysis of Gunshots in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963," http://www.mountainrivercabins.com/JohnOrrReport.pdf) by a tree blocking the line of site from the County Records Building. That doesn't sound like the level of professionalism I might expect from a Mafia pro, but perhaps the plan was to wait and see if Oswald got the job done, knowing that anywhere along Elm would be an easy shot for a Mafia pro. (FWIW, Orr has Oswald's first shot being the back shot, but exiting the limo rather than passing through JBC; the second shot is also by Oswald and causes JBC's wounds except the wrist wound; the third shot is the head shot by a Mafia pro in the CRB, a fragment from which causes JBC's wrist wounds; followed almost immediately by a fourth shot, also from Oswald, that hits the pavement left of the limo.)

Certainly, "squads" of gunmen violates my demand for plausibilty, but Oswald and a one-shot pro is at least in the ballpark. The theory that there was only one gunman - not Oswald - and that the shots were intentionally sloppy to make them plausibly attributable to Oswald and his M-C seems far-fetched.

[Lance Payette]

11/22/63: there is insufficient evidence that he had even fired a gun in the previous 4 years.

Mr. Rankin: …there are a good many stories about his practicing with a gun, you know, around various rifle ranges and so forth,
we have checked those out and none of them stand up at all.

Marina, however, was very explicit on page 231 of her HSCA testimony that he had disappeared with his rifle on "several occasions" for "several hours," saying he was "going to target practice or something like that" at a "practice range somewhere apparently." She clarified on page 255 that this was all "in Dallas." (Her WC testimony was definitely not as specific. He told her he had gone to practice at "Love Field," but only "once or twice" and she never saw him taking the rifle to practice. Jesus, what a mess - the WC tries to clear up the confusion on pages 397-398 of Volume V, and now she sees him carrying the rifle under his raincoat "only once" and she assumes he is going to Love Field because that is where the bus goes and she knows there is a lot of noise out at the airport that might cover the sound of a rifle.)