Description: odinsedge.blogspot.com - click here to visit my knife blog - A marksman, in a military context, is trained to shoot precisely with a certain type of rifle and are more commonly known as 'Squad Designated Marksman' (United States Army) or 'Designated Marksman' (United States Marine Corps). Some military doctrines use marksmen attached to an infantry squad. In that capacity the marksman takes accurate longer range shots at valuable targets as needed, thus extending the reach of the squad. Another term for a marksman is a sharpshooter. In both the Army and Marines the progressive sequence of skills is marksman-sharpshooter-expert. Holders of each level wear qualification badges below their ribbons with bars for the weapons they qualified in. In the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard full-sized medals are only issued at the expert level. Both services award separate medals for pistol and rifle proficiency. The United States Air Force gives just a ribbon, although a bronze star can be earned if the wearer qualifies on both of these types of small arms. This sequence comes from organized, competitive shooting where it was first created. Some civilian shooting organizations still use the same terms for classification purposes. However, the terms are not consistent. Army and Marine-trained "experts" are often less skillful than competitive shooters classified "marksman." Earning an "expert" rating from a shooting organization requires even more skill.