On the firing line with the M1917: Marines or Soldiers?

[rollins74]

Here is a pair of photos of three shooters on the firing line with M1917 rifles. These are cropped versions of the originals from Bolo Badge's series, some of which appear elsewhere on this forum.

In the first photo, note that Shooter 1 (right foreground) has no cord on his hat, suggesting that he is an enlisted Marine. In contrast, Shooter 3 (far left) does have a hat cord (clearly seen in the closeup view of him shooting in the sitting position), suggesting that he is either an officer or a soldier. This interpretation is bolstered by his footwear (see the closeup view of him standing up), which appears to be the type of lace-up boots worn by officers in the WWI era.

I think that we are seeing another example of Marines with the M1917. (See the threads "Parris Island, Inspection" on 05/17/09, and "Marine with M1917 and M1903" on 08/24/09). Assuming that C.S. Ferris was correct that the Marine Corps received 61,000 M1917 rifles, presumably they were put into use, at least to give personnel deploying with the AEF the opportunity to become familiar with the rifle before deploying.

Marines or Soldiers -- comments?

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[Calif-Steve]

Boy, gotta love that ear protection.

[EDip]

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