If current training is anything like the training when I was in (early 70's) it is abysmally bad. We were trained to fire one handed and nobody cared whether we hit the target. And this was in Infantry OCS!
The 45 (Nobody then called it a 1911 and would have been clueless if you called it that) was despised by most officers and troops who carried it because they could rarely hit what they shot at. Every "45" I ever handled was loose and rattled like a new years eve party favor. Most had been through rebuilding several times, you could count the arsenal marks all over the gun. But they always went bang and nobody complained about stopping power. The normal mantra is that if you hit the target he was down,the problem was hitting him.
The old bar challenge was "you take the 45 and I'll take an empty M14 with bayonet and we meet in high grass". We drank a lot in those days, the Army was not the high speed low drag force it is today.
I was assigned to a tank battalion in germany, and I was not a tanker (Thank god!) Because I had had grunt training I had the privilege of running the Battalion 45 familiarization range twice a year. In those days you were required to "Familiarize with your assigned weapon" at least once a year. That means you went to the range demonstrated you could load and fire the weapon at a target and hit something. No scores were kept. The range officer (Lil 'ol me) certified you could shoot without endangering yourself or your crew. Seems simple but it was a life threatening job, as tankers are notorious for bad, no, outright dangerous gun handling. I managed not to get shot, but had to shoot for a couple of guys who were just incompetent to handle a handgun. Pencil qualification we called it. And we had to shoot up all the ammo we drew.
Pistol marksmanship was never a priority in those days.
I would still rather have the 45...oops I mean the 1911 than the M9.
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