In the road show version it shows Holman dodging a potshot, like he's never been underfire. But later in the battle scene he has some naval infantry skills. I guess he could have learned them over the course of the story. Was naval infantry still common in the 1920-30s?
shareVery common, all US Navy sailors received basic infantry training until the late 1960s/early 1970s when it was phased out except for the basic small arms training. So yes this sort of training was standard at the time.
My grandfather was a US Navy Seabee (Naval Construction Batttalions) in World War II and they received almost the same exact level of training as US Marines in additional to their engineering/construction/welder rating specific training. Seabees were often used as infantry/assault engineers during the Pacific island hopping battles against the Japanese. My grandfather fought in the Marshall Islands and Saipan/Tainan in 1944, and the Philippines in 1945.
all US Navy sailors received basic infantry training until the late 1960s/early 1970s
Ummmm...... no, not really. Seabees would have, indeed, received the most basic of infantry related training, nothing near what the Marines get. I was a Marine for 24 years and my father went through Great Lakes in 1948 through a 39 year Navy career. He fired the '03 Springfield in boot and was briefly issued an M-1 Carbine when he was crewing PBM's out of Kwajelin and Eniwetok until 1952. That was it. No infantry training at all. Trust me, I asked. He said, "We leave that crap to you Jarheads." He said one night watching an outdoor movie on Kwajelin, everyone was jacking with the bolts on the just issued M-1's, making a hell of a racket. Two days later, the M-1's were turned in.
What the Seabees would preform would be some of their own local area security and rudimentary perimeter duty. Anyone using engineers, especially Seabees as assault troops, should be court-martialed and checked for brain damage. They're too valuable. The Army used some, attached to the assault troops, in Normandy. They took incredibly high casualties.
Riverine Brown Water Sailors got some infantry training during the Vietnam days and corpsman went through Infantry Training Regiment with us at Pendelton. Aviators and selected crew get some SERE training. It goes without saying, SEAL's get it all, then some.
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