I haven't been to the rifle or pistol range since 1999, when I was at TBS.
R1, you can preach all of those motivated Marine Corps catch phrases you like but at the end of the day, for most Marine aircrew (and I suspect Navy aircrew), the ground job(s) part of being a 75xx (or 13xx for squids) suck when compared to flying. It has nothing to do with not wanting to lead Marines or doing one’s ground job(s) though.
I’d like to assume that back in your “helmet on fire” LTJG/LT days and your grouchy hinge days, you would have rather been raging around in your Phantom or Tomcat than sitting behind a desk typing up some report on your typewriter …I could be wrong though!
What jarhead said. I won't lie, I joined the Marine Corps to fly. I wanted to fly jets for the Navy since I was about 5. When my vision started to go, I realized there was fuckall else I would want to do in the Navy (sorry SWOs) and the Marines seemed cool. Hey, we have tanks and big guns. Thankfully, PRK happened and the rest is (modern) history.
A lot of people say moto shit like "I joined because I wanted to lead Marines!" That's all well and good, but that's not often what gets guys in the door. I didn't know a thing about "leading Marines" when I was a kid or even ROTC in college; I'd never been around any. Unless you grew up around the military, you have no frame of reference. It's one of those things you are more likely to grow to love than know ahead of time. Hell, I'm still learning stuff all the time and I'm a newly-minted field grade.
Nine times out of ten, I'd rather be flying than doing my ground job though (probably 10/10, but that's largely cause I've been in Ops almost my entire career). That doesn't mean that I don't love working with the Marines. I loved my short stint in maintenance, and by far, the most rewarding thing I've done was in a grunt battalion. And while I wasn't flying, I wasn't exactly a "rifleman" (or "provisional rifle platoon commander" either) - I was a trained aviator using my aviation-specific knowledge every single day. None of that means I didn't want to be flying at the time. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
I've shot a rifle twice in my career and been to the pistol range maybe double that (expert rifle/SS pistol since that seems to matter to you). The CMC and everyone else can go all "halls of montezuma" all they want on catch phrases, but my TO weapon is an attack jet or a radio. It's what I am most trained on, what I routinely practice with, and consequently, the only thing(s) I've used repeatedly in combat.
On topic: I won't lie, I'm a bit jealous of the KC-130 lifestyle. Long distance XC's, self-deploying, per diem, autopilot, a head, microwave, ILS, etc... Heck, I've flown a -130T for a couple hours and had fun, but I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'm sticking with jets for now.
/Realist