It's a pretty unpronounceable name, for folks who are not accustomed to speaking German. It's a rather large marksmanship badge that German Soldiers can earn, and which their Enlisted personnel can wear on their dress uniforms. (Officers can earn the badge, but are not permitted to wear it.)
Because we have German coalition partners here, several of our Officers took it upon themselves to contact a German Lieutenant Colonel to arrange for our Soldiers to be able qualify for their badge, and their Soldiers to shoot for our marksmanship badge. About a month ago now, several of our Soldiers who had qualified for the Schützenschnur were awarded their badge at a special formation.
We've been able to afford many of our Soldiers the opportunity to qualify for this badge, and they're pretty excited about it. As with the German Army, only Enlisted Soldiers in our Army can wear it, though a number of our Officers have qualified for it as well.
If you click on the photo of one of my Soldiers actually receiving his award, you can get a sense of how impressive a piece of hardware it is.
Our German friends showed up for the special formation to watch as their American counterparts were recognized for their skills with German weapons.
The word on the street here is that those guys really enjoy qualifying for our marksmanship badges, even though they're in no way as spectacular as the Schützenschnur. Supposedly, they seem to them to be reminiscent of the Iron Cross...
Blessings and peace to one and all,
Fr. Tim, SJ
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