The Marksmanship Badge with Rifle Bar is earned by soldiers who qualify with a rifle during training. There are three levels of qualification each distinguished by their own badge - Expert, Sharpshooter, and Marksman. A soldier's initial weapons qualification for record occurs at basic training.

Soldiers qualified for record with the different kinds of weapons required of their specific speciality. As a private in the Infantry, Audie Murphy was required to qualify with the rifle and bayonet.

The Expert Badge is awarded to those who score at the highest levels when firing for record. The Sharpshooter Badge was awarded to soldiers who qualified at a level below expert. The Marksman Badge is the lowest attainable qualification badge that can be earned.

Oddly enough, when Private Murphy was in basic training at Camp Wolters, Texas, he only managed to qualify with his rifle at the lowest level. Even still, Murphy was noted for his ability to field-strip his rifle with speed and ease while blindfolded. He was frequently observed disassembling, "cleaning, and polishing his Springfield rifle long after other members of the platoon had stacked their weapons at the end of the barracks and gone to supper" (Simpson, page 49).

More importantly, Murphy's ability to shoot a rifle with deadly, unrivalled accuracy, sometimes from his hip, was demonostrated time after time as he fired instinctively and without thinking in combat long after his basic training qualification course ended.