<p>Pistols are issued to a lot of officers and support troops. Special operations also use them as back-up weapons (that’s getting real specific though). I know of several people who were issued M9 pistols in Afghanistan and Iraq. One wound up with an M16 and an M9, since she was working as Force Protection (guarding local Iraqi contractors).</p>
<p>They still remain “the thing to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have left” to most infantry types.</p>