This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with Staff Sgt. Phillip Cho, a US Army sniper within the eleventh Airborne Division primarily based in Alaska. It’s been edited for size and readability.
At sniper coaching, we deal with issues like vary estimation, goal detection, and precision marksmanship, the final of which is probably the most closely portrayed side in Hollywood motion pictures.
But, actually, the toughest a part of being a sniper is combining all of that collectively, as a result of somebody good at vary estimation may be horrible at detecting targets, particularly in a closely wooded space or an city setting, for instance.
For me, the best half might be taking pictures as a result of I used to be already an excellent shot earlier than I turned a sniper.
And then I spotted that is only a small half of the job. Lots goes into being a sniper, from staying hidden from patrols or educated observers to discovering targets and calling for fireplace, like fireplace missions and artillery.
Hide-and-seek for adults
Something I harp loads on is the significance of coaching. If you prepare exhausting sufficient, and if you are able to do your job properly underneath strain in coaching, you are able to do it in actual life.
Let’s say you might be calculating the gap of a goal in coaching. Then you’d have the ability to try this within the discipline since you’ve already proven that you may proper there.
Obviously, there are issues you’ll be able to’t predict in actual life, like gear failures, however when it comes right down to it, you most likely would have skilled no matter failures or obstacles that you just may be experiencing within the discipline in coaching.
When we prepare for goal detection, one of many greatest video games we play is hiding objects within the open and having guys discover them, sitting from one place. It’s like hide-and-seek for adults.
I really feel like, with all of the coaching, you’ll be within the zone when it comes time to do your job no matter your nerves.
But nerves are additionally an excellent factor. One of my first recon squad leaders informed me, “If you do the job long enough where you get comfortable, you’ should probably stop doing it because that’s how you get people killed.” Complacency is completely unacceptable, and we now have to remain sharp.
I really like my .300 Win Mag
Our part in Alaska presently has a couple of rifles in its stock: the M110 chambered in .308, the M2010 in .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, the MK22, the model new one, we solely have .308 for proper now, after which the M107, which is our anti-material rifle.
The MK22 is a tremendous taking pictures system and a simple weapon to make use of, however I’ve personally by no means used it in a discipline setting.
I’ll at all times be a M2010 man. I really like my .300 Win Mag. It’s the quintessential sniper rifle, however from what I’ve seen, the MK22 is a superb weapon system and one thing I’ll get extra snug utilizing.
As snipers, we now have to hold a ton of additional gear, not simply our rifles.
In the summer time, our stuff, corresponding to our statement and communication gear, additional batteries, and the precise weapon and ammunition, weighs roughly round 60 to 80 kilos.
In the winter, we’d like issues like our bunny boots, totally different layers to assist preserve us heat, and varied different excessive chilly climate gear that provides to that. Snipers are sometimes carrying something from 90 to 120 kilos of additional weight within the chilly.
Disappearing in depth and shadows
While motion pictures contact on concealment, they by no means actually present the true worth of what makes it efficient.
Camouflaging with parts of 1’s environment is what makes issues like a gillie swimsuit efficient, and it is what permits a sniper to be unseen of their operational setting even when they do not have one on.
I might relatively have somebody who can conceal with out me having to babysit him than the man who can name an ideal distance as a result of we are able to work on that. It’s mastering disappearing in depth and shadows in your setting.
And that is one thing that we now have to grasp as a sniper that units us aside.