Hunters: U.S. Snipers in the War on Terror (3 page)

Unknown distance is more difficult. During unknown distance training, the shooter gives the spotter his target’s dimensions and the spotter is responsible for calculating the distance through formulas. To pass, the team must trust that each person knows his job and can properly adjust the shooter’s round should he miss.

Unknown distance qualification is based on a point scale at the U.S. Army Scout/Sniper School in Fort Benning, Georgia. To pass, students must receive 70 percent or better. With ten targets, students are given ten points for a first-round hit and five points for a second-round hit. This starts with two minutes to range a target using a scope. After the two minutes, students have ten seconds to engage. If they miss, they receive an extra ten seconds to re-engage. To complete this program, the team needs rapidly to apply formulas and wind and elevation adjustments, and to trust each other’s abilities.

In sniper school, students are also taught the rewards of perseverance. One sniper mantra defines this perfectly:
suff er patiently, and patiently suff er
.

Suffering is the name of the game for snipers, and during school, students learn this quickly. Bad weather, long movements, hunger and fatigue, equipment malfunctions, hassle from the instructors, and generally any type of setback is to be expected, but the best thing a student can do is take it all in stride. The concept is that suffering in training leads to success in combat, and that adapting to any situation leads to overcoming the obstacle.

Instructors teach this by purposely pushing students to their limits, and the reason is twofold. First, the instructors only want to qualify those who really want to be there. The stress during school is needed to make those who do not truly want to operate quit, because the worst possibility for a sniper team in combat is to have a teammate who does not want to be there.

Second, men who’ve been pushed to their limits and succeed gain heaps of confidence, and to be a sniper you need just that. Snipers must be certain that they can accomplish any mission, not only for their survival, but also for the success of the supported unit’s mission.

School also teaches individuals to think independently. The problem in this area is that sometimes the proper use of a sniper team is not determined by the sniper teams themselves, which can lead to poor employment. For snipers, the mentality is to stay one step ahead of their enemy in every way. For this to happen, sniper team leaders need the freedom to make decisions that are vital for success. If that freedom is not established among the supported unit or the battalion, then the team is already at a handicap in its capability to be instrumental.

Another quality students learn from sniper school is patience. This is especially needed during the stalking phase. The experience gained from here then spills over into other aspects of sniping.

Stephen Johnson, a Marine sniper, describes his experience:

Marine sniper Jon S. also describes two very similar situations, one during school, the other in Iraq.

Snipers also need patience because not every mission undertaken will produce a kill. The chance to kill can take anywhere from weeks to months, or it may never be presented. In the same way, patience is required for a sniper to make the best decision on how to kill the enemy. Very rarely does the enemy travel alone, either in Iraq or Afghanistan. For snipers this means using the perfect weapon to strike in order to increase the maximum body count. Often, snipers make the difficult decision to deny themselves the use of the sniper rifle and to rely on supporting arms. This may sound logical to most, but for a trained sniper it is a heavy sacrifice not to engage with the sniper rifle.

These skills and qualities produce men who become force multipliers for their units. They also give the snipers the tools they need to carry out their primary function—to kill the enemy.

For military snipers, killing is their purpose, and it is crucial to their survival. Militaries have recognized the need for a sniper’s precision, and there is no other time more crucial for accuracy than the Global War on Terror. Snipers have proven to be the perfect solution in environments where civilians are present and collateral damage needs to be minimized.

The act of actually sniping someone in combat is thought to have something mystical about it. Any combat sniper, however, will tell you that there is no aura during the kill; it is just a squeeze of the trigger, and nothing else. It is common for snipers to experience the nervous feeling—buck fever—during their first kill, stemming from the fact that they are actually about to fulfill the goal of all of their training.

By and large, the will to kill is ingrained in most snipers before they reach sniper training. Since sniper communities are made from the infantry or Special Operations units, the men have learned to kill from the start of their training. By the time sniper training is completed, taking the life of an enemy is simply the job they’ve been assigned to do.

One U.S. Army sniper instructor says:

I, and all the snipers I know, agree with this mentality. I’ve been asked, “How do you deal with killing people?” My reply is that I know that everyone I’ve killed was an enemy combatant, and was intending to harm friendly troops or myself, and I can live with that. I believe that some snipers may have a hard time dealing with killing if there are uncertainties involved.

The equipment and weapons used by snipers in the military differ between services and units. The common factor among all, though, is the primary use of a 7.62mm NATO round. Each unit also uses heavier sniper rifles for farther distances and armor penetration. Night vision, thermal imaging, radios, global positioning devices, high-powered optics, periscopes, tripods, night sights for the sniper rifle, laptops, cameras, and suppressors are the typical equipment available for sniper teams.

In the conventional Army, scout/snipers have three weapons available for use. The first is the M24 Sniper Weapon System or SWS. Many snipers consider this their bread-and-butter weapon for its proven reliability in combat. This is a bolt-action, 7.62mm rifle made by Remington and is very similar to the M40 series that Marine snipers use, with some minor differences such as stock and scope. The longest recorded shot in Iraq was 1,250 meters (4,000 feet) by an Army sniper with this weapon.

Next, Army snipers have the M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System or SASS. Knights Armament, a company with an extensive history of developing exceptional weapons, designed this weapon as the next best thing for Army snipers. Since 2007, this weapon has been fielded by Army snipers in combat with the intention of replacing the M24.

This semiautomatic rifle fires a 7.62mm NATO round and comes with a suppressor and an attachable night sight. It is effective out to 800 meters (2,600 feet), with the capability to shoot out to 1000 meters (3,300 feet), sniper dependent. Though it is an exceptional weapon, some snipers feel that it should not be replacing the very reliable M24. Instead, it should be used in conjunction with it as both rifles have different applications in which they are useful.

The last rifle available is the M107 Long-Range Sniper Rifle, LRSR. Made by Barrett, a company specializing in large-caliber rifles, this semiautomatic, .50-caliber sniper rifle seems to conjure mixed feelings. Some feel that it is too heavy and cumbersome and not as inherently accurate as they would like. It does, however, have light armor-penetrating capability, which makes it extremely useful in defense. This weapon also has the ability to cover particularly long ranges, such as in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Just like any other sniper, U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers select weapons depending on the mission. The sniper rifles they can choose from are the same as conventional Army snipers with the exception of a more powerful rifle. The bolt-action .300 Winchester Magnum that they use is a Remington model 700 inside an Accuracy International stock with a variable powered scope. The rifle is known as the MK-13.

Marine snipers have a few weapons of their own. The primary choice is between the M40A3 and M40A4, which have the same characteristics except that the M40A4 has a detachable, five-round magazine. These rifles are a modified Remington model 700 with a Schmidt and Bender scope and use 7.62mm NATO rounds.

Another weapon is the MK-11. This rifle is a 7.62mm, semiautomatic, ten round-capacity rifle that looks similar to the M16. It also has a suppressor for noise reduction, but some snipers claim this makes the chance of malfunction greater.

Finally, Marine snipers also have the M107 .50-caliber sniper rifle. Some have the same complaints about the weight, but many Marine Snipers love the penetrating capabilities of this heavy rifle.

Each U.S. Navy SEAL sniper has a suite of rifles. They have the MK-11, also used by Marine snipers; the MK-13, also used by Army Special Forces snipers; a modified M14, using a 7.62mm NATO; modified M4s; and a heavy, single-shot, bolt-action, .50-caliber sniper rifle.

These days, the typical sniper deploying in the War on Terror is well trained, and very deadly. This is a result of exceptional training incorporated with the experiences of each individual. Snipers know that basic scout/sniper school and mastery of weapons are the foundation, but further development and training are very necessary before deploying.

To add to their arsenal of deadly knowledge, snipers can also attend additional training. Urban sniper courses, high-angle shooting packages, survival/evasion/resist/escape courses, and other advanced sniper programs are available. Individual units also have training in place that prepares teams for simulated combat environments before they set foot in country. These courses give the deploying snipers a mental confidence over most.

This confidence is essential to a sniper’s survival. U.S. snipers deploying to combat are determined, and one U.S. Army sniper, with extensive combat experience, reveals the mentality that one needs: