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S
CHOOLED
I
gave up part of my vacation and came back from leave a week
early to go to sniper school. I would have given up much more than
that for the chance.
Marine snipers have justifiably gotten a lot of attention over the
years, and their training program is still regarded as one of the
world’s best. In fact, SEAL snipers used to be trained there. But
we’ve gone ahead and started our own school, adapting a lot of
what the Marines do but adding a number of things to prepare
SEAL snipers for our mission. The SEAL school takes a little more
than twice as long to complete because of that.
Next to BUD/S, sniper training was the hardest school I ever
went through. They were constantly messing with our heads. We
had late nights and early mornings. We were always running or
being stressed in some way.
That was a key part of the instruction. Since they can’t shoot at
you, they put as much pressure on you as they can manage in every
other way. From what I’ve heard, only 50 percent of the SEALs
who take the school make it through. I can believe it.
The first classes teach SEALs how to use the computers and
cameras that are part of our job. SEAL snipers aren’t just shooters.
In fact, shooting is only a small part of the job. It’s an important,
vital part, but it’s far from everything.
A SEAL sniper is trained to observe. It’s a foundation skill. He
may find himself out ahead of a main force, tasked to discover
everything he can about the enemy. Even if he’s assigned to get into
position to take out a high-value target, the first thing he has to be
able to do is observe the area. He needs to be able to use modern
navigational skills and tools like GPS, and at the same time present
the information he’s gathered. So that’s where we start.
The next part of the course, and in a lot of ways the hardest, is
stalking. That’s the part where most guys fall out. Stalking means
sneaking into a position without being seen: easier said than done.
It’s moving slowly and carefully to the exact right spot for the
mission. It’s not patience, or at least that’s not all it is. It’s
professional discipline.
I’m not a patient person, but I learned that to succeed as a
stalker I need to take my time. If I know I’m going to kill someone,
I will wait a day, a week, two weeks.
Make that, I
have
waited.
I will do whatever it takes. And let’s just say there are no
bathroom breaks, either.
For one of the exercises, we had to sneak through a hay field. I
took hours arranging the grass and hay in my ghillie suit. The ghillie
suit is made of burlap and is a kind of camouflage base for a sniper
on a stalking mission. The suit allows you to add hay or grass or
whatever, so you can blend in with your surroundings. The burlap
adds depth, so it doesn’t look like a guy with hay sticking out of
your butt as you cross a field. You look like a bush.
But the suits are hot and sweaty. And they don’t make you
invisible. When you come to another piece of terrain, you have to
stop and rearrange your camouflage. You have to look like
whatever it is you’re crossing.
I remember one time I was making my way s-l-o-w-l-y across a
field when I heard the distinct rattle of a snake nearby. A rattler had
taken a particular liking to the piece of real estate I had to cross.
Willing it away didn’t work. Not wanting to give away my position
to the instructor grading me, I crept slowly to the side, altering my
course. Some enemies aren’t worth fighting.
D
uring the stalking portion of our training, you’re not graded on
your first shot. You’re graded on your second. In other words,
once you’ve fired, can you be seen?
Hopefully, no. Because not only is there a good possibility you’ll
have to take more shots, but you have to get out of there, too. And
it would be nice to do that alive.
It’s important to remember that perfect circles do not exist in
nature, and that means you have to do what you can to camouflage
your scope and rifle barrel. I would take tape and put it over my
barrel, then spray-paint the tape up to camouflage it further. I’d
keep some vegetation in front of my scope as well as my barrel—
you don’t need to see everything, just your target.
For me, stalking was the hardest part of the course. I nearly
failed because of a lack of patience.
It was only after we mastered stalking that we moved on to
shooting.
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