Let see what all else I can remember.
Selection: I was a walk on, meaning that you showed up on the first day and if they had room for you you could get in I had to to this twice before I got in. I was not in a sniper duty position (as I mentioned my unit was disbanding and If I wasn't in some school or another my responsibilities entailed bringing out footballs and flags to the post teams. While that was a slackers dream, I at that point was motivated to become a super soldier). I had a personell action request (da 4570?) that was approved and said that I met all the qualifications. Whick to my knowledge included: Passing PT test, Qualified Expert with m16a2, Secret Security Clearance and No bar to reenlistment as well as 12 months remaining active duty time. I don't think my previous experience had any bearing on my selection as I was a walk on.
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The facilities were renovated basic training baracks in the Harmony church section of Ft Benning. It was a Huge section of white building that were only occupied when the natational guard came to train. Sniper School occupied 3 of the 100 or so of them. They were located next too and shared a dinning hall with the 75th Ranger Regiment (trng and HDQRS). I think the location was chosen as it was very close (easy walking distance) to a thousand yard range.
<p>The Cadre was a mix of people and tought at Ft benning part time and traved and put on short courses overseas (Germany, Korea etc) I believe about half had served as scout snipers in Iraq. And all had served in sniper duty positions. It is an exceptionally small community within the amry (meaning the ones who actually serve in a sniper duty position) and they all know each other and are hand chosed and tested by the other cadre before they become part of the team. It is also a static job meaning they will not get orders to go anywhere else once they are assigned unless they request to stop teaching.
<p> I believe the ammo budjet was unlimited we had long days and around a 12 person class size. When we shot there was often a 1 to 1 student instructor ratio (mind you half the students were down range raising and marking target boards, from behind berms). Like Mr. White about half was on field craft and half was on marksmanship. The first week consisted of long days outside at the range and in the woods. The nights consisted of weapons cleaning, gillie suit construction and classes. One thing different from Mr White was some familerization traing with new technoligy (often in those classes at night the first week). We were expected to become radio experts, gps experts, range finder experts, and glid experts (laser painters). One of my instructors used to say that the deadly person in the millitary is one highly motivated sniper school graduate. Not only for the psy aspect of sneaking up and taking out their leaders and disheartening the enemy but also for the ability to sit and hide for possibly days in a position far behing enemy lines that he snuck into with a singars radio. Becuase from that radio he could call in air strikes, arty and andy thing else like naval gun fire. Addmititly the airforce and scouts as well as others do that king of think mostly but it was an added bonus for the sniper to be able to do all of those things as well, including painting a target. Familiarization with that equiptment and those techniques was an inportant part of the course.
<p> Sniper class consisted of mostly E4's and E5's some had gotten a guaranteed spot as part of a reenlistment package. This class consisted of all army but in other classes they did have police units all though I believe they generally attend usmc school.
<p>Shooting with NVD is very prohibitive and difficult if the lighting isn't just right the pvs 4? if I remember correctly was only 2 gen night vision and it was only addaptable to the M21 (modified m14) and not the M-24 (modified rem 700) we also shot with illum but in school they used the hand fired type where in a real situation you would have called in morter fired illum. The equiptement was good and we did stock with 7b's and did practice spotting for each other. Much time was spend on range estimation, slope and wind doping. The m24 was most peoples preference all though we did have familiarization with the barrett. Army sniper teams would consist of one person with the m21 and one with the m24 but we spent most of out time with the m24.
I hope this gives a little more info, I don't want to hijact Mr. White's thread.
