The first U.S. Army Sniper School was initiated in 1955, right after the Korean War cease-fire. The school is made up of the following components: 198th Infantry Brigade (Reflagged … With the effective use of snipers becoming much more common, the Army has advanced their doctrines forward and are now utilizing their snipers properly versus their old way of thinking that originated from the tanker mentality of the Cold War. Functional Training . The US Army Sniper School was established in 1987, at the Infantry Center at Fort Benning, GA, and continues to produce top-notch snipers today. After a brief scare during the 2 mile run, I passed and the class begun in earnest, and I mean in earnest! They did not teach some of the basic soldiering fundamentals that are taught in other schools and training as you are expected to know them as a standard E-4 infantryman. It was a lot to try and cram the basics of sniping into a three week school, but they did the best they could. The graded portion of marksmanship included unknown distance shooting from 300-1000 meters and moving targets from 300-700 yards. The course will test a student on; field craft, marksmanship, mission planning, advanced situational awareness, urban operations, complex engagements and building collective lethality to … Organization. The light infantry units did it differently, they had a squad of snipers as a part of a Battalion Scout Platoon. The class culminated with a three day FTX that involved everything we learned through the five week school. This shot is done without the aid of your spotter and you had to make the range estimation, wind call, weather call… essentially everything. Additionally, the MOS 19D (Cavalry Scout) was now allowed to attend, and yes another new field manual was published, refined even further and with restricted in distribution (finally), and is known as FM 3-22. To qualify for entrance, a soldier had to have qualified expert with the M16, score a 210 (with a 70 in each of the three events) on the PT test, pass a psyche evaluation, have scored a 110 on the GT portion of the ASVAAB, not be color blind, have correctable 20/20 vision, and be at least an E-3 promotable (typically E-4) or higher rank. NCO Academy. The length of the school is for five weeks. For previous articles in the series, please see the links below. I ranged my target at 680 meters (743 yards) using the mil-dots and dialed in 3 MOA of left wind. As is the case in perhaps all of the main military sniper schools, stalking tends to be the number one event that fails the most students, and for good reason. It happened on the morning of our first stalking exercise, and to drive the point home they pointed out flaws in our ghillie suits by using florescent orange spray paint. The length of the school is for five weeks. These classes included topics such as tracking, E&E, sketches, patrol logs, survival, urban sniper operations and others. United States Army Sniper Course teaches prospective students how to become a force multiplier. The pictures you see here were ones lifted from the internet that show a little of what it was like when I attended. The U.S. military is training and using them in greater numbers than ever before. If a student graduated, they received the coveted B4 identifier on their MOS which signified them as a trained and qualified sniper. There were two instructors that I would say were some of the best I have ever had in any school. hireaveteran.com. 378. The class I attended was held in August and September of 1997… and as is the norm for Ft. Benning, it was hot and humid. At that period of time there were only about 6 classes a year with around 24 students per class, so the number of sniper grads, considering the 40% graduation rate, was small. Fort Benning U.S. Army Fort Benning and The Maneuver Center of Excellence This manual was FM23-10 (FM = Field Manual) and it greatly expanded on the basics of TC23-14 and included sections on the M24. More than 300 Soldiers each year begin the seven-week Army Sniper School at Fort Benning … only the best make it to graduation. Still to this day, the B4 is awarded only to graduates of the USASS and it is one of the hardest classes to pass in the US Army. Before sunrise in early August, 46 Soldiers reported for the first day of sniper school as part of Class 10-17 at Fort Benning. The facilities at the school, at least when I went through, were also a mixed bag. The idea is to put as much stress on the students as possible to insure they can perform when the going gets tough, and they made it tough. The first U.S. Army Sniper School was initiated in 1955, right after the Korean War cease-fire. The school initially was located at Harmony Church and it still was when I went through it in 1997. There were several different lanes on the unknown distance ranges with targets beyond 1000 meters, even out to nearly 1200. But as the need for snipers kept manifesting itself each time the United States found itself in some sort of conflict, the various branches began to change their view on incorporating snipers permanently. Enrollment was limited to 11 series Military Occupational Specialties (MOS), which was the infantry, and 18 series (Special Forces). 627 x 352 jpeg 75kB. The United States Army Sniper Course is a seven week course in which the student undergoes rigorous training to become the most feared weapon on the battlefield. The classroom was old school and the barracks were REALLY old school and run down, but it all worked. The failure rate was so high that you were never really sure if you were going to pass or not. This is an official U.S. Army Website sponsored by U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE), https://www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/us-army-sniper-school. Additionally, sometime during these early years a new sniper manual was written and published by the US Army. By the end, I was just one of the guys and felt accepted, guess I earned it? KIMS games were a constant smoke session that I would prefer not to remember. Unfortunately, snipers were once again discarded after the war ended and their M21 sniper rifles were packed away. When it comes to sniping in the US Military, the USMC is usually the first branch of the military that comes to mind, and rightly so. I liked that approach. Initially the US Army Sniper School (USASS) was only three weeks long and taught the curriculum out of TC23-14 (TC = Training Circular). That certainly helps, but stalking can be taught and learned, and often it is. By Franklin Fisher, Fort Benning Public Affairs June 22, 2020. You see, the USMC and US Army share the same view that sniper school is NOT a gentleman’s course and you are routinely smoked and punished for legitimate reasons, and then of course for dumb reasons. But the US Army has made great strides in their incorporation, equipping, training and use of snipers over the past several decades. Because the standards are high and the class difficult, there was no gentle indoctrination. Note: Students must have a FIRM understanding of TC 3-22.10, Sniper December 2017 prior to attendance of the course. You had two shots to hit the target, or you failed the entire school. (Summer 2008). Most students probably averaged about 2 hours of sleep per night that first week until that Friday morning ghillie inspection. The known distance ranges were quality competition ranges from 100-1000 yards. Elle fait partie de la région métropolitaine de Columbus. The doors opened on the newly formed United States Army Sniper School in 1987 at Fort Benning Georgia. During the five week school we had many other classes that were taught about various topics and we used all of that training during the FTX. The US Army school was patterned after the USMC school and much of the same training and testing was conducted. We had eight guys from Ranger Battalions and a RIP instructor as well as guys from 10th Mountain, 25th Light, and other high speed units. At the US Army school, the second leading cause of failure is target detection. During the Vietnam War the 9th Infantry Division Sniper School located in Vietnam went a long way to providing a foundation on which the US Army could build their program. - YouTube. In the heart of the cold war, the Army considered their armored battalions their main source of power and their view of snipers was just a way of enhancing the effectiveness of their dismounted squads, almost like the Designated Marksmen role. As a whole, they were very good and they knew their material very well. Without questions, the Marines have lead the way for the development of sniping in the United States. Those units really took the benefits of snipers to heart and used them to their full potential. We also did stress fires that included lots of running and exercise as well as lots of smoke, flash bangs and other good stuff. (Yep, I still remember the details, stress will do that). This proved to be the more effective and flexible way of organizing them. Three Rivers Press. Because the known distance shooting was done on old establish ranges, the movers were in yards. It is difficult. They have since moved into their own newer facility and have torn down all those old barracks. The U.S. Army Sniper School is part of the United States Army 197th Infantry Brigade based at Fort Benning, Georgia. The school consisted of four main skills that were tested and and considered critical skills. They were also the ones that you could tell were enthusiasts and master snipers. This had not yet caught on in the Army when I was in. The inspection itself was real fun, or not. 1280 x 720 jpeg 129kB. Fort Benning by the Numbers Survey MCoE Event Calendar Smoke and Sound HOMMTA Benning MWR Events Post Services. Video: Fort Benning's Sniper School - Gun Digest. It has been well documented by many sources on how snipers were never really considered a permanent, or necessary, part of the US Military in the first half of the 20th century. The Army National Guard Sniper School was established in 1993 at Camp Robinson Arkansas. Tweets by FortBenning. Required fields are marked *. We wanted to take the opportunity to provide some of our own commentary based on our experiences with the US Army sniper school. It was always a shock to the system going from cool and crisp Montana air to the hot and muggy Georgia jungle. I passed. sniper school fort benning provides a comprehensive and comprehensive pathway for students to see progress after the end of each module. If you were not infantry or SF, you could not attend the school. The classroom work began on the first day and carried through the entire week, covering topics such as the M24, different types of ballistics, firing positions, and many more of the basic fieldcraft and marksmanship topics. We had to covertly move to an objective, stalk, engage a target with live rounds as a team, perform observations with a log and sketch, and many other sniper related tasks. long rang sniper rifel i need training and join us army, Your email address will not be published. Second round gut shot him. We provide a commentary of the US Army Sniper School. Ft. Benning is known as “The Home of the Infantry” and is where nearly all of the infantry specific schools are located, so it was a natural place for the Sniper School. The instructor cadre, like most every school, was a mixed bag. As is normal in difficult schools, camaraderie and brotherhood typically form fast and we did what we could to help each other out. I went through the US Army Sniper School at Ft. Benning in 1997 when the school was five weeks long. It worked okay. With the days filled with classroom work, shooting and other training, the only time left to work on the ghillie was after evening chow through wakeup the next morning at 5am. As the Army began their incorporation of snipers as a fixed part of their infantry units, they not only had to come up with a new sniper weapon system, the M24, but they had to devise a means of training their new sniper corp. I do not believe they have changed this philosophy and it is still used today. As the school progressed through those early years and the training evolved, it became evident that 3 weeks was not enough time and the school was lengthened in the mid 1990’s to 5 weeks. But the Army school is patterned after the USMC school and the standards are just as high and it has produced some excellent snipers. 3.2K likes. Basic Officer Leader Course. Share on Twitter The use of snipers was viewed differently in the Army than it was in the USMC. “Sniper school is one of the hardest schools in the military, not physically, but mentally,” Staff Sgt. The classes tended to fill up fast and we had to reserve my slot about a 9 month ahead of time. ^ Bunn, Michael J. As I understand it, the new facilities are much nicer, though I have not had the opportunity to visit in person as of yet. The Army National Guard Sniper School was established in 1993 at Camp Robinson Arkansas. ISBN 978-0307335975. And you only had 2 minutes. 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