The Journey

It all begins with an idea. I began this journey in the final months of 2012. Recovering from a meniscal tear, I heard there were to be tryouts for the sniper section. Myself and a good friend from my platoon were the only ones to attend. Tryouts were straight forward- No physical events; just problem solving, range estimation, target detection, and a stalk. The whole selection process lasted 8 hours across two days.

And that was it. I had earned the title of sniper.

I knew nothing.

A title was given and barely earned.

My First Sniper Section

Shortly after the selection happened, the section leader PCS’d- presumably on to bigger and better things. From here, a new leader was gained. This one was callous, fair… but unrelenting. His pursuit of perfection rewarded knowledge and physical fitness. In order to impress him one must know history, tactics, and how the book defined situations- and what it said to do in those situations. The platoon operated as one entity, sure there were teams, and of course the section. But the section 7 guys strong. The same size as the reconnaissance teams. As a platoon, the focus was on collection and reporting of battlefield information. Bi-weekly we would travel outside of the areas we knew and were just told to observe. Sometimes infiltration was through zodiacs yet other times we would hoof it. Occasionally we were required to build a subsurface hide, and again others we operated in an urban environment. Many members of this platoon were prior LRS members. This gave the platoon a fantastic baseline to build from. Standards were high but the unit synergized well. After a year of training with this platoon it was time for me to say goodbye. I was travelling halfway across the world to begin again from scratch.

My Second Sniper Section

Start from scratch I did- No one cares that an e4 just came in, I was a dime a dozen. Anyone could fill my shoes. All I had was 3 years of experience and “I was a sniper in my last unit”. After 6 months an opening in the Recon platoon opened up. I started by introducing myself to the section leader and told him my intention and my background. After 4 days of physical assessments decisions were made. This section was different. We were a unit, intentionally separated from the rest of the platoon whenever convenient. Our emphasis was more on marksmanship than tradecraft. Day in and day our we dove into ballistic theory- memorized formulas- and perfected shooting positions. Monday’s were dedicated to mission planning and of course upkeep of military vehicles. This stark change in mindsets quickly made me realize how little I knew. Even with a year of experience in a sniper section there was much to learn. With this group I would deploy as a sniper. Not a true sniper, a hybrid. Some missions I would take my long gun, others, I would take a carbine. If anything this taught me not to be a one trick pony. If I wanted to progress I couldn’t let skills perish, everything that had been taught was valuable in some regard. That experience is where I developed my mentality on education. I returned from that deployment an e5 still without the coveted identifier. In fact I would remain in that same section for another year after that deployment before I “Earned” the title “Sniper”. To this day- I do not believe that the identifier makes you a sniper. Your mentality and skill set makes you a sniper. If you lack either one, you are not a sniper. After earning the designation I was given control over the section for a brief period while I awaited an eminent PCS… I mean it had been 5 years. They were going to move me.

The Schoolhouse

And move me they did, to United States Army Sniper Course(USASC). I arrived to the school a well rounded sniper but a grossly inadequate teacher/public speaker. Sure I could mentor students one-on-one but could not for the life of me teach a classroom. Not because of fear, or understanding of the curriculum. But because I lacked to ability to understand the audience. I would assume people knew what I knew as I went through school, assume they understood a great many things. Some did but many did not. So my lectures ( and lets me honest, they were lectures) would be a waste of time for a majority. It wasn’t until the hands on portion that I could see the lightbulbs going on. Parallel to learning how to teach, I was also learning how the Army worked. Before this I had never put too much thought into the war machine. Everything was done for me and if it wasn’t I always had someone to blame. As a teacher- you don’t get that luxury. If your pupils don’t have something or can’t grasp something its on you. So resources were a gold mine. Every training aid you acquired was something to make your students more successful. This incentivized resourcefulness and learning to track how how things originated as well as thinking outside the box to solve complex problems. If I was to be honest I never felt like I was the best at teaching even though I had learned a ton, for me it never came naturally - I had to prepare classes days in advance, rehearse key points, and analyze gaps for hours. By the time I had left the schoolhouse I had been a primary instructor for 18 graduating classes, hosted and facilitated 2 international competitions, and graduated 534 snipers.

The Third Sniper Section

After 3 years and one day I was back in FORSCOM. This time the circumstances were different. I had a little bit more rank, a modicum of notoriety, and a big chip on my shoulder. I had seen the pitfalls of the Army education system. I knew what was important to me and I knew how to market that to the world. So I continued my journey to make snipers lethal. I began coaching and mentoring outside of work. Becoming an advocate on social media and attempting to be a pillar of confidence within my Battalion.